Direct answer
What does customer mean?
A customer is a person who receives services from a licensee but is not represented by that licensee as an agent.
Exam cue: A customer is owed honesty, fair dealing and disclosure of known material facts, but not the loyalty or confidential advocacy owed to a client.
What does it look like in a question?
Example
An unrepresented buyer attends a showing conducted by the seller's agent.
Common exam trap
What should you not confuse it with?
A customer can become a client only if an agency relationship is properly created.
Related agency terms
AccountingAccounting is the fiduciary duty to safeguard and properly account for money, documents and property entrusted to the agent.AgencyAgency is a relationship in which an agent is authorized to act for a principal and owes duties within that relationship.Broker's agentA broker's agent is an agent from another firm engaged by a listing, buyer's or tenant's agent to help serve that agent's principal, with no direct relationship to the principal.ClientA client is a principal who is represented by a real estate agent.Designated sales agentA designated sales agent is a salesperson or associate broker assigned by the broker to represent one client when the same broker also represents another client in the deal.Dual agencyDual agency is one brokerage representing both buyer and seller, or landlord and tenant, in the same transaction, which New York allows only with informed written consent.
Sources used2 references with section locators
The curriculum citation confirms exam scope. Definition and rule citations support the explanation itself.
Keep learning
Put the term back into its full subject.
A definition helps with recall. The subject guide shows how the rule interacts with documents, scenarios, calculations and practice questions.