In Defence of Friction

My friend Matt Ballantine once said something along with lines of ‘removing friction is all well and good, but when you hit the brakes on your bike, you’d quite like a bit of friction to be there’

I thought about this recently when on a packed train at Wembley Stadium, where there’s a new Amazon Go store (a shop where you walk in, pick up what you want, and walk out, without any obvious scanning, paying, or being arrested). 

A lady got on the train with a big Amazon Go bag. Eyebrows were raised, mutters were heard. Eventually, one man – remembering that the usual ‘no talking’ rules of commuting are suspended if on a train leaving a gig or national sporting event – said what we were all thinking:

‘Excuse me, is that that new shop where you just take stuff? What’s it like??’

What followed was a spontaneous focus group, travellers fuelled by evening alcohol discussing the pros and cons of living in the future, whilst I sat in the corner and tried to surreptitiously take notes.

Going frictionless has long been seen as the dream of start-ups and CEOs, but whilst it’s right to try and make things functionally easier, a bit of friction can actually help the emotional customer experience.

1) Certainty

Far from enjoying the feeling of leaving without needing to get out their wallet, the biggest concern on the train was a lack of certainty over whether they’d paid the right amount. It felt weird, they all said, to walk out with any kind of acknowledgement, without knowing that all the goods they’d picked up had been accounted for, and that they hadn’t accidentally been charged for something someone else might have bought.

This reminded me of my trip to a Mexican restaurant years ago, when a super-talented waiter stood and watched as six of us gave her an increasingly complex order – and she didn’t write any of it down. Far from being impressed at her Holmes-like memory, we spent the next 15 minutes convinced our order was going to be completely wrong and we were going to be late and hungry.

But it’s not just the actual experience that can be negatively impacted by a lack of friction. The future salience of the brand can be, too.

2) Memory

Nick Parker shared a story with me of a friction-obsessed company he worked with a few years ago, which got so good at removing friction, they became completely forgettable:

I did some work for a big commercial website a few years ago. They are the ultimate hyper-efficient frictionless ‘funnel’. At my first meeting I apologetically admitted that I’d never actually been a customer of theirs. ‘Just check your emails’ they said. I did. Turned out I’d used them three times in the previous year – yet had no recollection at all. The whole experience had been so frictionless I’d whooshed right through the experience without even noticing who they were. 

What I thought was also interesting was they *knew* this was a potential risk to their business – but that their ‘data’ wasn’t indicating a problem. Quite the opposite in fact. By all their available metrics (of clicks, basket size, average order etc) they were smashing it.

3) Value

Dan Ariely tells the story of the locksmith who comes to open your front door after you’ve locked your keys inside.

One turns up, gets out the right tool, instantly unlocks the door, and says ‘￡100 please’.

The other turns up, and spends an hour working, sweating, trying all they can to get the door open for you. Eventually, after much obvious effort, they manage it, and say ‘￡100 please’.

Which are you happier to give the ￡100 to?

With all of these things, we might be better to talk about ‘appropriate friction’, whether it’s providing certainty, creating memories, or an appreciation for the effort that’s been put in on our behalf.

The checks before sending a large payment. The satisfying ‘clunk’ of a car door locking. The knowledge that we’re not going to be arrested walking around Wembley (at least not for stealing a tin of beans).

As Matt points out with his bike analogy, sometimes a bit of friction can be a good thing. Without it, organisations could end up with the wheels coming off.

Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed it, please do share. And if you need any help with improving your organisation’s customer experience, come and find me and the team at The Foundation.