If you have listened to any of my webinars that talk about technology, the future of collections, payment portals, physics, or family relationships, you will have no doubt heard the word “friction” used. In many of these instances, friction is a bad thing. The harder you make something, the less likely that someone will do it. If a consumer knows he or she is going to need to visit their safe deposit box to get a copy of a document that is needed to log into a website, chances are they are just going to say “screw it” and not do it.
But there is a flip side to the objective of a “frictionless” customer experience. Make things too simple, and people will think that something is up. Making it too easy for consumers to sign on will lead them to conclude either they are being scammed or that there is a greater chance for fraud and identity theft by someone else accessing their information through a process that is too easy.
That means that companies need to walk a tightrope — make the process of making a payment online easy, but not too easy; and difficult enough to make consumers feel safe, but not too onerous that they walk away.
More than 40% of consumers, for example, want to verify their identity every time they pay for a good or service, according to one published report. As well, 70% of consumers would “willingly” trade convenience for more security measures in order to allay fears that their personal or financial information may be compromised.
