Blog > Data Lock In
This week will be my third attempt to switch our published company phone number to our new provider Unlimitel from Primus. We were previously using Primus but their services were not as flexible as Unlimitel’s and the configuration of our phones were never correct. We lived with it because it was cheaper than the alternative Bell.
Porting your phone number in Canada can take up to 30 days I’ve been told. However, the rule is that the billing address you supply to your new carrier for them to request the transfer must match the address as it appears in the originator’s records. Exactly it seems. Primus has now rejected the request twice most likely because I supplied punctuation on the address suffix and their records appear not to have a period on the suffix. They won’t actually say what doesn’t match thereby keeping me on just a bit longer to take just a bit more of my money.
In a world of increasing commodity services, where does a business hold an advantage? First movers attracting a large install base have the advantage of retaining users due to migration headaches. It’s difficult for the customer to export his data into standard formats that can be easily imported into a competing product. Memories of clients scheming to “trap” their users on their website for fear that they may go someplace else still dance in my head.
Some companies are expanding their services with XML APIs and RSS feeds but these aren’t necessarily allowing you to export your data but merely leverage the company’s services with complementary ones. Mark Pilgram recently wrote about his frustration with Apple products as he doesn’t appreciate the fact that Apple locks him into proprietary data storage formats making a transition to an alternative more difficult as time goes on.
I use services because they’re useful, not because the alternative is too painful to migrate towards. Eventually the customer will become so frustrated that they’ll jump ship anyway. Instead of competitive advance through data lock in, try retaining customers through further innovation. The more you trap me the less I like your product.
Porting your phone number in Canada can take up to 30 days I’ve been told. However, the rule is that the billing address you supply to your new carrier for them to request the transfer must match the address as it appears in the originator’s records. Exactly it seems. Primus has now rejected the request twice most likely because I supplied punctuation on the address suffix and their records appear not to have a period on the suffix. They won’t actually say what doesn’t match thereby keeping me on just a bit longer to take just a bit more of my money.
In a world of increasing commodity services, where does a business hold an advantage? First movers attracting a large install base have the advantage of retaining users due to migration headaches. It’s difficult for the customer to export his data into standard formats that can be easily imported into a competing product. Memories of clients scheming to “trap” their users on their website for fear that they may go someplace else still dance in my head.
Some companies are expanding their services with XML APIs and RSS feeds but these aren’t necessarily allowing you to export your data but merely leverage the company’s services with complementary ones. Mark Pilgram recently wrote about his frustration with Apple products as he doesn’t appreciate the fact that Apple locks him into proprietary data storage formats making a transition to an alternative more difficult as time goes on.
I use services because they’re useful, not because the alternative is too painful to migrate towards. Eventually the customer will become so frustrated that they’ll jump ship anyway. Instead of competitive advance through data lock in, try retaining customers through further innovation. The more you trap me the less I like your product.
Posted by Michael Glenn on Thursday, June 29, 2006 at 10:15 AM in User Experience, Marketing, Taking Care of Business with tags unlimitel, primus, data • Permalink • 1 comment
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