MIT Sloan Management Review Article on Can Friction Improve Your Customers' Experiences?

Companies are on a mission to design purchase journeys that are as free of frustration and inconvenience as possible. “Friction kills the customer experience!” has become the conventional wisdom. This is thought to be particularly true when serving online shoppers, who are known to be less patient and have shorter attention spans; after all, competitor websites are but a few clicks away.

Most business leaders we know prioritize eliminating friction at the “moment of truth,” when displaying prices and taking payment, because beyond wanting to make life easier for eager customers, they fear giving customers reason to pause and reconsider their decisions. But as we will demonstrate, it is precisely in giving customers time to consider their purchase decisions when money is on the line that longer-term benefits and cost savings can accrue to the firm.

About the Author

Marco Bertini is a professor of marketing at Esade and Ramon Llull University in Barcelona and a senior adviser to Globalpraxis. Diego Aparicio is an assistant professor of marketing at IESE Business School in Barcelona. Aylin Aydinli is an associate professor of marketing at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

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