Attrition is definitely an enemy of many organizations. If you\u2019re interested in driving product growth<\/a>, you need to learn to remove it from your customers’ life.<\/p>\n In this article, you will find answers on how to identify friction in your company and how to make the business process more seamless.<\/p>\n A friction point is any variable that slows down customers as they journey through your product. Attrition is quite common in the SaaS industry and can result from a plethora of reasons\u2014from bugs in your product to unclear in-app messaging and a terrible billing system.<\/p>\n Identifying points of friction helps you eliminate them, and as a result:<\/p>\n All forms of friction have one thing in common: they hinder users from accomplishing goals in your product. However, understanding the nuances of each type<\/a> will give you a clearer understanding of what you\u2019re dealing with, and you\u2019ll be able to provide better solutions.<\/p>\n Broadly speaking, friction can be categorized into three types: emotional, cognitive, and interaction friction.<\/p>\n Results from the emotions users feel when using your platform. It\u2019s often the hardest to spot and deal with\u2014but highly essential to keeping users engaged.<\/p>\n Customers often experience emotional friction when completing a task on a site or app is difficult due to bad UI\/UX. To eliminate this friction, always prioritize positive emotions (can be simple as a warm greeting when a user logs in). Also, aim to reduce stress to zero.<\/p>\n Cognitive friction occurs when users exert much mental effort to complete tasks. Situations like that make the customer\u2019s mind freeze\/block due to too much cognitive load.<\/p>\n A common example is empty screens where users have no idea where to start. Another one is having too many UI elements on the same page that confuse users.<\/p>\n Interaction friction is every engagement with UI elements that results in something unexpected for website visitors or app users. The solution to interaction friction is to provide contextual guidance and strive to make the UI intuitive.<\/p>\n You can\u2019t fight an enemy you don\u2019t know. Hence, the next step after learning the types of friction that affect SaaS companies is knowing how to identify friction in your product.<\/p>\n Use the strategies below to find points of friction with ease.<\/p>\n Customer service teams are constantly interacting with customers. When they\u2019re not actively chatting with a user, they’re busy solving customer problems in some way. This makes your support <\/a>team the first point of call in uncovering user friction. They can give you customer insights that you couldn\u2019t find anywhere else.<\/p>\n Developing a customer journey map<\/a> can help you visualize how customers feel at different touchpoints so that you can predict and prevent potential friction.<\/p>\n A journey map also shows the different stages customers should go through in your product. That way, you can tell there\u2019s friction if a good number of users aren\u2019t progressing to the next stages.<\/p>\n Conduct NPS <\/a>surveys to gather user sentiment data. Then, segment users that gave you low NPS ratings and focus on them.<\/p>\n The fact that they rate you low means they\u2019ve experienced attrition, so reach out with in-app messages and invite them to 1-on-1 interviews. These users will happily oblige because your gesture shows you care about them.<\/p>\n Listen carefully to their complaints. Then group similar responses and analyze their answers.<\/p>\n You don\u2019t always need to conduct in-depth qualitative research to uncover friction. Sometimes, a contextual in-app survey<\/a> is all you need. It\u2019s quick and timely, and you\u2019ll get high response rates.<\/p>\n For instance, you could trigger a CSAT survey immediately after customers finish engaging with a feature for the first time. Or just randomly send a user experience survey <\/a>asking what customers think about your product.<\/p>\n Customize and launch in-app surveys of different types with Userpilot<\/span><\/a>\u00a0to gain insights into the mobile app experience<\/a>.<\/p>\n Tag features <\/a>to see how different segments that need the feature to complete their JTBD engage with it. If you notice the feature being underutilized<\/a>, pair it with other analytics to find attrition.<\/p>\n You might observe a few unique situations when implementing the strategies above, but most friction points you\u2019ll uncover are common to all SaaS companies. Below are the top ones and how to deal with them.<\/p>\n Long sign-up forms are boring and frustrate customers. The user is just getting started with your platform, and any hint of stress will make them assume that\u2019s how the rest of the product is. You don\u2019t want new users thinking that way.<\/p>\n Your signup flow<\/a> should be in the most distilled form possible.<\/p>\n However, some products require lengthy onboarding, and the sign-up process <\/a>will still appear long, no matter how hard you try.<\/p>\n For situations like that, you want to add gamification<\/a> elements like a progress bar to maintain customer interest.<\/p>\n Bad customer service<\/a> manifests itself in different forms, ranging from too much wait time to customers not having their queries replied to.<\/p>\n This indicates that your support team is getting more queries than they can handle.<\/p>\n You can try to solve this by hiring more people on the team. But that can be pretty expensive, and frankly, customers prefer to solve basic issues on their own.<\/p>\n Self-service<\/a> support is proactive, convenient, and leaves everyone happy. There are many ways to deliver this kind of support, but one of the most effective strategies is to create a knowledge base with useful information and widgets regarding your products.<\/p>\n This knowledge base<\/a> should be extensive and include written or video tutorials, user guides, infographics, etc.<\/p>\n Have you ever signed up to use an app and got greeted with an empty state<\/a>?<\/p>\n Nothing gets more frustrating than that. It leaves you confused and wondering what next steps to take. The other extreme is equally confusing\u2014welcome pages<\/a> with too much information pointing users in many different directions.<\/p>\n Your welcome page shouldn\u2019t be an empty state. Fill it with a welcome survey, demo invite, etc.<\/p>\n You can also use a welcome modal<\/a> to greet users and warmly invite them to explore the product.<\/p>\n Afterward, use tooltips<\/a> to provide contextual information about your key features that will lead your customers to the activation point.<\/p>\n Welcome surveys are great for collecting user data to provide more personalized experiences throughout the journey. But this can have counter effects when your survey isn\u2019t optimized and simple enough.<\/p>\n People signed up to use your tool with predefined goals they want to complete. It becomes a major source of friction if they don\u2019t know how to use your platform properly.