Customer… This word is heard very often in everyday life. It has an ancient origin, but has remained relevant for many centuries. Moreover, with the introduction of new technologies into our lives, it is becoming more common in use. About what it is and who it is - the client, and will be discussed.
Meaning in dictionaries
The word "client" came to us from the Latin language, since it was the Romans who had the first clients. The following meanings are given in dictionaries:
- A free citizen in ancient Rome, who enjoyed the patronage of the patron and was dependent on him.
- A person or company using the services of lawyers, banks.
- A person who is served in a hairdresser, dry cleaner, shoe or other workshop, that is, a visitor or customer.
- One of the information system components that sends requests to the server.
We will talk about some of them in more detail below, as well as about other meanings of the word.
Roman client
Who is the client in Ancient Rome? To understandyou need to get acquainted with the previously existing form of social dependence - the clientele. The clientele included a number of mutual obligations between the patron and his client - legal, economic and social.
These relations arose at the time of the decomposition of the tribal system, that is, long before the division of Roman citizens into patricians and plebeians took place. Since the onset of the stratification of society, the institution of the clientele has been further developed. It acquired great importance in the Republican period, when client obligations were often transferred to heirs.
Client duties included:
- escorting a patron to the Forum;
- support for elections;
- participation in the war under his command.
Patron was committed to:
- protecting the client in litigation;
- buying out family members who were addicted;
- maintaining the minimum necessities of life.
At the same time, material support was also provided for by the client of his patron in case he got into a difficult situation.
Clients were taken into the family of the patron and given his generic name. They were allowed to take part in family festivities, they were buried in the family cemetery. As a rule, the clients were artisans, farmers, shepherds. Plots of land were given to them by patrons, who, presumably, took them from the ancestral land fund or from a loan - public lands.
The conditions under which the land was issued are unknown. Some scholars believe that clientsusing it, they became practically slaves of the clan, others equate their position with serfs. According to Russian jurists, clients became a hereditary estate, but they were not slaves after all.
Client in the civil law of the Russian Federation
According to civil law, a client is a customer, which is an individual or legal entity that needs the contractor to provide any services or work.
The provision of services, the performance of work, the purchase of a product from the seller (in the broad sense of the word) involves a written order, which is not mandatory and in practice in some cases is absent. For example, in hairdressing salons, shoe shops.
In the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, the concept of "customer" is associated with a narrow range of transactions for which the subject is:
- Work in progress.
- Provision of services.
These include the following types of contracts:
- Contracts, which include household contract, construction, design, survey work, work for state needs.
- Contracts for the provision of engineering services performed in construction.
- Contracts for such work as development, research, technology.
- Contracts for paid services.
In addition to those indicated, the concept of a customer, that is, a client, applies to transactions in accordance with which goods are supplied, work is performed and services are provided for the needs of the stateand municipalities.
What are customers like
It should be noted that there are two types of clients: individuals and corporate clients. So, for example, a private lawyer or law firm can provide services to both an individual and an enterprise. Both customers will be customers. In addition to corporate clients, there may be state clients.
A client state is a state that is subordinate to another that has more influence, in one way or another - economic, political or military. Such states have existed since ancient times, Ancient Rome had them, and they exist to this day. A particularly large number of them formed after 1945, at the end of the war with Nazi Germany.
Some of them were under the influence of the United States, others - the USSR. For example, during the Cold War, countries such as Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, Chile, and Cuba were considered US clients. They had dictatorships clearly backed by the United States.
Remote banking
As mentioned above, over time, the word "customer" is increasingly entering our lives. One example of this is the introduction of the Internet-client remote banking system, which operates through a regular Internet browser. With its help, the same actions are possible as through traditional systems.
The only difference is that installing the distributor system onthe user's computer is not required. When using the "Internet-Client" system, there is an option: when you are anywhere in the world, control the movement of funds on your accounts and perform the necessary operations with them.
With all this, it fully meets the requirements for information security. In order to identify the user, special carriers of key information with the necessary protection are used. This allows you to provide a high level of protection against hacking and theft of confidential client data, as well as to avoid attempts of fraudulent actions.
Film and series
There is another "special" type of service that is provided to customers. It is legal in some countries and banned in others. These are intimate services. This is exactly what the popular American television movie The Client List is about, which was first shown on one of the cable channels in the United States in 2010. Later, a television series was also filmed, which ran for three seasons.
The plot is based on a true story that happened in Texas in 2004. The main character, Samantha, is a former Texas "beauty queen" and now an unemployed mother of two whose husband, being in trouble with the law, went on the run.
Samantha gets a job as a masseuse in a spa that is associated with prostitution. She later becomes his mistress. When the list of clients of the salon comes to the police, the heroine is accusedin illegal activities and sent to prison. After going through many trials, she reconnects with her husband.
