When have you seen force or friction impact a company’s ability to grow?

[mbarba]

Revenue Operations, or RevOps, is integral to taking an inbound approach to business and speeding up your company’s flywheel.

Why are those important? Let’s define terms first:

• Inbound is a method of attracting, engaging, and delighting people to grow a business that provides value and builds trust.
• The flywheel is a model adapted by HubSpot to explain the momentum you gain when you align your entire organization around delivering a remarkable customer experience. Rather than thinking of your business as a funnel, with leads coming in at the top and customers coming out at the bottom, think about your business as a circle — as a flywheel.

When thinking about how to spin your company’s flywheel faster with RevOps, there are two important concepts to keep in mind:

1. Force is what allows your business to scale by spinning your flywheel faster and faster. This looks like when your customer has a great customer experience and tells their friends and colleagues about it.
2. Friction is what grinds your business to a halt, if not addressed. This is when your company provides your customers with a bad customer experience, and they also tell their friends and colleagues about it. In turn, this slows down your flywheel.

Here’s what I’d love to hear:

1. Share a time when you had an amazing customer experience and you saw a company grow faster and faster because of their wonderful customer care.
2. Share a time when you had a poor customer experience (please don’t name names or organizations) and how you saw that type of poor care affect their business.

[VMald]

Share a time when you had an amazing customer experience and you saw a company grow faster and faster because of their wonderful customer care.

I bought an item from a company, and was delivered to the wrong address. I had a picture from the carrier that it was clearly not my building. I contacted the carrier, they confirmed it was delivered at the wrong address, they apologized and suggested I contacted the company directly, and so I did. I got in contact with their Support team via chat, explained the situation, provided a screenshot of my convo with the carrier and the photo the delivery guy took, and they immediately found a solution for me. It was a first since, in the past, I've had experiences with companies that no matter how much documentation you provide, they make it IMPOSSIBLE for you. (I refer to when you're actually giving them all the info they need and proof of the mistake.) I told all of my friends about this company, and I know at least one already made a purchase!

[SSamanta15]

A “Force” Example: Zappos’ 24/7 Customer Happiness Machine

Round-the-Clock Availability: Zappos pioneered truly 24/7 live support—no scripts, no forced hold times—so customers felt heard and helped anytime they reached out

Culture of Surprise: Agents routinely upgraded shipping, sent free gifts, or made personal connections, turning routine transactions into memorable experiences

Exponential Word-of-Mouth: Happy customers wrote blog posts, shared their “WOW” stories on social media, and even called friends to rave—magnifying Zappos’ reach without paid ads

Rapid Revenue Impact: These service-driven referrals helped Zappos exceed $1 billion in annual gross sales by 2008, leading to its $1.2 billion acquisition by Amazon in 2009

Scalable Kindness: By integrating multiple communication channels (phone, chat, email, social) into a single tech-enabled hub, Zappos scaled its “customer service for anything” model as it grew, maintaining personalization at high volume

A “Friction” Example: Xfinity’s Customer Service Quagmire
Opaque Billing & Long Waits: Customers experienced sudden bill hikes (e.g., $219 → $255) without clear justification, then faced hour-long in-store queues or endless phone transfers to negotiate

Hostile Retention Tactics: Recorded calls of aggressive “retention specialists” refusing cancellations went viral, damaging trust and driving customers to seek alternatives like streaming services

Viral Backlash: High-profile incidents (e.g., Ryan Block’s 18-minute ordeal) galvanized social media outrage and multiple “worst company” labels, tarnishing brand equity

Slowed Subscriber Growth: Frustrated prospects delayed or canceled sign-ups, while existing subscribers threatened churn, forcing Comcast to invest heavily in loyalty programs and PR reversals

Regulatory Scrutiny: Repeated service failures contributed to fines for billing practices and intense oversight in both the U.S. and U.K., further diverting resources from innovation to compliance

[OPatterson4]

1.  I worked for a small, local business, a strength training gym, and they had their buyer/customer journey dialed. From the moment a prospect fills out a form online, books their first class, completes their first class, signs up to become a member, hits certain class milestones... there was no stone left unturned, every single part of the buyer/customer journey is considered. It was amazing and I learned so much here about what a beautiful, thoughtful, TRUE customer first experience looks like. None of the content fed was beefing up the company - it was all to proactively help the prospect, and as a result, it helped our lean team from answering redundant questions and created a really happy customer base.

