Frictionless

While attending Medallia's excellent Experience 2014 conference in May, the one word that popped up everywhere was "frictionless".

It doesn't describe the organization and execution of the event, although it could.  Rather, it was referenced many times in speeches as a desired quality of the customer experience that drives delight. I suspect "frictionless" will be one of the hot buzz words to emerge in the next year.

So, what's does it mean? What's the fuss all about? How does this apply to my organization?

According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary.com, frictionless is an adjective "having or marked by agreement in feeling or action <enjoys an easygoing and frictionless relationship with her mother-in-law>". I suspect the author wrote the example with a grin!

Organizations, customer experience professionals, and software developers use the word to describe what they want to deliver for their customers or users. It's a potent cocktail of ease of use, seamless integration, and minimal barriers combined with a heavy emphasis on speed.

The concept has been around forever. It's the reason the wheel was round vs. square - a more elegant and "frictionless" experience. More recently, the value of frictionless has also appeared in recent commercials. Remember the Visa commercial where everything is running so smoothly - so frictionless - until some poor sap pulls out cash and gums up the works. The ad equates Visa with ease, speed, and efficiency. In short, it eliminates any friction.

"Jobs" - the term Clay Christensen uses to identify the reason consumers buy or hire a service ("People don't want a quarter-inch drill--they want a quarter-inch hole.") - are ideally completed in a way that minimizes steps and effort so users can move on to the next important thing in life.

Frictionless is why the iPhone was so successful. Lots of little improvements made it super simple to listen to messages or respond to texts. Much less friction than the old Blackberry or flip phones. Conversely, friction is the reason people adhor the USPS. FedEx and UPS are continually finding innovative ways to element friction.

Organizations need to take becoming "frictionless" seriously. They can begin by conducting an experience assessment to find out where friction is built into existing experiences. While frictionless will normally always help decrease the number of detractors, it's doesn't necessarily create more promoters and deliver sustainable competitive advantage. 

So why all the attention now? Three factors are driving this.

1.) Mobile. The proliferation of smartphones with revolutionary, simple user interfaces are raising the bar on customer expectations everywhere. The best apps win because of their frictionlessness qualities. Clunky apps with too many steps and unnecessary barriers are ignored or deleted faster than you can say Myspace. Mobile OS architecture enable app developers to take advantage of standard frictionless features, such as location services, to allow customers to retrieve, send, or show information embedded into the app. 

2.) Customer Experience. CEOs realize that delivering an amazing experience and being a loyalty leader is directly tied to growth. Bain & Company research shows that loyalty leaders grow twice as fast as competitors in the market they serve. This focus on CX is causing organizations to more closely understand customer unspoken needs. Completing the "job" fast with few steps and little effort (without friction) creates delight when the alternative is noticeably different. The magic of Kayak.com is how quickly the service compiles all available options. Prior to Kayak, internet users had to surf multiple sites and manually record prices and schedules. Kayak's co-founder and CEO, Paul English, had his team fanatically focus on speed. They had a strong desire to eliminate the friction of search time. Kayak created the new standard in travel search. The company was purchased by Priceline.com for $1.8B in 2012. 

3.) Millenials. The digital generation grew up with technology. They sleep with their phones. They would much rather give up their television than their smartphone.  This prime demographic target is unwilling to tolerate technology enabled experiences that are slow, clunky, and full of unnecessary steps. Lose with this group and kiss your business growth goodbye. 

Ultimately customers are driving us toward a more "frictionless" world. Customers want a streamlined experience that Steve Jobs famously said "just works."

So, what are doing to design a frictionless experience for your customers?

This post is part of the Customer Experience Professionals Association's Blog Carnival "Celebrating Customer Experience." It is part of a broader celebration of Customer Experience Day. Check out posts from other bloggers at http://community.cxpa.org/blogs/val-moschella/2014/10/07/cx-day-blog-carnival-cx-core-competencies

Magical Moments

Do your employees come to work each day seeking ways to create magical moments for your customers? Do you train them on how to do this? Do you empower them to deliver the unexpected? Would you have more promoters if you did? Would you be growing faster because you make your experiences extraordinary?

My friend's daughter, Haley, worked at Disney as a summer intern a few years ago. She shared her experience as a crew member in the Magic Kingdom. They urged, and expected, their crew to find opportunities to shine. To create those memorable moments. To go the extra mile to create a remarkable experience. 

For Haley, one of her opportunities arose in an unexpected way. As a restaurant hostess, Haley was chatting with the mother of a several small children as they waited for an empty table. The mother held a broken flip-flop and mentioned that she needed to buy a new pair.

Immediately, Haley saw the opportunity to create the magical moment. After escorting the family to their table, Haley asked her manager if she could go into the gift shop and buy a new pair of Minny Mouse flip flops for the young girl. The manager, of course, agreed and off she went.

When she returned from the nearby gift shop, she approached the table with the new flip flops behind her back, lowered herself to eye-level with the young girl, and smiled.  Haley said, "Mickey Mouse has a surprise for you." The little girl's eyes widened at the sight of the pink flip flops. The mother's face beamed. Haley was glowing. 

Magic!

I'm pretty sure that Haley's actions left a powerful impression on the girl, her parents, and anyone near the table. The parents likely spent more money, returned to the park, and told others about their experience. Raving fans for life, and likely generations. The wholesale cost of the flip flop was likely less than a dollar. 

Haley's actions also left an impression on Haley. She continued to find ways to deliver incredible memories and encouraged her crew mates to do the same. Delighting others is addictive. 

At Disney, these moments happen thousands of times each day. It's moments like these that allow them to continue to charge a premium and remain successful for decades. 

You don't have to be in the amusement park business to deliver these kinds of extraordinary moments. Legendary stories exist in all kinds of businesses - banks, hotels, hospitals, department stores, and on airlines. They can happen anywhere humans interact, but only if the organization expects and enables it. Leaders need to want to differiate in this way. They need to role model the behavior. They need to reward and recognize the behavior. They need to ensure it is built into core business processes. 

How much better off would your organization be if everyone was eagerly looking for and passionately delivering magical moments every day? What are you waiting for?

Show Me the Money

Many Customer Experience (CX) leaders struggle with creating clear and compelling business cases and ROI for customer experience investments. Brian Andrews, Founder and President of LoyaltyRocks, will share his experience with a B2B audience at Medallia's Experience 2014 Conference on May 16th in Half Moon Bay, CA.