Ten Ideas for Reducing CX Friction

In physics, the Second Law of Thermodynamics specifies that entropy always increases. Entropy can be loosely thought of as randomness, or chaos. Combine a glass of hot water and a glass of cold water together and you’ll have a container filled with lukewarm water, which is just the random mix of hot and cold water. Without introducing some outside energy, no process will EVER go in the other direction, combining two glasses of lukewarm water to come out with a container half filled with hot water and half filled with cold.

The Second Law means that perpetual motion machines are physically impossible, and that friction is inevitable. Friction bleeds energy out of any system or process, translating it into the randomness of heat energy and noise. When a space capsule slows as it re-enters the atmosphere, the heat generated by friction is a feature, not a bug, of the process.

In a consumer’s life, friction plays a similar role, bleeding energy out of the customer experience. The wasted time a consumer spends while holding on a phone line, or waiting in a shopping queue, or getting an item repaired or replaced when it breaks – all that wasted time and effort constitutes “CX friction.” CX friction is generated whenever any effort is required on a customer’s part to get a product or service to meet their need. CX friction is in the cost of gasoline used while driving to and from the store for groceries. Even the time and effort spent deciding between Product A and Product B can be considered a form of CX friction.

To both the physicist and the consumer, in other words, the less friction generated, the better. Any time you can reduce CX friction you are eliminating waste and therefore adding value. Moreover, any method you see for reducing your competitor’s CX friction represents a competitive opportunity.

When JetBlue automatically credits your account with the value of a refund due to a delayed or canceled flight, without requiring you to go through the hassle of mailing your boarding pass in to a central processing office, or logging on to their website with your ticket number, they are adding value by eliminating CX friction. When Safelite AutoGlass emails you a picture of the repairman scheduled to come to your house on a service call in advance of his arrival, the company is removing CX friction. When Ally Bank shows its toll-free number on its website along with the estimated wait time required before speaking with a rep, it is removing CX friction.

So what are some of the opportunities your own business might have to gain a competitive advantage by eliminating CX friction? Here are ten ideas to start your thinking:

1. Answer your phone immediately when a customer calls (and don’t give me that BS about “your call is very important to us,” because your own inability to take my call proves the opposite!).
2. Reduce the number of choices a customer must confront before finding the product or service most relevant to them, personally.
3. Simplify your pricing; cheaper is rarely better than simpler.
4. Streamline the language in your “terms and conditions,” including privacy-protection assurances, refund requirements, warranty conditions, and other service rules.
5. Improve your customer data system so that a customer never has to repeat information to you.
6. Design a smartphone app allowing customers to accomplish routine tasks without having to wait for your participation (finding items in your store, for instance).
7. Train and empower your service employees to make non-routine decisions on their own authority when dealing with customer service problems.
8. Remember each customer’s previous shopping interactions and purchases, in order to minimize wasted search time.
9. Be proactive in respecting your customers’ interests, by advising them if they appear to be ordering too much, or the wrong thing, and letting them know in advance if a warranty or other benefit expires soon
10. Implement a “complaint discovery” process to identify more CX friction, and assign someone to follow up with immediate action for eliminating each problem in the future.