Which is better, “customer number” or “customer count”?

Question

I want to express the number of customers my company has. Is it better to use customer number or customer count?

Answer 1

Avoid “customer number” because it is likely to be misunderstood. “Customer number” commonly refers to a customer identification number. You will be understood if you say “customer count”. Some other possibilities are “number of customers” and “total number of customers”.

Answer 2

You want a 'count'

Count (noun): The result of a tally that reveals the number of items in a set; a quantity counted.

Number is too ambiguous in this case, because it is usually something specific to a customer (think PIN - personal identification number) rather than a tally of the customer set.