It was a constant battle with every new generation of thermostat. The screwdriver was expensive. Each one ate into our margins. So there was always a brigade of employees petitioning to remove it—they couldn’t understand why we’d add to our COGS (cost of goods sold) that way. But they didn’t understand that it wasn’t a straight COGS line item. It was a marketing expense. And a support expense. That screwdriver saved us so much money on phone support. Instead of angry calls, we had happy customers raving online about their great experience.