2. I signed up for a kickboxing class at a local gym. I received an email that confirmed my class reservation, but it just gave me very generic info like - bring a water bottle, be ready to sweat, and have a good time. The email also told me to arrive 15 minutes early before class.

My motto is "if you're not early, you're late." I am very punctual and always on time because being late stresses me out. I made sure to show up 25 minutes early, but parking was so difficult (Los Angeles), that it took me 20 minutes to find parking. I showed up late, flusterred and stressed out, which could have easily been avoided. The info included in their email was so useless considering their location alone causes friction.

[JHoover8]

Hi everyone! I'm Jennifer, based in Maryland and currently exploring how to apply RevOps principles in more mission-critical, operationaly complex environments. 

When I think about force in a company's flywheel, I immediately think of a small pediatric practice I once worked with as a legal liaison. They had no paid marketing, yet their growth exploded because every parent who walked through their doors felt seen, respected, and empowered. Appointments ran on time, communication was consistent, and follow-ups were proactive. That trust turned into referrals, glowing online reviews, and even partnerships with local schools. That's the flywheel in action--force created by authentic frictionless service. 

On the flip side, I recently dealt with a government-affiliated service provider that made it nearly impossible to get accurate billing information or resolve account issues. Multiple departments gave conflicting answers, and frontline employees had no visability into the bigger picture. I wasn't just frustrated--I stopped engaging entierly and began warning others in my network. That's friction--the kind that halts momentum and erodes brand credibility. 

These experiences are exactly why I'm pursuing HubSpot's RevOps certification: to learn how to reduce friction and amplify force at scale, especially in environments where operational breakdowns can cost more than just money--they can cost trust. 

Can't wait to learn from your experiences too! 

[willywongka]

1. post sale engagement to reduce churn is an example 

2. not having self service features or faqs for common question that require a user to contact a sales / cs person. bad ux as well

[Bhavya_Urs]

Amazing Customer Experience:

I once worked closely with a company that consistently delivered exceptional customer service. From the moment I engaged with them, their communication was clear, quick, and personalized. They took the time to understand my specific needs and followed up after every interaction to ensure everything was on track.

Because of this high level of care, I noticed how quickly their reputation grew. Customers not only returned but also recommended them to others. Positive word-of-mouth, combined with their proactive support, helped the company scale faster, win bigger accounts, and build incredible loyalty in a very competitive market.

Poor Customer Experience:

On the other hand, I had an experience with a company where communication was poor, responses were delayed, and there was a lack of ownership when issues arose. It felt like every interaction was transactional, not relationship-driven.

Over time, I saw the impact this had on their business — customers became frustrated, reviews turned negative, and many shifted to competitors who provided better support. The company’s growth stalled, and they lost trust in the market, which is extremely hard to rebuild once it's broken.

[oosadolor]

When have you seen force or friction impact a company’s ability to grow?

Force: There was a time i discovered a debit on my credit card and it was supposed to be a recuring deduction for a subscription that i never approved of, but i guess because my card was on one of the companies subsidiary account, they somehow had access to it.
Anyways, i called my bank and they were super swift in attending to the matter, even when the amount was quite small, they also deactivated the card and immediately started the process for a new one.
The swiftness and attention the small details thrilled me and i am quite sure that's why they are one of the top 2 banks in thhe country

Friction: I had a terrible experience with the customer team at the registry. It all started on the day i passed my theoretical driving exam, and i submitted my licence from my home country (although i was without the original but the certified paper document), which i innocently ask the customer support lady to confirm if the document were tenable for approval so i can start preparing for the practical driving test and she said yes with no further instruction.
On the day i was to go for my test, i got to the place and i was told that i wasn't approved to take the test, the registry at first denied the fact that i submitted anything until they checked their camera. Secondly they pushed the blame on me that i was suppose to come back to get a confirmation, so that is my fault. I honestly had no problem going back to check but there was no further instruction from the lady that attended to me, so how was i supposed to know?
I eventually lost the money i paid for the practical test as its a non-refundable fee(I still dont get the reason behind such fraudulent policy), the registry also did not take the blame for what they did rather they were initially in denial of my document submitttion.
It was such a messy situation and gave me a long lasting bad impression about them 

