There's a question that someone invariably asks after one of our discussions of how some software company is abusing its customers. Why do we put up with it? Once it's become clear to all that a particular vendor is not treating its customers as well as it should, why doesn't everybody just vote with their feet and find a better alternative?
"I keep reading your columns about the problems people are having with Norton, and I can't help but think that these are the dumbest people in the country," wrote one reader in response to a recent story. "Many work in IT, some previously in tech support, and all know about these issues, yet they still buy the product. Why don't they just buy something else and tell their friends and businesses to do the same? Why waste all those hours with tech support? Do we live in some communist country where there is no choice?"
It's a complex question, but let's see if we can at least make a start an answer. One big factor, of course - particularly when you're talking about corporate IT - is the investment in time, money, training, and development that the company has made in the software it already has. No matter how unhappy you might be with the results, migrating to a whole new product line is a difficult and expensive step to take.
And while there are always alternatives, the realistic choices may be few. Microsoft is just the most obvious example of a company that you can only bid farewell with considerable effort. There are many virtual monopolies it the software business, in the biggest markets and the smallest niches. When there are clear alternatives, the customer might still find that the competitors' practices are no better.
Another factor that's easy to overlook is that customers themselves find some benefit in going with the market leader, just by virtue of it being the de facto industry standard. Compatibility with other products the customer uses in their network environment is likely to be better because more of the hardware and software vendors will have tested the market leader with their products.
Finally, even when they do their homework, customers are unlikely to have as much information about a software company's products and practices as they would with other industries. After all, this is a business where most publishers won't even warrant that their product will do anything, much less that they'll fix their own bugs. So customers are often not going to know what problems exist until they themselves are bitten by it.
Perhaps some of these problems are intractable, but that last one shouldn't be. How can we do a better job as software customers of sharing the information we need to make informed decisions about products? Let's hear your answers online or write me directly at Foster@gripe2ed.com.
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