Organizations spend countless hours and resources trying to reduce friction in customer interactions. However, they’re missing out on a vital fact: not all friction is bad.
Friction, when handled correctly, can create a tighter bond with customers, as it creates more touchpoints along the customer journey to show your value to the customer.
Organizations should see friction as a door to a new touchpoint with the customer and a new window into what makes them tick.
All great inventions arise from need, and any customer interaction can be a chance to learn about these pain points and adapt the customer journey to drive greater satisfaction and loyalty.
Lesson One: Plan for Friction
The most important lesson when it comes to friction in the customer journey is to plan for it rather than ignoring it as a possibility.
There’s a clear relationship between understanding the causes of friction and being able to proactively respond to the customer’s needs.
With generative artificial intelligence (AI)-powered, real-time analytics, customer experience (CX) leaders can pinpoint those areas of friction and get ahead of the issue before the customer even realizes these exist.
For instance, unexpected bill changes are a major cause of customer frustration and contribute to a massive amount of call center traffic.
In fact, a study from McKinsey & Company (“Why are your customers calling you again?” Exhibit 3.) found that 48% of calls into the contact center are related to simple billing-related questions.
When the organization knows that a bill amount is going to change, for example at the end of a promotional rate, they should reach out proactively, before the customer initiates contact, to explain the changes and get ahead of friction before it occurs.
If that is not possible, the organization should prepare the call center representative with a clear solution, like a new deal for the customer or the knowledge and context to clearly explain the charges as soon as they pick up the phone.
On the flip side, there is a wrong way to go about this. Namely, organizations should absolutely not try to get away with pricing changes, hoping subscribers won’t notice the charge(s) and avoiding proactive outreach in the process.
Not only will their call center representatives pay the price for having to deal with higher volume and frustrated customers, but this is when friction causes churn. At best, the customer thinks you’re sneaky, and you’ve destroyed trust.
Lesson Two: Leverage Friction to Enable Real-Time Action
Organizations can leverage moments of friction to gain insights that inform the best path forward. Especially with AI analytics in hand, organizations have no excuse for not learning from friction. Understanding what makes a customer upset is equally as important as understanding what the customer likes.
These insights can feed into predictive customer profiling, as organizations seek to understand not only what the customer has done in the past, but what they will likely do in the future.
CX leaders can use that information to set forward-looking goals and take real-time action to adapt the journey based on the customer’s behavior.
Friction is what sticks in the psyche of the customer. Everyone remembers a bad or frustrating experience.
Proactive action based on past friction won’t look like fabricating the stereotypical “unforgettable experience.” It should instead be about creating the smoothest road possible and ultimately make the experiences so effortless that they are forgettable for the customer.
This analysis can also unearth personalization opportunities, as we will see in the next lesson.
Lesson Three: Seize Personalization Opportunities to Turn Friction into Loyalty
According to the Deloitte Digital report “Embrace meaningful personalization to maximize growth”, organizations with higher rates of personalization have a 1.5x higher loyalty rate from their customers. But it’s important to achieve that personalization in a way that makes an impactful difference.
This is where friction comes in. For example, say you have a flight that’s canceled due to weather last minute. You call a generic customer service line, wait on hold for ages just to be transferred to the right person, and explain yourself each time, only then to have to fight to have your situation understood.
Instead, what if the representative on the other line knows who you are, where you are, your history with the airline, and your flight information immediately based on the number you’re calling from?
The representative should have this information at their fingertips to understand the context of your situation and have a few possible solutions ready for you, without any extra effort required from you.
64% of customers say that speed is as important as cost (Time to Win, “The Consumer Patience Study”), so a quick path to resolution will result in happier customers.
Better yet, the airline can go the extra mile by offering a positive CX while you wait, whether that’s by gifting a hotel voucher, a complimentary meal, or an upgraded seat.
In doing so, they can turn a major breaking point in the customer journey into a pleasant experience that regains customer trust and keeps them coming back.
Tough moments are an inevitable part of serving customers. If an organization isn’t prepared for them, and prepared based on historical data, they aren’t doing their customer base justice.
Lesson Four: Plan for Customer Friction in the Employee Experience
Planning for friction will also ease the burden on frontline employees. Call center representatives shouldn’t be afraid to answer the phone and face the wrath of whoever is on the other line.
Agents spend a lot of time talking to disappointed or frustrated customers, which can lead to increased levels of employee burnout.
No matter how excellent a representative is, if they’re underprepared, they won’t be able to deliver the ultimate CX.
The representative should have...a few possible solutions ready for you, without any extra effort required from you.
By giving them the tools that provide personalized, actionable insights for the customers they’re assisting, representatives can respond confidently and accurately, and some calls will be diverted altogether.
This allows your organization to deliver both great CX and employee experiences (EX). A heightened level of synergy and better experiences across the board will result in levels of success [“Bayer - Happy Employees Make Happy Customers” (Forbes)], and happy employees are the result of the right set of tools.
The Future of Friction
It’s time to shift the perspective: view friction as an integral, unavoidable part of the CX. Rather than something to avoid at all costs, friction must be built into customer journeys and the EX as a natural and essential part of customer interactions.
By shifting their mindset to see friction as an opportunity for innovation rather than a minefield, organization leaders can get to the heart of what a customer wants from their experience. In doing so, organizations can unlock newfound business growth and loyalty.
The path to customer trust and loyalty has always included friction. It’s time to embrace it.