[campbellcollett]

Possitive Experience: I was helped by my customer success manager for an attribution platform where we were trying to track multi touch and multi weighted attribution model for our demand gen channels which was quite an uphill task to begin with but the involvement of multiple members of the platform team who were all pitching in to perfect our attribution was refreshing and so educational that it moved the project along seamlessly where were delighted with the deployment of the model and the subsequent data that was coming in post the implementation.

Negative Experience: When onboarding a service provider onto my company, I had noticed there where multiple reps that continously had to reach back out to us and ask for more information, rather than having a fully mapped out onboarding process. This friction almost forced me to churn from their services, as time was being wasted.

[Axiba]

Possitive Experience: A certain shipping company I use were very fast, highly responsive customer support team and an overall spendid customer experience. I recommended them to a lot to people.
Negative Experience: The same shipping company later on had some issues and delivery became very slow and unpredicatble, customer support became unresponsive probably due to overwhelming volume of complaints from angry customers, I stopped using them, and stopped recommending them... rather I recommend another.

[BenjaminEllis]

Amazing customer experience: I've been going to my car mechanic for over 20 years and I'll never go anywhere else. 

[EdwinAmargar]

1. I had a company and brand that started as B2C first and then B2B, and we mostly grew out of word-of-mouth, not only because of the customer care, but also because of the product and service itself. And it reminds me of something I heard long ago when I was getting into marketing: "The best form of marketing is the one that your clients do." Eventually we started working with other businesses doing white label of our products because of what they heard of the customers and the market in general about our products.

2. Following the logic above, when your customer service is poor, it spreads like wild fire. Bad news spread faster than anything else. Can't say that I have been in a situation or company that really had been affected in a very serious manner, but I remember one time that I was working on a restaurant in marketing, and it was common to get bad reviews on Google, and I remember being the one trying to address those to better not only the customer experience and also our reputation on and offline.

[Elena_Tilmaciu]

Hello everyone!

I would like to share two experiences that reflect the impact of customer experience on a business's growth:

• Positive experience: I once had a fantastic experience with an e-commerce platform. I had an issue with a late delivery and their customer support team responded immediately, kept me updated, and even offered me a discount for the inconvenience. I felt truly appreciated as a customer and noticed that they had many positive reviews online from other satisfied customers. This type of proactive and caring support is a clear example of how the driving force of their flywheel turns customers into promoters who recommend the brand to others.
• Bad experience: On the other hand, I had a bad experience with a service provider who took days to respond to a critical issue, without providing solutions or empathy. It was frustrating and I chose not to continue with their service. I also saw negative feedback about them online, which showed that many others were having similar issues. This lack of effective customer support acts as friction, slowing their growth and potentially damaging their reputation.

These experiences illustrate how RevOps and a customer-centric approach can have a significant impact on a company’s ability to grow and maintain momentum.

I hope these were good examples and helpful!

[GKodan]

a. Understanding the need and aligning  the services to the demand. The customer knows exactly what is being offered and transparency to the whole approach.

b. Poor experience is when being overwhelmed about the customer opportunities and not knowing how to position correctly. Customer os numbered with too much information without being asked strategically and believing the activities work. Not just that too many touch point for the customer to understand what and how to engage. 

[conorebbs]

Positive Customer Experience

I needed to see a local chiropodist and searched for chiropodists in my area. One of the first to appear - in organic and paid search - was a clinic close to me. They have excellent reviews which added force through credibility and I visited their website. They had several lead magnets, including one for the issue I needed help with. I downloaded the guide and I was added to an email nurture sequence with weekly emails full of practical guidance and FAQs. After a positive nurturing experience, I was able to book an appointment directly through their website, and the experience was excellent. When the appointment wrapped, I was asked for a review which added more force to their flywheel for future customers. An integrated, excellent experience.

