Is the lemon worth the squeeze?
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Is the lemon worth the squeeze?
I was enjoying a cappuccino at a café, seated outside. From my vantage point, I watched customers come and go. I noticed how hard it was for some to open the entrance door. They’d push, curse, and rattle the handle. One in every ten customers pushed, gave up, and walked to another café.
Let me put it in perspective. This café had achieved extraordinary feats. They spent ten years learning to pull a perfect shot. They sourced beans from a single farm in the north of Thailand, roasted them themselves, and blended with a precision most baristas never bother with. Food magazines ran full-page spreads. Critics called their café the finest in the region.
Despite all their success, they couldn’t make the door open.
That is friction. And it was costing them money every single day.
What is friction?
Friction slows the customer from reaching their goal, and equally slows the organisation from making a sale.
Friction points are where customers get stuck, because what is being demanded of them is too time-consuming. This results in drop-off: the moment a customer delays or abandons their goal because friction overwhelms them. Like the customer at the café door, they quit, walk off, and forget they ever wanted the product.
Every business, no matter how well-designed, creates friction. Every day, the decisions we make either add or subtract it. Great leaders have an insatiable appetite for driving friction out of the business.
The problem arises when we do nothing and allow it to remain. Unaddressed, friction accumulates. It becomes the status quo, inviting a culture of apathy. One day, a new competitor addresses the friction that has gone unregulated. Taxis birthed Uber. Banks birthed Wise. Hotels birthed Airbnb.
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- friction creates change. If you aren’t part of the change friction creates, a competitor will be.
Friction hides in plain sight
In the café example, friction was visible. Customers could see the door and giggle. Staff could see it too, and promised to do something about it. But friction rarely announces itself so clearly.
It gathers in the darkest recesses of organisations, in places where no one thinks to look. A business name nobody can remember. A product nobody can describe consistently. A process nobody has questioned in years.
My friend had eaten at an Italian spot in his hometown for years. It was his favourite, yet when I asked for its name, he blanked. We ended up calling it the Italian place on William Street. The actual name carried meaning for the owner but none for the diners who had to dredge it up from memory. A self-serving decision, made without thinking about the customer, had added friction to every recommendation the restaurant ever received.
McDonald’s understood this better than most. Years ago, in parts of the US, they had a policy: if food arrived late, it was free. McDonald’s recognised that the customer’s time is worth more than the revenue from a single sale. Staff were incentivised to make friction their problem, not the customer’s.
Every time a customer buys from you, they squeeze a lemon. They weigh the juice they expect against the effort of squeezing: the price, their time, and their mental load. Their question, consciously or not, is always the same: is the lemon worth the squeeze?
When the juice is worth the squeeze, they buy, return, and tell friends. When it isn’t, they drop off.
The VF equation captures this simply. A frictionless experience is when perceived value (V) outweighs friction (F). Value is what the product promises to deliver. Friction is what it costs the customer beyond the price: their time and effort.
We may not always be able to make the product more valuable or reduce the price. But we can always make buying easier.
Is the lemon worth the squeeze?
Every time a customer buys from you, they squeeze a lemon. They weigh the juice they expect against the effort of squeezing: the price, their time, and their mental load. Their question, consciously or not, is always the same: is the lemon worth the squeeze?
When the juice is worth the squeeze, they buy, return, and tell friends. When it isn’t, they drop off.
The VF equation captures this simply. A frictionless experience is when perceived value (V) outweighs friction (F). Value is what the product promises to deliver. Friction is what it costs the customer beyond the price: their time and effort.
We may not always be able to make the product more valuable or reduce the price. But we can always make buying easier.
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💬
- we may not always be able to make the product more valuable or reduce the price. But we can always make buying easier.
Frictionless does not mean zero friction
Frictionless does not mean removing all effort. It means crafting an experience where the value outweighs the time and effort, so the squeeze goes unnoticed.
Consider the contrast between people camping overnight for concert tickets and supermarket shoppers who abandon their cart after waiting five minutes. The campers squeeze harder and feel it less. The higher the perceived value, the less friction is felt.
Frictionless is not a fixed destination. It is a continual pursuit. With every improvement, friction approaches zero but never quite reaches it. Each improvement brings you closer. The goal is not perfection — it is progress, measured, tracked, and improved over time.
In every decision your client makes, solve for VF.
What this means for coaches
As a coach, the café door is the most important metaphor you can share with a client. Their product may be world-class. Their team may be exceptional. But if customers are battling the door, none of it matters.
Friction is not a marketing problem, a sales problem, or a service problem. It is an organisational problem that sits at the intersection of every decision a business makes. Every time a client asks why customers aren’t returning, why margins are shrinking, or why good staff keep leaving — the answer usually involves friction.
Help them find the door. Then help them fix it.
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Run Frictionless second edition gives coaches and founders a practical framework for building businesses that scale. Every purchase includes a free playbook and an online session with the author.
