Vendor lock-in is rampant in the software and hardware industries. The most common tactics include high switching costs, data lock-in, lack of cross-vendor compatibility, long-term contracts and other payment shenanigans, etc. Most suppliers employ some sort of lock-in strategy – whether consciously or subconsciously – to ensure that their customers stay with them (regardless of the quality of their offering), which basically reeks of coercion. Coercion is, alas, unsustainable.

We believe that the single best vendor lock-in strategy is good customer service. It is easier said than done, but friendly and effective customer service is still rare in business today. Customer service is not exactly a scalable strategy, considering that it takes the entire company to unfailingly adhere to a strict set of standards in serving its customers. Yet if it is successfully baked into the company culture and practiced consistently (e.g. Zappos), it would make a substantial difference in how customers feel like they are treated. People routinely pay good money for good treatment; we all know that.

What then constitutes good customer service? The most vital ingredient, in our opinion, is speed. When a customer needs assistance or wants information, nothing helps more than knowing that her issue is urgent enough for the company’s staff to get back to her almost immediately. The customer service officer does not have to solve the problem on the spot, but that someone cares and wants to help is amazingly reassuring. Even just a simple “we’ll get back to you very soon, we take your concerns very seriously” provides some sort of temporary relief.

The other vital ingredient is effectiveness or the ability to solve the customer’s problem. In the software industry especially, customers need people who can actually go into the code/database and fix things instead of rattling off a bunch of memorized, pre-prepared instructions that any literate person can read from the documentation. It makes sense to let the technical staff take care of technical problems directly for two reasons: 1) the technical staff becomes more aware of the issues happening upon release, guiding them in their future work, and 2) the technical staff is practically the only truly-qualified people to do the job.

The final ingredient to good customer service is an assurance or some form of special treatment. Explain that the situation is deeply-regretted and give reasonable assurances that the problem will never happen again, with concrete steps or follow-up actions that you will take to give credence to your guarantee. Give VIP treatment from time-to-time: freebies are the most common effective way of making the customer feel appreciated.

The fact is that good customer service is rare, yet really sought-after by customers with money to pay for good service, thus it is very valuable as a business strategy. Good customer service is often overlooked, as companies disproportionately invest their resources in improving their products, not really realizing that good customer service is really an indispensable part of the whole offering.

Want to lock your customers in or, more accurately, make your customers willingly lock themselves in? Then treat them well, very well.