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Roger Grimes’ scathing editorial on companies treating customers badly today is spot on. He’s focused on security, but his words apply to our whole industry.

At first I thought it was solely due to my crackerjack customer service, but then I realized that the other common thread was that they were mad at a computer security vendor whom they previously loved or passionately wanted to buy from. It was only because of boneheaded, strategic decisions made by the company that their customers were looking to competitors.

There’s a common theme involved. Each of the vendors started with a good product that solidly filled a particular niche, gained market share and industry accolades, and then made inopportune decisions that riled their existing, or new, customers to a point that the customer gave up trying to give them their business. I’m convinced that the vendor’s CEOs are oblivious to how much discontent their company is causing with the very people they should be striving to satisfy. Instead of letting the vendors suffer lower market share without understanding why, I’ve decided to share some representative stories in this blog column.

Right on.

Alex Eckelberry