day 910: Switching Costs

"Promise me, O women of Jerusalem, by the swift gazelles and deer of the wild, not to awaken love until the time is right."


Any business or service tries to find a way to up "switching costs".  What exactly is the cost of switching?  Well, we have experienced it in one form of another in the electronic age and before.  Does any of this sound familiar?  Have you ever:  held onto an email or internet service provider because you don't want to change your email address and have to go through all the communication to others about the change, or not changed cell phone carriers or cable companies because it's just too hard to go through, or keep the same pair of running shoes for fear of a new pair not fitting right, or keep going to the same doctor because he/she has all your records, or stick with a music service because they have all of your playlists recorded?  It could be any, or all, or for other reasons but each is a "switching cost" that we want to keep high so that we retain our customers/consumers.  Building in switching costs is good business and we need to not only do it with our products/services, but with our employees as well so that they don't just easily pick up and leave to go to work for another company.  Think about it today, have you built in enough switching cost to ensure continuity for the business?

Solomon sang of keeping emotions curbed until the time is right.  I love how God has left all of the cost of switching upon us.  While He could have created this life of ours to be a life of burden and shackle,   He didn't create that for us. Instead He gave us choice, freedom and the opportunity to make our own decisions.  The cost of switching is high though.  Each time we walk away from the Lord, ignore His words, or act out against His will, we run the risk of setting another back in their walk and journey.  I've recently watched the impressionable be dismayed by the actions of a believer.  It is not pretty. Friends, let us all consider seriously that cost of switching away from working and living for the glory of God before we act.

Reference:  Song of Songs (New Living Translation)