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.

[DougS]

Example of force, where I miss a payment to a credit card bank. The next billing period, the bank hits me with a penalty late fee on the balance due. They curb late payments, and cover the cost of slower cash flow.

Example of good friction is making me phone the bank when I seek an adjustment of the late fee, but letting me clear the penalty from using the phone tree menu and not requiring me to actually speak with a bank representative. The bank can confirm my contact profile information, and offer addtional services like card protection or higher credit limit, or a different bill date. 

Example of bad friction is making me phone the bank, fight the gated menu on the phone tree, talk to a live agent who can't make the adjustment, request to speak to the agent's supervisor. Uggh.

[SLewis64]

Positive customer experience when my cell phone company was able to remove innacurate charges at the first point of contact, not requiring me to "negotiate" up the chain.  The Force was the level of authority granted to the Cx representative.

Negative experience however, was with the same company not being able to actually solve the issue I was having, and requiring me to call in each month to have the charges removed. The friction was not having a clear understanding of who had the knowledge to correct the problem outright or not having the expertise available in real-time to allow consistency of communication.

[SuzC]

From author Val McDermid today on twitter:  Great example of friction

"So, I needed to replace a credit card and opted to apply for @marksandspencer's card. Filled in the forms, then got an email asking me to call them. One question - 'We can see your income and your age; are you thinking of retiring soon?'Am I the only one who finds that insulting?"

[TTanviTanwar]

1.I used to respond to customer inquiries on how to utilise the software products in a prior role as a sales representative for a software company. In one case, a mid-sized company purchased the programme, but the staff members of the organisation reported discontent and dissatisfaction with the software. I knew that this client could use the programme, therefore I didn't want to lose them.To help with queries about how to set up and utilise the programme, I organised a training session in response. I was able to address technical inquiries from staff members and show them how the teams might use the programme to work more effectively because of my in-depth product expertise. The client successfully installed the software thanks to the extra time and effort I put in, and the client went on to suggest my services to other companies in its sector. My sales rose by 30% in that quarter as a result of this.

2.Unfortunately, bad customer service is all too typical these days. Recently, I was in a restaurant with a really irritable waitress. She was hurried and it was clear from her behaviour that she didn't want to be there. It's vitally crucial to put those emotions behind you when working in circumstances where the needs of the client come first.

[camrobe19]

1. Every time I go to this healthy market I have a great experience, I can not only find products but also can eat there if i am hungry, they think on several types of diets and tastes since you can find a lot of options according to  your preferences. At this place they don´t necessary need to speak to you because they communicate through the service provided, the signaling which allow you to locate easily what you are looking for and they have such delicious products thought for people who cares about their food habits but you can also find options for those who want to get something not so healthy. I´ve seen how they have grown in strores and sized due to the variety and service they provide. 

2. Unfortunately I´ve seen that some businesses affect their service as they become bigger and that´s what happened to me at a beauty salon where I started to feel a change on the attention at the place, response times when I requested an appointment or when I arrived for my appointment, also they stopped serving drinks or only when they remembered about it and of course this affected at the end so they had to close for a period of time in order to re arrange I believe. 

[TheFocusedPro]

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

1. I've seen a coffee shop expand locations just before the pandemic and survive without sacrificing service. And now opening additional locations. The service level was never underperforming even through additional safety precautions and off and on closures. They provided innovate ways to serve customers. The service level of the staff was always up to par if not exceeded. Employees and customer safety was respected. 

2. Unfortunately during the pandemic, I've seen an organization struggle by staff being over extended taking on more of workload and shifting role responsibilities. Coming out of the pandemic has made things at the company even more challenging as "back to normal" duties are back along with the newly acquired "pandemic duties." Expectations and not having enough infrastructure are causing turnover and resentment. 

[splazas20]

I havent seen comments in spanish, so let me be the first one

En Colombia hay un banco llamado Bancolombia. Desde hace años atrás crearon una sección de clientes VIP que siempre te contestan rápido el teléfono o te dan atención preferencial. No estoy seguro si hoy en día funcione igual, pero me dieron tasas preferenciales de creditos y tiempos cortos de aprobación hace unos años. Se sintió muy bien. Hoy recomiendo este banco para todo.

En mi país, constantemente encuentro procesos sin fin para adquirir servicios. En mi trabajo incluso, luego de estar aprendiendo del Flywheel, estoy encontrando muchas fricciones que no había visto. Algunas pueden ser tan simples como pedir la contraseña cada vez que inician sesión, en vez de conectarnos al directorio activo.

[SuzC]

☝️password friction especially with 2 factor authorisation when you can’t copy and paste the code

I’m also suffering the friction of recommendation fatigue

[splazas20]

In Colombia there is a bank called Bancolombia. Years ago they created a section for VIP customers who always answer the phone quickly or give you preferential attention. I'm not sure if it works the same today, but I was given preferential credit rates and short approval times a few years ago. It felt very good. Today I recommend this bank for everything.

In my country, I constantly find endless processes to acquire services. In my work, even after learning about the Flywheel, I am finding many frictions that I had not seen before. Some may be as simple as asking for the password each time you log in, instead of connecting to active directory.

[ApoZadeh]

Force example in this case : 

My Weed store (bite me), had such an incredible response speed, updates on delivery, transparent pricing, whole sale pricing but for B2C, incredible riders polite, respectful and nice (sometimes even good looking) 

Myself alone i recommended them to 15 friends in the first month only. 

have they been seeing success come their way? you becha! they hold the frist in line when it gets completely Legal in all states/provinces (an Eu country) 

Friction(s) 

Used a multi billion valued app for home delivery

The company has been expanding so big, but my experience was incredibly bad. I mean an order got canceled, it was so not intuitive to use their app, and sometimes a section can be cloned in few tabs/sections.

yet the service and news seem to be blasting them with praises. only to look at their 2021 & 2022 financial reports. 

in case your wondering: yes... they have been dropping in millions. its about time till the billions run out if not fixed. 