Negative Customer Experience

I ordered equipment from a well known website in Ireland and it arrived in poor shape. I contacted customer support and experienced long waiting time (friction) for response. Phone support was equally poor. When I finally got a response, support was asking for more details, photos etc and incurring another wait time. Responses were through multiple email threads due to poor tech on their side (more friction) and the whole experience was frustrating. As they had no specific policy for returning items, I had to pack them up myself and wait for a delivery service to pick up (who were also unreliable). It ensured no repeat orders in future. Disconnected, siloed departments that weren't aligned, and a poor customer experience all round.

[CharlotteG]

Poor Customer Experience:
After moving apartments, I stayed with the existing energy supplier but quickly noticed my bills were higher than expected. When I contacted their customer service, the experience was terrible—slow responses, being passed between teams, and no resolution or follow-up. Disappointed, I looked at online reviews and asked people in my network if they had similar issues. The overwhelming response was negative.

Amazing Customer Experience:
During my research, I kept seeing recommendations for an alternative provider known for excellent customer care. Without any direct interaction, their strong word-of-mouth reputation lead me to switch. The difference was immediate—seamless onboarding, transparent billing, and proactive communication. Over time, I saw more people make the same switch, drawn by consistent positive reviews. Meanwhile, the former provider struggled with declining customer satisfaction and financial difficulties, reinforcing how exceptional service can drive growth while poor service leads to decline.

[DiogoRoeder]

Once, I convinced one of my customers to fully outsource parts of one of his assembly lines to my business, which he agreed to after a few successful tests.

However, after three months, things started to become frighteningly complex as we had to manage hundreds of different engineering drawing revisions and specifications within our system's scope.

It was a recurring problem to prevent the wrong drawings from being sent to production. To address this, we revised our system to align with the customer’s registry controls and then standardized the data according to our system's requirements. Additionally, we implemented an intelligence feature that could detect if the customer was sending incorrect specifications based on their production schedule.

Over time, not only did this customer benefit, but many others also started reporting that our system helped them identify issues in their own registry controls when placing new orders. They also realized they had been making similar mistakes with our competitors without noticing.

As a result, they became truly grateful that our system was preventing issues in their assembly lines and improving their registry processes. Naturally, we scaled the solution on sales from there.

[JMarano]

1. I once had an excellent experience with an e-commerce company. After mistakenly ordering the wrong size, I contacted customer support, and they quickly offered to exchange the product without hesitation. They even followed up to ensure everything was perfect. This outstanding service made me feel valued, and I recommended them to friends. Over time, their loyal customer base grew as word-of-mouth spread, and their business flourished.
2. I had a poor experience with another company. After a delayed order, customer support was slow to respond and unhelpful. They offered no compensation or apology, and several follow-ups went unanswered. Seeing other customers share similar complaints online, I noticed their reputation began to suffer. Over time, their negative reviews affected customer trust, and the company struggled to retain clients, ultimately losing market share to competitors that offered better service.

[IrfanShahazad]

I've witnessed a time in the communications industry when customer experience was evolving, yet standard operating procedures (SOPs) were designed primarily to protect company interests, often at the expense of the customer. This fostered an unhelpful mindset among employees interacting with customers. For example, during my time in customer service at a mobile phone company, postpaid connections were often blocked due to non-payment. Even when customers pleaded for reconnection and promised to pay, we had a limited quota for restoring service. Over time, this approach changed. SOPs were revised with a customer-centric focus, allowing for immediate reconnection (via IVR) upon a customer's commitment to pay. This shift dramatically increased customer trust and respect for the company.

[Amirebi]

A popular example of the friction is rigid order quantities for products within a period which can be transformed into a force, by providing some flexibility at a higher price.

[HMitchell2]

Force: A customer support team who are highly responsive to customer questions and personalise answers to the customer individually if relevant. 

Friction: A company relying on a detailed form that sales need to complete before the onboarding of a new customer can begin. Lack of accountability and forgetting to complete this action can slow down the whole start of the onboarding process.