the.com/customer
Always right in theory, frequently feral in practice, eternally holy in retail scripture.
means A person who buys goods or services from a business, especially one who does so regularly.
from From the Latin 'consuetudo,' meaning 'custom' or 'habit,' which gave Old French 'custume' and English 'custom.' A 'customer' was originally one who frequented a shop by habit — your custom was your loyal repeat business. The word still carries that ghost of regularity: a true customer isn't a one-off stranger but someone whose presence has become a pattern, accustomed to coming back.
- origin
- From Latin for habit — one who keeps coming back
- loyalty cost
- Keeping one is five times cheaper than finding one
- silent majority
- Most unhappy ones never complain, just vanish forever
- word of mouth
- Angry customers tell roughly twice as many people
- royalty myth
- The always-right slogan was a 1900s marketing invention
amazon prime members — 200+ million paying subscribers as of 2024
mcdonalds daily diners — 69 million customers per day across 40,000+ locations
starbucks regulars — 100 million monthly customers in 36,000 stores globally