INDUSTRY
Communications, Media and Information Services
Connect. Curate. Comprehend: Unlocking Value Beyond Boundaries
Highlights
- Businesses are shifting from traditional ‘function point’ analysis to ‘friction point’ analysis to better understand and improve customer experiences.
- Friction points – barriers or frustrations in the customer journey – can occur at any stage and lead to lost sales, customer churn, and negative brand perception.
- Identifying friction points through feedback, behavioral analytics, support data, and usability testing is essential for creating smoother, more personalized customer journeys.
- A reference framework for friction point analysis includes layers such as sensing, perception, causal inference, agentic planning, actuation, feedback, and governance to systematically detect and resolve friction.
In this article
In this articleinpage
From function to friction
Businesses must embrace friction point analysis to lead the shift toward customer-first experiences.
The business landscape is shifting from function point analysis to friction point analysis, making it crucial to anticipate this trend and adapt client engagement strategies to stay ahead.
Friction points - moments where interactions falter or cause frustration, can hinder customer satisfaction, reduce conversions, and erode loyalty. Identifying and resolving these barriers is key to enhancing experiences, strengthening relationships, and driving growth.
While traditional processes (product creation, sales, service) are built around function points, applying friction point analysis to these workflows can fine-tune operations and accelerate the journey toward a customer-first approach.
Design for every persona
A one-size-fits-all process creates friction- personalization is the key to smoother journeys.
Opening a bank account is a standard process, but does every customer experience it the same way? A well-educated individual and someone with limited literacy skills face vastly different journeys - even though the steps are identical. Why? Because the system isn’t personalized, creating friction for certain personas and making the process longer and frustrating.
Now imagine if the process adapted to each persona. Efficiency would improve, and customer experience would soar.
This is where friction point analysis comes in - identifying and eliminating barriers to create smoother, more personalized interactions. It’s the next evolution in process design.
Similar analysis applies across information services, such as:
- Buying online products from a credit bureau
- Subscribing to market research or data analytics products
- Accessing legal, compliance, or academic databases
- Purchasing APIs or financial data feeds
- Customer support for digital services
Friction hurts loyalty.
Customer friction at any stage can lead to lost sales, churn, and damaged reputation.
GenAIFriction points are barriers that customers face when interacting with a brand at any stage of the journey: awareness, consideration, purchase, or post-purchase. These obstacles can lead to frustration, abandoned purchases, and lost loyalty.
Examples by Stage:
- Awareness: Hard-to-find information, unclear messaging -> Customers switch to competitors.
- Consideration: Confusing product details, slow support ->Hesitation or drop-off.
- Purchase: Complex checkout, limited payment options, high shipping costs -> Cart abandonment.
- Post-purchase: Difficult returns, slow delivery, lack of engagement -> Negative reviews and churn.
- Why It Matters:
Friction points drive dissatisfaction, causing:
- Lost sales
- Customer churn
- Negative reviews
- Lower satisfaction and reduced referrals
Eliminating friction is critical to improving experience, loyalty, and growth.
Spot and solve friction fast
Understanding customer pain points is the first step to creating seamless experiences.
How to Identify Friction Points
1. Customer Feedback
- Gather insights via surveys, interviews, and feedback forms.
- Analyze reviews for recurring complaints.
2. Behavioral Analytics
- Use website analytics to spot drop-offs or long search times.
- Apply heat maps (e.g., Hotjar) to see where users get stuck.
3. Customer Support Data
- Review support logs for common queries or complaints.
- Identify confusing sections of your site or service.
4. Usability Testing
- Observe real customers interacting with your product.
- Note struggles to uncover friction points in real time.
Here are some representative examples on how friction points are addressed in different scenarios today:
1. Simplify the journey
- Reduce checkout steps and form fields.
- Offer guest checkout and saved payment options.
2. Improve navigation
- Add clear categories, filters, and search.
- Use prominent CTAs for smooth flow.
3. Enhance support
- Provide multi-channel support (chat, email, phone).
- Use chatbots for FAQs and ensure quick responses.
4. Reduce shipping and payment barriers
- Show transparent shipping costs.
- Offer multiple payment options and free shipping promos.
5. Personalize interactions
- Tailor recommendations, emails, and loyalty rewards.
6. Post-purchase engagement.
- Send follow-up emails, request feedback.
Tools for friction point analysis
- Analytics (Google Analytics, Adobe): Track user behavior and identify drop-off points.
- Heatmaps (Hotjar, Crazy Egg): Visualize clicks, scrolls, and areas where users get stuck.
- Customer feedback (SurveyMonkey, Qualaroo): Collect direct insights from customers.
- Customer service platforms (Zendesk, Freshdesk): Analyze support tickets to uncover recurring pain points.
However, industries are changing rapidly with growing consumer demand and continuous tech evolution. How can AI be leveraged to address these challenges?
Fixing friction with AI
A smart framework can detect, analyze, and resolve customer friction - before it hurts your brand.
A reference framework for friction point analysis and remediation.
Friction point analysis and remediation is applicable for any business domain and any customer. A reference framework to address this has key components that include:
Friction point analysis applies across domains and customer journeys. The framework includes:
- Sensing layer
Collect data from multiple sources such as telemetry, feedback, support tickets, and chat transcripts. - Perception layer (friction detection)
Perform sentiment analysis, intent mining, and anomaly detection to identify friction points. - Causal inference layer
Analyze root causes using contextual models and knowledge graphs to understand relationships and dependencies. - Agentic planner layer
Plan remediation steps through policy engines and simulations, generating dynamic actions for execution. - Actuate engine layer
Execute actions autonomously or with human involvement based on predefined rules and policies. - Feedback loop layer
Continuously capture feedback and refine actions to improve customer experience. - Governance and safety layer
Ensure explainability, maintain logs, and manage actions with thresholds for escalation to human agents.
Conclusion
In business, friction point analysis is essential for understanding where customers face obstacles that hinder their experience with the brand. Identifying and eliminating friction points enables businesses to optimize the customer journey, enhance satisfaction, improve conversion rates, and cultivate long-term loyalty. Achieving this requires vigilant monitoring of customer behavior, feedback, and performance metrics, coupled with proactive resolution of issues that cause frustration. Ultimately, reducing friction ensures seamless experiences - a critical factor for success in today’s competitive market.