Customers, Users and Buyers
Question: "What exactly is a customer?"
Customer is the entity, consumer or company, which takes financial responsibility for purchasing the product. The customer is often the realm to which the buyer and user belong.
The User is the entity, usually a person, which interacts with the product. The Buyer is the entity, usually a person, which decides to obtain the product.
In the interest of greater clarity, it is possible to further parse the terms where Consumer is an individual or household that buys and uses goods and services created by industries.
For example, a company (Customer) will obtain laptop computers for its employees (Users). The company's CTO (Buyer) will make the buying decision which brand and model of laptop computers to acquire.
By definition, all Customers are external to the organization. There are no "internal customers" in PMTK.
Find more information in the Blackblot Glossary in the Blackblot PMTK Book: Second Edition on page 167, or in the online PMTK glossary on the Blackblot web site.