The two terms — ‘users’ and ‘customers’ — are often confused with each other, but in fact, have different meanings. Users and customers differ in the following ways:
User: A user is someone who uses your product but doesn’t pay anything for it Customer: A customer actually pays for your product or service
Customers help you figure out your roadmap. You need to spend a lot more time with the people who are paying for your product than users. You should also take a call on what is good for all your customers as opposed to what is good for one customer.
Users usually come in a later stage, and to solve a very particular problem. You don’t talk to them again and again to figure out what is working for them and what is not.
A user, as the name suggests, comes to your website or product to find out more about what it is and try to find some benefit from it. Users are at the starting end of your funnel when they arrive at your website. It is necessary to convert these users into paying customers.
Customers are those that find value in your product, prefer to use it and end up paying for your product. Let’s see an example to better understand the difference between a user and a customer.
Spotify’s Users and Customers
A user and a customer of Spotify would be different from each other. Let’s understand how with the case of Spotify Premium.
- A user would be someone who does not pay for the premium subscription and ends up listening to music on the Spotify app or website with ads appearing in between.
- A customer will find value in buying the premium subscription, paying for it and availing of the premium subscription which will give him/her the option of listening to music/podcasts and more without any ad interruption.
Spotify will need to cater to both its users and its customers. Your users and customers will help you gain an understanding of the experience within different areas of your product.
It’s important to know the difference between users and customers, and figure out ways to cater to both as well as try to move the users along the consumer funnel and convert them to paying customers.
You need to spend more time and focus on your customers and ensure that they have a smooth experience while using your product. This work will extend across multiple stages of the product development process.