Customers/The Public

[Harry_Perkins]

When did we stop calling the people we delivery to 'members of the public' and start calling them customers? And why exactly? In my view, the distinction between the two is important. A customer is someone who can pay but the public is everyone. Some of my deliveries include free articles for the blind, sent by charitable organisations. There is no customer there. Same idea with train PASSENGERS. I'm sure they used to be called passengers and then after privatisation it became 'customer'.

So, can we get back to public instead of customer? Lets not encourage this sort of business talk into what should be more than a profit driven industry.

[pokos27]

this stuff has crept it, its just repeated over again.

[Lounge Lizard]

When did we stop calling the people we delivery to 'members of the public' and start calling them customers? And why exactly? In my view, the distinction between the two is important. A customer is someone who can pay but the public is everyone. Some of my deliveries include free articles for the blind, sent by charitable organisations. There is no customer there. Same idea with train PASSENGERS. I'm sure they used to be called passengers and then after privatisation it became 'customer'.

So, can we get back to public instead of customer? Lets not encourage this sort of business talk into what should be more than a profit driven industry.

Absolutely.
A customer is someone who pays for something, and that's the sender of a letter not the recipient.
And a traveller on a train should still be a passenger not a customer and as for people using Job Centres etc. also being customers, it's as if the Government wants to reduce the English language to a few dozen words bringing everything down to the level of the worst tabloids.