Client Individuals: New (PI8732)

This metric is intended to capture the number of unique clients who were recipients of the organization's products or services during the reporting period for the first time. It is not a measure of foot traffic. It is also not intended to capture the number of consumer transactions. For example, a customer who makes two purchases during a period should only be counted once. Organizations wishing to report on total client transactions should refer to Client Transactions (PI5184).

Depending on the industry and business model, organizations may define new clients as those who re-engage with the organization after a designated time period. For example, the Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX) defines new borrowers as those who receive loans for the first time from the institution or borrowers who rejoin after more than one year.

This metric is intended to capture the unique number of specific individuals serviced. Organizations should not use any household multipliers when reporting against this number. If organizations consider the entire household to be the customer/client, they can report against Client Households: Total (PI7954) and its associated submetrics.

Organizations that rely on assumptions to report against this metric, including the process for determining the number of client individuals, should footnote all assumptions used in the calculation process.

For healthcare providers, client individuals refers to patients. For housing providers, client individuals refers to residents or tenants.

This metric is multi-dimensional in regards to the five dimensions of impact. It may help describe the WHO dimension when the stakeholder group represented by the metric is the stakeholder group targeted by the investment or organization. It may also help measure the HOW MUCH Scale dimension, which helps estimate the number of the targeted stakeholders experiencing the outcome. For more on the alignment of IRIS metrics to the five dimensions of impact, see specific guidance document. No single metric is sufficient to understand an impact; rather, metrics are selected as a set across all dimensions of impact. When possible, the selection of metrics to measure and describe the five dimensions should be based on best practice and evidence.