[MHughes1120]

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.
   - When I worked in Financial Services, my company's marketing team would create strategic marketing plans for our client base every year. We would meet with the client, get feedback as to what they have done, what worked and what didn't. See if they are doing certain things that could take some of the stress of doing live event off their plate. We got to think outside the box. I got to see firms start with 4-5 people grow to 20-30, from a client base of 150 to 1,500. All through these strategies that ranged from a couple thousand dollars to zero dollars.
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. 
   - At almost all the companies I've worked at, the post sale customer retention and growth with said company was not a focus unless the client was enterprise level or had an "instant" outcome to their methods. I had a client in FS that was not a high perfomer. She was doing the bare minimum my company would allow us to work with. She wasn't a client who was looking to grow too big too fast. She was going to need a guide and advisor through her journey. My AE at the time wouldn't give her the time of day. He would leave me to try and pass on the things had was telling his top perfomers. But in the end she left. I just spoke to her last week. She's since tripled her annual revenue and doubled her staff.

[MJM220]

Every time I contact American Express - their white glove service is evident in every call, letter, and communication.  I have been a member since 1995 and now my kids are members as a result of my advocacy.

Companies I have experienced a negative service are ones that are usually one off sales, but then have a tag along aftercare requirement/option, buying a car or a boat would be an example. The sales process is rarely in my best interests, yet the aftercare team is super helpful fire fighting the earlier negative experience.  Car dealerships are probably one of the most siloed departmental organizations I've seen and with a few exceptions, from start to finish - its more negative than positive experience.

[AAnderson4]

1.  By reducing our lead times our factory was able to get product out quicker to customers, thust exceeding their expectations and allowing them to do the same.

2.  Material shortages from outside suppliers have lead to us extending lead times on specialty products and in some cases not being able to give accurate ETAs to our customers

[CesarBlee]

1.- One of my existing clients with whom I have worked for almost 1 year has increased its total closed deals by 100% as they deliver such amazing customer service. 

 2.- I have seen many cases in which the customer service that is provided is so incompetent, usually this kind of business does not last for more than a year, I am talking about small businesses.  

[AnandNarasimhan]

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.
   This was with the lifestyle brand Miniso and how good the quality of the product was and how simple they made the buying exprience to be and I saw them scale into 100s of Franchises at where I live and it's hard to build a brand value like that in India. 
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.
   I've worked with a product company, that always took so much time to answer simple requests and also on a integration call the CEO was so rude and pointed out so many backend techincalities the product had and he was forcefull in trying to upsell other features, we declined working with them and saw the company hit rockbottom in a couple of year and was sold for cheap.

[VWeldon]

• Share a time when you had an amazing customer experience and saw a company grow faster and faster because of their wonderful customer care.
  Duolingo has really figured out how to attract and engage customers with its well-targeted ads, harmonious and captivating ux, and well-priced subscription models. They seem to be enjoying a lot of success right now
  
  
• 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.
  I was once left stranded at the SF airport by a pretty large and well-known transportation company after they failed to schedule transportation effectively for the volume of customers that weekend.  After contacting customer service and receiving less than helpful 'service', I decided that I would never use the company again and warn anyone who would listen about the experiences I had.  That company eventually went out of business after consistently receiving complaints about poor scheduling and customer care over the years. 

[BDorris]

An example of an intentional use of friction to increase sales: A company I consulted with had a product available for purchase anytime, 24/7.  This allowed prospects to stay "on the fence" and not purchase. 

We significantly increased the percieved value of the offer, but made it available for the next 2 weeks only, and then it was no longer available (i.e. added "friction" to buying).  They increased their revenue 10x the following month.  The product is now unavailable, but will be re-introduced in a couple months via a new offer. 

[LoryG]

1. In a company that doesn´t abuse with a "bot" in customer service, the growth is exponential when the company decides to offer live person customer service. 

2. The use only of "bots" that doesn´t have the ability to offer a good customer service and you never receive and onboarding. 

[OEgburonu]

1). One time, I was looking for a Spa where all I had to do was just Walk-in as opposed to booking an appointment, I finally found one, and their time management skills were fantastic as the wait time was not for long, they handled the Walk-in customers without letting it cause frictions with their customers that had already booked an appointment, this made me refer a lot of people to them, and I am so glad to see that till now the Spa company is still flourishing in terms of growth.

2). A Wifi company I once patronized had a habit of always going off at a particular time of the day without prior warning to their customers, no messages or emails of any kind, and to make matters worse, to reach their customer care line during this downtime was not possible, the wait time for the response seemed endless, so I had to get an alternative whenever the downtime was in, pending when their services got restored, eventually, I stopped using their WiFi service completely, and even when they started calling, and trying to fix things, I could never imagine myself using their services ever again.

[LBreytenbach]

1) Good customer experience resulting in growth: I managed a call centre. The consultants were inundated with leads, and the quality of their responses was poor and sporadic. We streamlined the feedback with communication feedback templates, which increased response times and the quality of the feedback given. No spelling errors, quick professional responses, etc - all resulted in being able to handle more leads, every month, in a more professional manner. We were also able to track the communications and response times better.

2) Poor customer experience: I have a security alarm in my house. The alarm kept sending a panic alarm to the control centre, which resulted in monthly additional costs (due to the high number of panic alarms going off in a single month). A consultant solved the problem when the realised there was a problem with the battery, which if replaced would not send the panic alarm signal or incur additional costs which ha to be reversed manually by staff or followed up on by an irritated customer