Question

The people who receive services from human service organizations may be referred to as clients, patients, or consumers. In what way do these terms imply different mind-sets about the people served?

Answer 1

When the people who receive services from human service organizations are referred as Clients, Patients and Consumer, then there is a stereotype associated with each of these words; there is a certain mind set in service provider about the people served.

Clients

When someone is referrd as a Client, the person or group of people is considered:-

1. The one who provides mutual benefits in business.

2. Not the one who simply pay for Services, but provides more clients or consumers.

3. Help in increasing business.

Basically, a client is a person or group of people who is not only served but will help you grow your business in future.

Consumer

When someone is referrd as a Consumer, the person or group of people is considered:-

1. Who simply pays for your services.

2. Generally a service provider doesnot meet face to face.

3. Its more of a targeted market, who wll be using your services.

4. Its fairly a large group of people who simply pay to get served.

5. Consumer affects your business when feedback comes in large numbers.

Patients

When someone is referrd as a Patient, the person or group of people is considered:-

1. The one who is weak, more specifically physically or mentally ill as considered in health industry.

2. The one who needs help of som sorts.

3. Serving this group is more of helping them, than doing business.

4. Your business is not very affected, but the life of people served by you may be improved.