FINDING DIRECTIONMany businesses reduce their own operational friction by asking the customer to absorb it.
This happens so frequently now that it’s beginning to feel normal. I’m at a drive-through window. My order is ready, but before I can leave, I’m handed a screen. It is not asking for payment. It wants me to answer one more question.
The employee says, “It’s going to ask you a question.” This phrase is worth examining. The employee isn’t asking. The company isn’t asking. The screen now assumes responsibility for creating an uncomfortable exchange between two people.
The screen presents several tip percentages, with 20% already selected. Leaving no tip is possible, but it requires a deliberate choice while the person who handed me the screen waits on the other side of the window.
The question isn’t whether the guy handing me my order deserves a tip. The interface has inserted a compensation decision into a short exchange and makes me responsible for resolving it. The screen allows the business to ask without anyone having to ask directly.
Paying for parking by phone follows the same pattern. It sounds convenient, and it is convenient for the parking operator. Someone no longer needs to collect and reconcile cash from every meter. Now you, the driver, need to download an app, create an account, enter a payment method, identify the correct zone, and keep the app updated on your phone. Hopefully you park there often enough to use it again. Every parking garage, town, and city seems to have its own app.
The operator simplified its workflow. The customer inherited the setup and maintenance.
A single company sees one reasonable request: install the app, create the account, join the loyalty program, answer the survey, choose a tip, or provide an email address. The person moving through the day experiences all of them. Each transaction asks for another decision, another piece of information, or another small task before it will let them leave.
In The End of the Line, I follow automated workflows after a connection breaks and no one is available to resolve the problem. This friction begins earlier. Even when every connection works, the customer may be doing work the business once handled.
Product teams need to count that work when they describe an experience as convenient. Before adding another app, account, survey, or question, they should consider what it adds to the person standing at the counter.