<\/p>\n Provided the customer is a good fit, the only thing that can stop them from accomplishing their goals is the lack of in-app guidance and knowledge in using your product.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s how to bridge this information gap:<\/p>\n Support users with mobile messaging<\/a>:<\/strong> Use mobile in-app messaging to offer guidance on features users might not be familiar with.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Lengthy product tours can easily become annoying. They take customers through the product without enough engagement to ensure they\u2019re actually learning. Most times, customers just get bored and keep clicking the next<\/em> button. This leads to frustration and a lack of knowledge on the customers’ side.<\/p>\n Instead of long product tours, create interactive user guides<\/a> so users can choose their learning path.<\/p>\n Interactive guides are more engaging and are a better chance of ensuring customers learn your product enough to adopt it.<\/p>\n Common bad UX<\/a> examples include a cluttered UI with numerous popups, forms with text that users must delete before typing, modals <\/a>that don\u2019t let users exit without clicking the CTA, etc.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s how to use our platform to get rid of attrition:<\/p>\n Eliminating product attrition is an ongoing process. You\u2019ll keep experimenting with different UI\/UX ideas until you find what works best. The most important thing is to be customer-centric in all you do. Always put yourself in the customer\u2019s shoes and aim to see if the changes or additions you want to make are elements you\u2019ll enjoy as a customer.<\/p>\nWhat are friction points?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Why eliminating friction can improve the customer experience?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Types of friction<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"The-Hierarchy-of-Friction\"](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/The-Hierarchy-of-Friction_6428ca64d6491ae5ac7da2c59af1201a_800.jpg)
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How to identify customer friction points?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Talk to your customer service team<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Map your customer journey<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"customer-journey-map-friction-points\"](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/customer-journey-map-friction-points1_62d60d8f15f73480863d52a1ad048bc0_800.png)
<\/picture>Perform qualitative customer research on a specific segment<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Use in-app surveys to unveil user friction points<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"pmf-survey-user-experience-friction-points\"](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/pmf-survey-user-experience-friction-points_e9ad6c4cb1c4b3b91438e7083d55fb57_800.png)
<\/picture>Capture feature usage to identify underutilized features<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"userpilot-feature-tag-friction-points\"](\"https:\/\/d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net\/account_6827\/userpilot-feature-tag-friction-points_4ac1fb0f42421d4d474c146149728e44.gif)
<\/picture>The most common friction points in SaaS<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Too many steps in the sign-up process<\/strong><\/h3>\n
How to reduce signup friction<\/strong><\/h4>\n
![\"progress-bar-onboarding-friction-points\"](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/progress-bar-onboarding-friction-points1_36320deacdaaab52e565ab11817978b2_800.png)
<\/picture>Bad customer service<\/strong><\/h3>\n
How to reduce customer service friction<\/strong><\/h4>\n
![\"userpilot-resource-center-friction-points\"](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/userpilot-resource-center-friction-points1_bf333830e23bfab9351f0ded8a3e2371_800.png)
<\/picture>Welcome page that doesn\u2019t prompt users to take action<\/strong><\/h3>\n
How to reduce welcome page friction<\/h4>\n
![\"welcome-modal-friction-points\"](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/welcome-modal-friction-points1_d955661973a24652b25f6529eca07cb8_800.png)
<\/picture>Welcome survey length and complexity<\/strong><\/h3>\n
How to improve survey completion<\/h4>\n
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![\"linkgraph-what-are-your-goals-user-persona-survey-template-friction-points\"](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/linkgraph-what-are-your-goals-user-persona-survey-template-friction-points1_756096cf57a3f448ed1d2d8b4f2ff7bb_800.png)
<\/picture>Users are unable to complete their goals<\/strong><\/h3>\n
How to improve goal completion<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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![\"Rocketbots-interactive-walkthrough-friction-points\"](\"https:\/\/d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net\/account_6827\/Rocketbots-interactive-walkthrough-friction-points_e735b0dd880a370c3173b93ac85744de.gif)
<\/picture>Users get frustrated with long product tours<\/strong><\/h3>\n
How to reduce friction with product adoption<\/h4>\n
![\"tolstoy-interactive-guides-friction-points\"](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/tolstoy-interactive-guides-friction-points1_36f83c6ae5a2f23c71128455b4e30932_800.png)
<\/picture>Bad UX<\/strong><\/h3>\n
How to reduce friction with UX<\/h4>\n
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![\"modal-userpilot-friction-points\"](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/modal-userpilot-friction-points_4fd9943755bb1dae78bdfa2b31d34228_800.png)
<\/picture>Eliminating friction with Userpilot<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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![\"userpilot-interactive-onboarding-flows-friction-points\"](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/userpilot-interactive-onboarding-flows-friction-points1_c501627b24b94f2c0951c0c1663bb7c2_800.png)
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![\"userpilot-in-app-survey-friction-points\"](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/userpilot-in-app-survey-friction-points_2488d3231421f4727ce2afa9c6b4080d_800.png)
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![\"video-tutorial-playing-in-app-resource-center-friction-points\"](\"https:\/\/d37oebn0w9ir6a.cloudfront.net\/account_6827\/video-tutorial-playing-in-app-resource-center-friction-points_5175ab5731edea596f242da4c3227b3a.gif)
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![\"event-trend-overview-userpilot-analytics-friction-points\"](\"https:\/\/images.storychief.com\/account_6827\/event-trend-overview-userpilot-analytics-friction-points1_2d964eea42bfc1ba26bfe0f296853655_800.png)
<\/picture>Conclusion<\/strong><\/h2>\n