If You Want People To Do Something, Make It Easy

It’s been said that if you want people to do something, make it easy. Which is fabulous advice and an effective truth that I try to leverage from day to day.

In economic terms, some companies have turned to tracking and creating metrics around the “hassle factor” or “friction costs” of taking up a service. We see more and more companies change to a subscription model over per-transaction. If you consider the “friction cost” of purchasing one song at a time on iTunes versus gaining access to Spotify’s library for $10 a month, it’s a no brainer.

Amazon has taken it even further with their “one-click” purchase option; where truly all it takes is a click of the button for your item to be billed to your credit card and shipped to your address on file. It doesn’t get much easier than that.

In a world of project management, I believe that great service mentality lends itself to a productive partnership when clients find it easy to fulfill their role requirements. Here are some ideas to help sustain that.

Consider, instead of asking for information in the body of an email, spend a little extra time to create a form in Excel and ask your client to fill it out. Try sending a repeat calendar invite to remind clients of a monthly task instead of leaving it up to them to remember. Or use an app like Calendly to give prospects access to your availability and directly schedule meetings at a mutually convenient time, eliminating the back and forth.

What unique ideas or tips do you have for minimizing “friction costs”? Let us know how it helps you get more out of your working relationships. Leave a comment on LinkedIn or reach out to me directly by clicking here – it’s just that easy!

– Lee Sumner, Research Director