A customer (also known as a client, buyer, or purchaser) is usually used to refer to a current or potential buyer or user of the products of an individual or organization, called the supplier, seller, or vendor. This is typically through purchasing or renting goods or services. However, in certain contexts, the term ''customer'' also includes by extension any entity that uses or experiences the services of another. A customer may also be a viewer of the product or service that is being sold despite deciding not to buy them. The general distinction between a ''customer'' and a ''client'' is that a customer purchases ''products'', whereas a client purchases ''services''.

In a survey of nearly 200 senior marketing managers, 67 percent responded that they found customer metrics very useful.

Three metrics are used to count customers and track customer activity irrespective of the number of transactions (or monetary value of those transactions) made by each customer: :Customer counts: ''These are the number of customers of a firm for a specified time period.'' :Recency: ''This refers to the length of time since a customer’s last purchase. A six-month customer is someone who purchased from the firm at least once within the last six months.'' :Retention rate: ''This is the ratio of the number of retained customers to the number at risk.'' In contractual situations, it makes sense to talk about the number of customers currently under contract and the percentage retained when the contract period runs out. In non-contractual situations (such as catalogue sales), it makes less sense to talk about the current number of customers, but instead to count the number of customers of a specified recency.

The word derives from "custom," meaning "habit"; a customer was someone who frequented a particular shop, who made it a habit to purchase goods of the sort the shop sold there rather than elsewhere, and with whom the shopkeeper had to maintain a relationship to keep his or her "custom," meaning expected purchases in the future.

The slogans "the customer is king" or "the customer is god" or "the customer is always right" indicate the importance of customers to businesses – although the last expression is sometimes used ironically.

However, "customer" also has a more generalized meaning as in customer service and a less commercialized meaning in not-for-profit areas. To avoid unwanted implications in some areas such as government services, community services, and education, the term "customer" is sometimes substituted by words such as "constituent" or "stakeholder". This is done to address concerns that the word "customer" implies a narrowly commercial relationship involving the purchase of products and services. However, some managers in this environment, in which the emphasis is on being helpful to the people one is dealing with rather than on commercial sales, comfortably use the word "customer" to both internal and external customers.

Obsolete meaning: In the early 17th century customer was defined as a "common prostitute. This meaning is important for understanding historical literary works. ("I marry her! What, a customer?") ''Othello'', or ("I think thee now a common customer") ''All's Well that Ends Well''. Today the meaning of "customer" has been inverted in this usage.

See also

Customer service

Customer centricity

Customer relationship management

Customer data integration

Guided selling

Service level agreement

Early adopter

References

Category:Sales Category:Supply chain management terms

ar:العميل ca:Client (economia) da:Kunde de:Kunde es:Cliente (economía) eu:Bezero (ekonomia) fa:مشتری fr:Client (économie) ko:고객 io:Kliento id:Pelanggan it:Clientela (economia) mzn:مشتری nl:Klant no:Kunde ps:پیرن ru:Заказчик fi:Asiakas sv:Kund vi:Khách hàng yi:קונה zh:顧客

Chris malek	Raheem DeVaughn
background	solo_singer
birth name	Raheem DeVaughn
born	Newark, New Jersey, U.S. May 5, 1975
genre	R&B;, Neo-soul
years active	2002–present
label	Zomba, Jive
notable instruments	}}

Raheem DeVaughn (born May 5, 1975) is an American singer and songwriter. His debut album, ''The Love Experience'' (2005), reached No. 46 on the Billboard 200 album chart. It featured the singles "Guess Who Loves You More" and "You". His second album ''Love Behind the Melody'' was released in January 2008. It features the singles "Woman", and "Customer".

DeVaughn was nominated for Best Male R&B; Vocal Performance at the 2008 Grammy Awards for the single "Woman".

Early life

DeVaughn was born in Newark, New Jersey on May 5, 1975, the son of jazz cellist Abdul Wadud. He was raised in Maryland (Montgomery and Prince George's counties) by his mother, Imani Smith, a now retired federal worker. He is a cousin of singer Chrisette Michele. His mother states that her son first expressed an affinity towards music in preschool, recalling how whenever the class had musical events, he would conduct them. DeVaughn's love for music solidified during his early teens, when he began to envision his career path. One of his favorite artists was Babyface, and Smith recalls that her son once begged her to visit the Waxie Maxie's record store in the District to buy a promotional picture of the singer. DeVaughn visited his father during the summer, mainly in New Jersey. With his father, DeVaughn attended gigs and experienced his first taste of the life of a working musician.

He graduated from High Point High School in Beltsville, Maryland, an unincorporated section of Prince George's County. DeVaughn had an epiphany early in his college career at Coppin State University in Baltimore City, when he saw a group of street corner singers and began harmonizing with them. DeVaughn said his focus became music: "Before I knew what was going on, I was... cutting class to write lyrics and record". His focus turned to becoming a professional singer.

