Why Friction Can Feel Great

Jeannie Walters 0:00

What if I told you there was an industry making money by making people feel confused, stressed, and slightly panicked, and then walk out and say it was the best hour of my week. Escape rooms have quietly built one of the most satisfying customer experiences anywhere. And it turns out they're not alone on a specific approach that involves creating moments of friction. I think all of us can learn from these examples. Because while we talk about wanting a frictionless experience, sometimes we need people to feel a little friction in order to feel like it's well-earned or a valued experience. Escape rooms are deliberately built so that people don't win, actually. In fact, the designers estimate about 20 to a 40% success rate, meaning that the majority of people who pay money to go through this experience don't come out feeling like a winner. And yet, they do really well. It must be challenging enough to feel rewarding, but fair enough that most players can feel real progress. The twist in this is that most companies try to treat any friction as a bug to eliminate. But sometimes if the journey is too easy, it actually kind of cheapens the outcome. You know, I've learned this as I've planned local events. I've learned that if you create a free event, something sponsored maybe, where you're offering, you know, free food, show up, we'll give you a name tag, no problem. A lot of people register, but they don't show. If you charge people just a few dollars, that is enough of a commitment, enough of a friction point where they will actually show

The Escape Room Hint System

Jeannie Walters 2:05

up for the event in greater numbers. This is true when we think about the investment that a customer is willing to make. If it feels like it's not really any sort of investment of anything for them, it's easy for them to just go away, to just go somewhere else. The escape room model is really about creating friction points that feel rewarding when they're done. Now, one of the things that's happening is in many of these escape rooms, uh, 98% of escape room owners say the game master is responsible for providing hints, and they're trained to adapt their level of support depending on how close or how far the group is from a breakthrough. Now, this is the game master who is typically out of the room but watching through cameras, a two-way mirror, that type of thing. They have a speaker into the room to give that guidance when it's needed. Now, one of the things I like about this is that they're not just letting friction play out to the point of frustration. They're reading signals about how is this group doing? How can I guide them without giving away the answer? So, still, those points of friction, they still feel rewarding if somebody can overcome them because they weren't given the answer. They were simply given guidance. So, real-time judgment-based intervention that is not a fixed script or process can be incredibly valuable when we're looking at our customer journeys. Where are those moments where some people might feel friction, might feel frustrated? How can we guide them in the moment? It's a really critical question. Because if we are letting them just encounter the same friction point again and again and again, that's not going to feel rewarding. That's going to feel like abandonment.

Debriefs That Create Loyalty

Jeannie Walters 4:10

So when somebody actually goes through an escape room, when that group completes the process, whether they escape or not, their time is up. A lot of the escape rooms actually have a formal debrief after the game. So that this is a ritual they've built in. A ritual that helps them highlight the wins and celebrate the success with the players and also help them realize maybe a lesson or a learning or an observation that they can take with them. At the end of this is when they ask for those recommendations. Would you recommend this experience to a friend? And 94% say they would. Even though these experiences are literally designed so people will fail, they've done it in such a way that people feel good about it. They feel like that friction was rewarding. So most businesses end the interaction kind of the minute the transaction does. By adding that debrief, they've added a ritual and a way to close the experience in a really positive way. I see this a lot in the work we do with large organizations. We send invoices, we say thank you very much, and we never talk to them again. Or we only talk to them when we're sending a recurring invoice. That is not a warm human ritual. There are so many ways that we can introduce this moment, this way to interact with customers so that they walk away feeling like they got something even greater than what was promised. That's what the debrief does in

IKEA Pride And The DIY Trap

Jeannie Walters 6:00

the escape room experience. So here are a couple other good friction points you may want to consider, or just examples to learn from. Now, I think all of us have had friction when we have been putting together anything from IKEA and those little Allen wrenches, right? So the people who assemble their own furniture, they actually value it more. They 63% value it higher than an identical pre-built version. There's a sense of pride about doing it. There's something that feels good about making sure that you are part of the process. You actually built that dresser. But only they only feel that way if the build actually succeeded. So we have to make sure that all the instructions, all the tools provided, all the guidance helps them actually succeed. If we are giving them something, feeling like, well, you got to do this on your own, that DIY better have an answer, better be the one that succeeds. Because if they can't get the information they need, the support they need, or have the right tools, that is not going to feel like a win. That is not going to feel like something

Fitness Accountability As A Product

Jeannie Walters 7:20

they value. Another example of this, basically any fitness program out there, but CrossFit is a good example. They charge quite a bit of money per month for intensity. And essentially, you could do the same workout in a gym. You could do the same workout with the equipment at your house. So why do people pay for CrossFit or Orangetheory Fitness or any of them? It's because the coach who sets the pace and challenges you actually creates that friction that leads to growth. It also removes the easy way out. So friction is kind of the whole value proposition. It's the whole way that people hold themselves accountable. But that's only done when it's calibrated well. If it's too punitive about missing sessions or things or not flexible and dynamic, people don't appreciate it as much. If it's flexible and dynamic and fits into their life, they appreciate it a lot because they see the success. That is very important as well. And then there is this whole kind of friction in the way that we've been gamifying

Streaks, Loss Aversion, And Retention

Jeannie Walters 8:35

experiences. Think about things like Duolingo or those apps that help people keep up streaks. You don't want to lose that streak. That's actually what's motivating you. Not to actually keep your streak going to a certain point. It's so you don't lose the streak. That little point of friction, that loss aversion, that can be very helpful with just the way humans are motivated and the way that we actually want to show up for ourselves, but sometimes don't have that implicit internal motivation. So protecting progress actually motivates more than gaining it. And one report from StriveCloud tied streak mechanics to a 14% lift in day 14 retention. We as humans don't want to lose that streak. We want to win with those streaks. Let's make sure that we are balancing the difficulty and the friction points that we want to be intentional because they help with somebody's motivation. They help them value the product or the service more. They help them feel more loyal in some cases. We want to balance that with the idea of guidance and making sure that we know that they're going to be successful once

Designing Intentional Friction At Work

Jeannie Walters 9:55

they overcome this point of friction and it's going to feel like a reward. So, bottom line, sometimes the best experiences aren't the easiest ones. And so we want to make sure we have that right amount of designed struggle, a human calibration element, somebody looking over them, and then the right tools and processes to support them to feel guided through that to hopefully a lasting closing ritual. And honestly, this is one of my favorite things to do with the teams that we work with. We come in, we do some journey mapping and service blueprinting where we map out what is it that we really want to deliver for customers and how can we do it in the best possible way. Once we start talking about intentional friction, you start realizing that there are places where there's a lot of unintentional friction that maybe we can fix. But then if we do this well, we can intentionally design journeys that help people feel rewarded, recognized, and valued. And really, that's what we all want.

Workshops, Sharing, And Next Steps

Jeannie Walters 11:05

If you're interested, let us know. We love running workshops with you and your team. And if you enjoyed this episode, we always appreciate when you share. Maybe somebody you know needs to hear it, go ahead and send it to them. And of course, we love your ratings and reviews. And if you haven't subscribed yet, what's stopping you? We would love to welcome you to the team. I'm Jeannie Walters, and I can't wait to talk to you about customer experience next time. If you're ready to turn insights into action, join CXI Membership, our community for customer experience investigators just like you. Get the tools, support, and inspiration to move from ideas to true impact. And don't miss my book, Experience is Everything: Making Every Moment Count in the Age of Customer Expectations. Available wherever you order books. Until next time, keep asking questions, keep improving, and keep leading with experience.