“Synergy.” Very un-cool. “Economies of scale.” Only for the old economy. “Disrupters.” You mean Lumber Liquidators and Engineered Floors. “Critical mass.” Boring. “Iconic.” Puleease. The cool, new business phrase to impress your friends: “friction reduction.”
The best definition of friction is, “a psychological resistance to a given element in the sales or sign-up process.” First off, a retailer or e-tailer should think of its business as not selling things but helping people buy things. The more you reduce or take out the friction points the more apt you are to complete the sale. Anything that slows down the process or delays the process or confuses the process is not good. That’s when the customer had a chance to re-think their purchase and bail.
Amazon. Yes, darn Amazon is leading the way. Initially, when you bought something on line you took your basket to checkout and started the process of filling out lots of info. Amazon introduced One Click. Click that button (as it were) and your order has been placed, your payment has been accepted and Amazon is already picking the item for shipment. With One Click there is no turning back; no deciding that this is such a pain, etc. One Click is frictionless.
If you are an Amazon Prime customer, almost everything will come in two days. None of this three weeks and counting. Two days to receive the goods while everyone else can’t even find the goods, pack them and have them ready for shipping in two days. Even more frictionless.
Quicken Rocket Mortgage. Same thing. A process to get a mortgage was so stressful and took three weeks. No more. Wendy’s is installing self-ordering kiosk in 10,000 stores. We are told Millennials love it; a generation that never talks to anyone would like not to have to talk to anyone in a Wendy’s line.
But it is not just a question of speed. Does your store have friction points? Can your salesperson close the sale in the home by showing her exactly what the groovy new wood floor will look like in her own living room, then measure, give her exact price, tell her when you will receive the goods and when it can be installed, and take her credit card and make the sale? That’s friction reduction in the flooring industry.
Find the friction points in the store, the policies that are policies just because you had policies. Think how the customer would want and see if you can’t reduce the friction.
Jonathan Trivers, a regular contributor to Floor Covering Weekly, is also the author of the marketWise section of FCW’s Statistical Report. He can be reached by email at jonathantrivers@gmail.com.