What’s the worst customer service experience you’ve ever had? Think about that for a second.

How would you describe that experience? Was it inconvenient? Was it a waste of your time? Did a lack of transparency or information lead to a bad outcome? These are the calling cards of a bad customer service experience.

My recent experience with Monoprice, an online retailer, nearly caused me to have multiple aneurysms. I ordered some speakers and a small amp for my living room and the day they showed up, I was so excited to set them up that I forgot to eat dinner. It was better than Christmas. The problem is that one of the tubes on the amp was damaged during shipping. Not a big deal, right? Any reputable retailer would take care of this in no time.

After waiting on hold for an hour to speak with a customer service rep, I finally gave up and tried their online chat tool which lead to even more frustration and wasted time. When I finally reached someone, they told me they would ship me a new part. They didn’t. This happened 3 more times before they finally replaced the entire amp. 5 months. That’s how long this whole process took. WTF? What an opaque, inconvenient process. This was not the easy way.

Changing gears, what’s the best customer service experience you’ve ever had? This question always takes longer to answer because most of us don’t mentally catalog our good experiences. How about the first time you used a good app to make a purchase with something like Amazon, Uber, or Domino’s? Even though you didn’t speak with anyone to make that purchase (except your Uber driver), you probably had a great customer service experience that was convenient and transparent. That’s the easy way.

Service contracting is hard as hell, but it shouldn’t be for your customers. It should be as easy as ordering a pizza from Domino’s or buying products from Amazon. Pull that off and your brand will stand out from the competition. Customers will be loyal and happy to pay you a premium if you can take the hassle and worry out of their lives.

My Amazon order history tells a pretty interesting story that starts back in 2011. That’s the year that I finally decided to create an account because I realized I was probably going to be purchasing a few more items from this Amazon company and I was sick of retyping my credit card information. At this point, I didn’t realize what an impact Amazon was going to have on my day-to-day life.

It’s not like I immediately started ordering everything from Amazon. Quite the contrary. Between me and my wife, we made one order on our Amazon account in 2011, four in 2012, and fifteen in 2013. You see the trend. Later that year, we subscribed to the Amazon Prime program to get fast, free shipping for an extra $80 a year. That changed everything. Our Amazon use skyrocketed to the point where we made over 70 orders to Amazon last year. And, a quick poll of my co-workers suggests that we’re light users.

Here’s the kicker, Amazon is not the cheapest option. I price shop all the time and find better deals. But, those cheaper options either mean ordering from some sketchy online retailer that might take my money and run or a stressful, frustrating trip to a big box store. I’m not dealing with that mess. There is almost nothing as inconvenient as a trip to Walmart or Best Buy. It’s a waste of precious time. I don’t mind waiting 2 days for a product to ship from the Amazon Warehouse if it means avoiding the hassle of those madhouses.

That’s how doing things the easy way can make a loyal customer for life. Amazon is the easy way for me and for that, they’re making a killing. Compared to their most dominant competitor, Walmart, they’re absolutely cleaning house. As of the writing of this post, Amazon’s stock has increased in value over 2,600% since 2005 to a market cap of nearly $700 billion. Not bad for a company that started as a little bookstore. Walmart’s stock price, on the other hand, has only grown 82% to a market cap of $260 billion. Would you be happy with 82% growth in the value of your company over 13 years? How about 2,600%?

Now, I know you’re probably not running a multi-billion dollar company, but this strategy isn’t unique to megaretailers. Ever heard of Spiffy or FilterEasy? These aren’t big companies, but they’re growing like crazy by doing it the easy way. These two brands are built on the premise that customers want convenience and transparency and are willing to pay a premium for it. Check out my last blog post for details about their convenience-first strategies.

Could you imagine if all of these successful companies only used employees equipped with spreadsheets, phones, and email to provide this level of customer service? A concierge for each customer to update them on the progress of every purchase, answer their every question and resolve any issues. It would be a rat’s nest of communication. Of course, this is preposterous. The costs would be astronomical and the results would be a mess.

So, why is that how most service contractors solve the same problem?

Instead, Amazon, Spiffy, and FilterEasy use scalable customer service technology to make their customers’ lives easier. They cut human costs and provide a better, more convenient, and more transparent experience with applications that differentiate their brands. Of course, there are still people involved, but their cost to deliver customer service doesn’t increase with each new customer. In fact, the cost per customer goes down as they grow.

What technology are all of these companies using on the backend to manage accounting and logistics? It doesn’t matter. Their customers don’t care how they manage the business. Customers just want their lives’ to be easier. In their customers’ eyes, Amazon’s warehouse software doesn’t differentiate them from Walmart. Spiffy’s accounting system doesn’t set them apart from Jiffy Lube. FilterEasy’s payroll system doesn’t help them sell more filters.

So, why is that most service contractors think their backend and accounting systems will help them grow?

I’ll never buy from MonoPrice again and I avoid Walmart like the plague. I’ve never spoken with an Amazon customer service rep, yet I’ve been a loyal customer for over 7 years and spend more with them every year. Good customer service is convenient and transparent but great, scalable customer service can only be achieved with technology.

This doesn’t have to be hard. Give your customers the easy way.