Seth Godin blogs today about the power of habit. I think it’s the inertia of laziness. Because they’re lazy, people:

• Don’t refinance for years even though interest rates are lower.
• Don’t change cell phone plans even though they could get more minutes, larger coverage areas, more services, and better cell phones to boot, for the same or less money.
• Don’t change ISPs, cable companies, web hosts, etc., even though their current one continues to raise prices without improving service.
• Don’t change web mapping/search sites, even though their current one is collecting personal data and better options may be available.
• etc.

As Seth writes:

Worth a thought the next time you convince yourself you can get people to change just because you’re better.

It takes more than a better product or service to win a customer. You must make it easy for that customer to switch.

Photo credit: “Oh, It’s YOU Again” by faith goble on Flickr. Used under a Creative Commons license.