Hupspot Guide to Clients vs Customers
Understanding the difference between a client and a customer in a platform like Hubspot is essential for building the right service strategy, communication flows, and long-term relationships. When you distinguish these two groups and support them with tailored experiences, you can increase loyalty, retention, and revenue.
What Hubspot Teaches About Clients vs Customers
The source article on clients vs customers explains that these terms are not interchangeable. Each implies a specific type of relationship, level of service, and expectation.
In simple terms:
- Customer: Makes a purchase, often transactional and short term.
- Client: Engages in an ongoing, advisory, or consultative relationship.
When you build your contact strategy in a CRM like Hubspot, this distinction helps you choose the right workflows, follow-up cadence, and service promises for each group.
Key Definitions You Can Apply in Hubspot
Customer: Transactional Relationship
A customer is someone who buys a product or service, usually with limited personal interaction and minimal expectation of tailored advice.
Typical customer scenarios:
- Ecommerce orders or retail sales
- One-off software purchases
- Short, price-driven engagements
In a CRM or service platform such as Hubspot, these contacts are often associated with:
- Order history and receipts
- Basic support tickets
- Standard post-purchase emails
Client: Advisory, Ongoing Relationship
A client expects expertise, guidance, and continued support over time. The relationship is more collaborative, strategic, and high touch.
Typical client scenarios:
- Agencies managing campaigns or branding
- Consultants advising on strategy or operations
- Financial advisors, lawyers, or accountants
In a system like Hubspot, these contacts often have:
- Longer deal cycles with multiple stakeholders
- Strategic review meetings or QBRs
- Custom service-level agreements and roadmaps
How to Classify Contacts in Hubspot-Style Workflows
To operationalize the difference between clients and customers, you can create a simple classification process inside your CRM or service tools.
Step 1: Define Your Criteria
Start by writing clear rules that align with your business model. Use questions like:
- Is the engagement recurring or one-time?
- Do we provide strategic input or only deliverables?
- Is there a contract, retainer, or long-term plan?
If the answer leans toward ongoing, strategic, and collaborative, classify as a client. If it is primarily single-purchase and transactional, classify as a customer.
Step 2: Map Fields Similar to Hubspot Properties
In a modern CRM, you would create contact or company properties to identify relationship type. For example:
- Relationship Type: Client, Customer, Prospect
- Engagement Model: Retainer, Project, One-Time Purchase
- Strategic Services Included: Yes or No
These properties make it easy to filter lists, build segments, and tailor communications based on the level of relationship.
Step 3: Segment Clients and Customers for Targeted Journeys
Once your data is structured, create separate journeys similar to how you might in Hubspot:
- Customer flows: Order confirmations, product education, feedback requests.
- Client flows: Onboarding plans, strategic review reminders, performance reports.
This separation ensures that each group receives the right amount of communication and support, without overwhelming transactional contacts or underserving strategic ones.
Service Expectations in a Hubspot-Inspired Strategy
Service for Customers
Customer-focused service typically emphasizes speed, clarity, and self-service.
Core elements include:
- Fast response to simple support tickets
- Knowledge base articles and FAQs
- Automated notifications and status updates
The goal is to remove friction and help customers complete their tasks quickly.
Service for Clients
Client-focused service prioritizes depth, personalization, and collaboration.
Core elements include:
- Dedicated account or success managers
- Regular strategy calls or review sessions
- Customized reports and performance dashboards
The goal is to build trust and demonstrate continuous value over time.
How a Hubspot-Like Approach Improves Retention
Aligning communication and service with relationship type has direct business impact:
- Higher satisfaction: People feel understood and properly supported.
- Better retention: Clients stay longer when they see strategic value.
- More referrals: Happy clients and customers recommend you.
By distinguishing clients from customers in your contact database and day-to-day workflows, you reduce generic outreach and focus on the right experiences for each segment.
Practical Tips Inspired by Hubspot Best Practices
1. Standardize Your Terminology
Make sure everyone on your team uses “client” and “customer” consistently. Add these definitions to your training materials, playbooks, and CRM field descriptions.
2. Align Sales and Service Stages
Design sales and service pipelines that reflect relationship depth:
- Short, simple stages for quick customer purchases
- More detailed stages for complex client engagements
This helps each team understand what is expected at every step.
3. Design Different Onboarding Plans
Create one onboarding template for customers and another for clients. For example:
- Customer onboarding: Welcome email, basic setup, quick tips.
- Client onboarding: Kickoff call, goals workshop, success plan, regular check-ins.
Using structured onboarding makes it easier to deliver consistent experiences at scale.
4. Measure Relationship Health Separately
Track satisfaction and engagement metrics by group. For example, monitor:
- Customer repeat purchase rate
- Client retention and contract renewals
- Net promoter scores per segment
These insights help you refine your strategy for each relationship type.
Next Steps for Implementing a Hubspot-Style Framework
If you want help designing a CRM and service strategy that respects the client vs customer difference, consider working with specialists who focus on modern marketing and automation platforms. A consultancy such as Consultevo can guide you through data structure, workflows, and reporting.
By adopting the principles outlined in the original Hubspot article on clients vs customers, and by clearly separating transactional contacts from strategic partners in your systems, you can scale service quality while still maintaining personal, relevant communication for every relationship.
Need Help With Hubspot?
If you want expert help building, automating, or scaling your Hubspot , work with ConsultEvo, a team who has a decade of Hubspot experience.
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