Career

DeVaughn took up a job at Tower Records, where while putting price tags on CDs, he began working the D.C. music circuit—performing with various groups, the most prominent of which being Urbanave31, and at venues such as the State of the Union and Bar Nun on U Street NW, all while having CDs of his songs ready at hand. Locally in the DC Metro area he attained relatively quick success, winning local awards and successfully releasing some independent work over the next few years. He won $2,000 from the Washington DC nightclub Bar Nun talent show. Soul World Entertainment CEO Cliff Jones and partner Jerry Vines, now the singer's longtime manager, met DeVaughn while managing the Baltimore-based quartet Dru Hill and asked him to write a song for the group. DeVaughn ultimately gained the attention of veteran producers DJ Jazzy Jeff (as Rahiem) and Kenny Burns (known as former A&R; for Roc-A-Fella Records) and with the help of Jones and Vines they signed a recording contract with Jive Records in 2002.

DeVaughn's first solo single released on a major label was the song entitled "Guess Who Loves You More", his second single was "You". DeVaughn's first Jive Records release "The Love Experience", was acclaimed, selling around 250,000 units. While promoting the album, DeVaughn took to wearing a crown and cape at shows, a ploy to make himself stand out, calling himself the "Underground King." Around this time, DeVaughn also began making appearances at different shows in D.C. with artists such as W. Ellington Felton and Asheru of Unspoken Heard, hiding his face behind a hooded sweatshirt performing under the alias Chronkite. Felton comments that that alter ego was engendered for complicated reasons: "Chronkite represents that part of every artist who started what they're doing singing in front of a mirror as a child with a brush in their hand. At that time, it was based love, the initial attraction that draws you to music. In his business, unfortunately, your passion, your love, your individuality as an artist, can be stripped away the further you get into it."

DeVaughn has been compared to Dwele, Van Hunt, D'Angelo, Marvin Gaye, Donny Hathaway and Stevie Wonder. DeVaughn has described himself as a "R&B; hippie neo-soul rock star," a take on the difficulty media types have classifying him. Although Jive has been thrown considerable weight behind his recent album, DeVaughn doesn't leave promotion duties entirely to his label: "I'm my best marketing tool. I'm building the brand Raheem DeVaughn. I have to do it." He worked on the street to spread the word around, sold mixtapes of unreleased material to build hype, and provided impromptu shows at local venues. In another act of self-promotion, DeVaughn made an appearance on ''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno'' in late January, wearing a shirt that read "Grammy Nominated on the front" and "Love Behind the Melody-- In Stores Now" on the back. He also appeared on the late-night talk show ''Jimmy Kimmel Live'', performing "Woman" on January 18, 2008. 1123

His song "Woman" was featured as iTune's single of the week the week of January 27, 2008 and received a nomination for Best Male R&B; Vocal Performance for the 2008 Grammy Awards.

In 2008, he was featured on T-Pain's song; Reality Show from the album Thr33 Ringz. The song also featured Jay Lyriq and Musiq Soulchild.

His song "You" was featured in the Grand Theft Auto IV video game.

DeVaughn was nominated for "Best R&B; Album" in the 2011 Grammy Awards.

Awards and nominations

BET Awards

*2008, Best Male R&B; Artist (Nominated)

*2008, BETJ Award (Won)

*2010, Best Male R&B; Artist (Nominated)

BET J Virtual Awards

*2008, Album of the Year: Love Behind the Melody (Won)

*2008, Song of the Year: "Woman" (Nominated)

*2008, Live Performer of the Year (Nominated)

*2008, Male Artist of the Year (Won)

Grammy Awards

*2008, Best Male R&B; Vocal Performance "Woman" (Nominated)

*2009, Best R&B; Song: "Customer" (Nominated)

*2011, Best R&B; Album "The Love & War Masterpeace" (Nominated)

Discography

Albums

{|class="wikitable" !Album information |- |align="left"|''The Love Experience''

Released: June 28, 2005

U.S. Sales: 250,000+

''Billboard'' 200: #46 US

Top R&B;/Hip-Hop Albums: #9 US

|- |align="left"|''Love Behind the Melody''

Released: January 15, 2008

U.S. Sales: 293,962+

''Billboard'' 200: #5 US

Top R&B;/Hip-Hop Albums: #1 US

|- |align="left"|''The Love & War MasterPeace''

Released: March 2, 2010

U.S. Sales: 150,000+

''Billboard'' 200: #9

Top R&B;/Hip-Hop Albums: #3

|}

Singles

Year	Single	Chart positions			Album
		!width="30"	!width="30"	!width="30"
	"Guess Who Loves You More"
"Believe"
	"You"
	"My Soul's Not 4 Sale" (DJ Jazzy Jeff featuring Raheem DeVaughn)
"Woman"
"Text Messages"
	"I Dont Care"

Notes

References

Byrd, Shayla (August 16, 2006). "20 Things You Should Know About: Raheem Devaugh". ''Vibe''. Retrieved on January 21, 2008.

Mitchell, Gail (January 4, 2008). "Raheem Devaughn's 'Love' Revolution". ''Billboard''. Retrieved on January 21, 2008.

External links

Official Website

Raheem DeVaughn interview by Pete Lewis, 'Blues & Soul' May 2010

Raheem DeVaughn Interview 1/18/10

Category:American rhythm and blues singers Category:African American singers Category:African American Muslims Category:Neo soul singers Category:People from Newark, New Jersey Category:People from Montgomery County, Maryland Category:People from Prince George's County, Maryland Category:Living people Category:1975 births Category:Musicians from New Jersey Category:Musicians from Maryland Category:American male singer-songwriters

de:Raheem DeVaughn ja:ラヒーム・デヴォーン