To achieve and sustain a competitive advantage in any marketplace, leaders must relentlessly reduce the friction end-users and customers experience with their products and services. It’s not enough to have a product or service people prefer or value. Good enterprises make that product or service easy to access and use.
Friction refers to anything that makes it more difficult for end-users to realize the full value and benefit of a product or service. Any obstacle that prevents a customer from achieving their goals with the product or service is unnecessary friction.
Friction is the enemy of product or service success. End-users, especially those who are committed fans of a product or service, will put up with high friction for a while. But they will soon start shopping for a similar experience or product with less friction.
Great organizations continually examine how end-users experience their product or service and identify every point of friction that exists. They then work to eliminate, offset, or diminish this obstacle to make their product or service more “user-friendly.”
Of course, eliminating complexity, unnecessary steps, or unwieldy actions helps to reduce friction. By speaking with end-users and observing them experience the product or service, leaders can often find and act on the low-hanging frictional fruit. Knowing more about other areas of potential friction can help to uncover obstacles that are harder to see or remain hidden.
Here are a few examples:
Discovery friction includes any struggle about how to navigate or use the product or service. This obstacle includes everything that makes it more difficult to find information about realizing the full benefits available.
Sign-up friction refers to any lengthy or overly complicated process to enroll, buy, or subscribe to the product or service.
Usability friction describes anything confusing or unclear which might hinder the smooth usage of the product or service.
Support friction occurs when the resources end-users need to resolve their problems don’t exist or are overly cumbersome.
Scalability friction refers to any difficulty in upgrading the product or service to accommodate customer needs. This especially applies to renewals and repurchases.
Anything that chafes is a barrier to adoption and must be stamped out. When an enterprise increases desire for its product or service by continually enhancing its quality, while at the same time lowering friction, success in the marketplace becomes almost guaranteed. Eliminating friction is a never-ending job that pays big dividends in customer growth and loyalty.
How much friction exists with your key products and services?
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