Learn how to remove friction from your organisation’s processes with cloud-based ISO software.
Friction is a fact of life for all businesses, from mom-and-pop shops to tech startups and multinational corporations. By reducing friction, we make it simpler for customers to find what they’re looking for and make a purchase.
Customers can buy more quickly when you remove friction from your organisation’s processes. Clients are happier with their experience and are more likely to return.
What is Friction in Business?
Business friction is any factor that discourages customers from purchasing your goods or services. Customer friction can be anything from an unpleasant phone wait to an item being temporarily out of stock or a frustrating online experience.
However, many business firms still don’t emphasise friction enough. Organisations overlook that consumers who have had positive experiences with big brands also expect the same level of service from small brands.
In 2022, your capacity to minimise friction may be a crucial business driver on which you must concentrate. Accordingly, it needs to be a top corporate goal. It is critical to remove friction from your organisation’s processes — internal and external. It includes simplifying your hiring, sales, and customer and employee experiences.
What are the most common causes of friction in business processes?
Businesswise, there are three leading causes of friction. They are:
1. Outgrowing your current processes
One of the leading causes of friction is, surprisingly, growth. When an organisation grows faster than its processes and its ability to manage more customers, friction arises. Friction causes long queues, lost documents and internal chaos that sets employees on edge.
2. Lack of a streamlined system
Your business may face various consequences if you cannot streamline your operations. You might encounter efficiency, communication, and leadership issues.
3. Poor training and implementation
Well-trained employees contribute to increased productivity and profits. Employee training improves staff retention, customer satisfaction, and innovative product development.
Adequate employee training reduces the time workers spend trying to solve problems, saving money over time by fostering a more competent workforce.
What are the Effects of Friction on Your Business?
According to Harvard Business Review, organisational friction reduces output by more than $3 trillion annually. It wastes time and depletes employee energy.
Every business has some potential and can add value to the market. Internal conflict frequently results in the loss of potential. Organisational conflict can manifest in various ways, such as CYA emails, excessive documentation, assigning blame, making excuses, hoarding information, and secret agendas. Often, the causes are interpersonal distrust, a lack of understanding, or improperly handling conflicting priorities.
You could ask yourself the following questions to find signs of organisational conflict in your organisations:
- Do you see a lot of drop-offs in the consumer’s purchasing journey but cannot identify the causes?
- Do your sales or market share consistently represent how powerful your brand is?
- Do you see an increase in client complaints or criticism regarding the present means of communication?
- Is a sizable amount of your business’s operations manual?
- Do you envision your rivals embracing the digital age or providing more streamlined, omni-channel services?
Why is it important to remove friction from your organisation’s Processes?
Your company will reap the following benefits if you remove friction from your organisation’s processes:
1. You’ll see higher sales.
Customers can purchase goods and services more easily when there is no friction in the purchasing process. Brick-and-mortar businesses will close more deals, and e-commerce enterprises will have reduced abandoned shopping carts. A frictionless purchasing procedure is as follows:
- Clients can effortlessly find the products they need.
- They have rapid access to all the information they require about their items.
- You agree to use their chosen payment method.
- The checkout process is seamless, quick, and pleasant.
- There is a higher likelihood that customers will complete their transactions.
2. Customers will feel you value them.
When you make your clients’ lives simpler, they feel appreciated. They are aware that you respect their time and their business. Frictionless interactions and assistance from sympathetic human customer service representatives facilitate strong client connections.
3. Your customer base will grow.
Favourable customer experiences result in return business, positive reviews, and recommendations, which help you sell more products and grow your clientele. As new clients enjoy working with your company, they’ll also leave great reviews. With ongoing devotion to your zero-friction technique, you’ll experience exponential growth.
4. You’ll keep your clients.
Each client is valued, and maintaining client loyalty is essential. It costs five to twenty-five times more to get a new customer than to keep an existing one. Keeping your consumers satisfied is wise from an economic perspective. According to Salesforce, 78% of customers overlook a mistake if you give them a great customer experience, and they will stick with you even if you make one.
How to Remove Friction from Your Business Processes
- Meet customer expectations. Align your products and services with what consumers want. Your clients believe you should be familiar with their specific requirements and preferences. You can learn more about your customers’ expectations by conducting surveys. The next step is implementing these learnings by adjusting your strategy as required.
- Identify your company’s friction points. Find out areas of friction existing in your business. Audit your sales process, from marketing and advertising to sales and customer services. Then, improve your procedures based on the audit findings.
- Consider investing in a cloud-based solution like FocusIMS. It allows your team members to see prioritised tasks that fall due. They can easily proactively plan their day and create a margin for any last-minute jobs.
How Can FocusIMS Help Create a Frictionless Process?
Friction arises when the paperwork gets misplaced. There will be no proof of job completion. You can’t provide evidence to support the invoice to the client, ending in disputed and unpaid invoices.
FocusIMS prevents data loss. This cloud-based solution ensures that each role can access only one central location, view their actions, update their status, or open new tasks. You won’t have to squander time looking for lost documents.
FocusIMS allows your team members to see prioritised tasks that fall due. They can easily proactively plan their day and create a margin for any last-minute jobs.
Each employee knows what to do next using the powerhouse My Action List. Field staff will complete tasks in real-time, and the following action will roll over to someone in the back office or support, depending on your processes. With My Action List, you can see what tasks are flagged overdue and which are due soon.
FocusIMS eliminates conflicting and duplicated tasks. Right from the moment you sign up, all your different activities fall within modules, including projects, personnel, risk and more. Employees will not have overlapping tasks; each will have their job descriptions aligned with their duties.
Your team members can hyper-focus on performance with alerts before, during, and after tasks. You will see notable improvements in how your team works, how your clients respond, and your reputation in the market when you work with us.
FocusIMS is an intuitive cloud-based software based on frameworks for ISO certification. Try this no-contract software subscription for one low monthly fee.
