Ordered coffee this morning so I could work on the Brand Engine Course. Didn't show up for 30 minutes. Still didn't cancel my Swiggy Blck subscription.
Why?
Because when things go wrong, which they will, they treat me like a person, not ticket #847362.
The discounts are nice, but I'd pay without them.
When most founders were building the wrong moat, Swiggy quietly changed the game.
Btw, this is another edition of Brick by Brick, where I break down iconic brands.
Here are the 5 Frameworks to Build a Brand That Commands Premium Pricing like Swiggy Blck.
When you are obsessing over making your product a 20 when your competitor is a 10. Spending months on features customers won't notice. Debating pixel-perfect design in Figma while your support inbox is a dumpster fire.
Meanwhile, your customers can't tell the difference between a 10 and a 20. They genuinely can't. The quality gap you're killing yourself to create?
Invisible to them.
But they'll remember how you made them feel when shit went sideways.
This isn't about having nice support. It's about recognizing that customer support is the easiest moat to build that actually compounds.
Every other advantage you think you have, better tech, cleaner code, and faster load times can be copied in months. Your competitor can reverse-engineer your entire product.
But they can't reverse-engineer trust.
Service > Product > Features.
Your service layer is how you treat people. It's response time, tone, and problem ownership. It's whether you make customers repeat themselves or actually read the thread. It's the difference between "Sorry for the inconvenience" and "I see exactly what happened; give me 5 minutes to fix this."
Your product layer is reliability. Does it work? Does it break constantly?
That's table stakes.
Your feature layer is everything you think matters. It doesn't. Not as much as you think.
Most companies invert this pyramid. They spend 80% of resources on features, 15% on product stability, and 5% on service. Then wonder why churn is high despite having "the best product in the market."
Try this for 30 days: redirect one feature-focused engineer to support automation. Track three metrics: average resolution time, customer sentiment in responses, and how often people mention support when they refer someone.
I've watched startups with inferior products destroy competitors because they made customers feel seen. And I've watched "superior" products bleed users because nobody answered the damn support email.
Your biggest moat isn't technical.
It's human.
The companies winning right now aren't out-featuring anyone. They're out-caring them. When everyone has the same AI models, cloud infrastructure, and design systems.
Your customer service is the only thing that can't be commoditized.
Reply and tell me: what's one support interaction that made you loyal to a brand? I'm collecting these.
— Shashank
P.S.
If you can't remember the last time a founder personally responded to your support ticket, you know exactly why you churn from products.
Your customers feel the same way about yours.
Your boss will think you’re a genius
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