·By Linran YU
Good Friction, Bad Friction
The best rule is the one nobody has to read.
During my MBA, a professor asked us why public restroom toilet paper is so thin. It tears if you pull too fast. That is the point. Nobody posts a sign saying “Please don’t take the toilet paper home.” The paper makes taking it home not worth the trouble.
Good friction protects what you give away
The thin paper annoys everyone a little. Nobody leaves over it. It only stops the person taking more than their share.
The napkin dispenser that gives one at a time. The small plate at the buffet, where nobody is told to take less. None of these argue with anyone. They change the object instead of asking people to change.
Where the line is
The same professor had another example. Coffee shops do not buy the most comfortable chairs. A chair that is a little firm turns the table sooner. Nobody notices.
Go further and the customer does not come back.
A relative booked a set menu for a family gathering. The chain was a famous one. The chairs had no seat panel, just leather stretched over a frame. The edge pressed into you all through the meal. The food was well below what the name was known for. The chairs were the message: eat, and go.
I asked for a chair from the section across the hall, where the seats were solid. The waiter said no. They were thirty feet away. The good chairs were not for the set menu.
It worked. We ate fast and left. The restaurant got the table back twenty minutes sooner and lost everyone sitting at it.
Within two years I read in the news that the founder was off the board. The investors who bought the chain were gone. The stores were closing one city at a time. It never recovered. How much of that was the chairs, I have no idea.
Ask who the friction slows down
The payment page placed where the registration form should be. The cancellation link hidden three menus deep. The “free” offer that only stays free if you read the small print. Every one of them takes money from people who were trying to get it right.
If the friction slows down the person trying to take too much, it is good friction. If it slows down the person trying to do the right thing, it is bad friction.
Use the same idea in your business
At a trade show, a bowl of samples by the aisle empties itself. You paid for a crowd that never looked up. Run a raffle instead. To enter, they stop, write their name, and stand there long enough to read the banner behind you. Same bowl of samples. A raffle where everybody wins holds them longest. The entry form decides what you walk away with.
For a free first consultation, set it at thirty minutes and send a short question form first. The ones who fill it in are serious.
For bookings, take a small deposit that counts toward the bill. No-shows drop. The ones who come pay nothing extra.
Not one of them asks anybody to behave. Nobody walks out over them either.