“I first encountered the idea of frictionless design in 2011, when Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook was introducing a new feature called “frictionless sharing.” The feature—which allowed certain apps, like Netflix and Spotify, to post directly to users’ feeds, rather than having to ask for permission each time—was a failure, and Facebook killed it fairly quickly. But the idea of a “frictionless” product captured Silicon Valley’s imagination. Uber, Square, and other tech companies committed themselves to frictionless design.

Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder, articulated the strategic benefits of reducing friction in a 2011 letter to investors. “When you reduce friction, make something easy, people do more of it,” Bezos wrote.”

-Kevin Roose, Futureproof: 9 Rules for Humans in the Age of Automation

Why Friction In The Process Is a Spiritual Problem

I was stopped in my tracks when I read this. It’s really that simple: reducing friction produces increased activity. The easier it is, the more people do it.

Going to church for the first time is hard.  Even for a previously churched guest, the idea of finding a new community of faith, a new pastor, and a new place to root their family is daunting. That doesn’t even begin to cover unbelievers, who are entirely unfamiliar with our practices and culture. They can begin to ask questions like, “Do I really belong here?” “Was this a mistake?” “Can I abort and get back to my car without anyone noticing?”  

This is one type of friction. It’s nearly impossible to eliminate.

Sometimes, however, we can add to that friction. We can create noise, disorganized clutter, unnecessary roadblocks, or just ask for too much information too soon. We can be confusing, use insider language, or put too much of the load to act on the guest. They don’t understand the nuance how kids get checked in, or what time they actually need to be in the room for worship, or why they should join a small group. This is another type of friction altogether.

While the one must be endured, the other must be eliminated. Friction in our guest experience can become the tool satan uses to discourage or distract guests. It stops them from taking steps of faith and obedience in your church.

The Line Between Friction and Faith

That’s why it is incumbent upon church leaders to master the skill of frictionless design.  Churches who master frictionless design demonstrate a posture of empathy, hospitality, and intentionality.

Of course, this is the church of Jesus Christ; not Amazon.  Jesus calls people to pick up their cross and follow him. The gospel demands that we turn from our sin and follow Christ. You can’t make everything easy.  And the hard things - well, they’re really hard.

Here’s the principle: Make everything easy that can be because some things, by their nature, won’t be.

Here’s a simple way to discern between the two: typically, physical or material decisions fall into the “make it easy” category. Spiritual decisions, by contrast, fall into “can’t be made easy” category.

Kids Check In? Make it easy. Filling out a first-time guest card? Easy. Getting information about a small group? You guessed it: easy.

Trusting Christ? Difficult. Walking through the doors of a small group for the first time? At best, risky.  Being baptized: tough.

6 Keys for a Frictionless Guest Experience

1. Make it easy.

Processes and action steps that are unnecessarily cumbersome become barriers to action.  Don’t force your guests to jump through hoops to find a parking place, identify as a guest, or request information about your ministries. Often, making it easy for the guest will make it difficult for you or someone on your team.  Someone will have to embrace the nitty gritty church work required to administer this process.  This is the essence of hospitality: others-first service.

2. Make it fast.
Time is the most valuable commodity we have. Want to create a barrier to action? Make it a slow process. Want them not to register for an event? Require them to provide too much unnecessary information.  When it takes too long to act, even well-meaning guests will find themselves saying, “Oh, I’ll come back to this when I have more time.” Some will, but others won’t.

3. Make it actionable.

If you want your guest to take a step, make sure they have immediate opportunities to do so.  As a rule, don’t provide information without a button to click, card to fill out, registration to submit, or next steps area to stop at. Pairing the opportunity to act with the information you want them to have increases the likelihood that they will act.

4. Make it personal.

We live in a self-serve, automated world.  Kiosks have replaced human interaction. While people sometimes enjoy the freedom to “do it on their own,” guests often need more clarification than a self-serve interaction can provide. In addition, guests need to meet real members of your church and interact with them in depth to get a sense of the kind of church they’re at. Are the people friendly? Are they real? Do they care about me? Recruit and train volunteers to identify and serve guests intentionally. If they ask for directions to a small  group, walk them to the room instead of pointing to it on a map.  Ask your the folks at your first-time guest tent for fill out the card for the guest. Ask your coffee team to the pour the coffee for the guest. The interactions become a touch longer, but the opportunity for connection grows dramatically.  Making it personal also allows your volunteers to answer any questions the guest might have about things that are not self-evident.

5. Make it clear.

Don’t force your guests to guess at what you want them to do. I’ve identified Eight Assimilation Outcomes for Every Believer here. However, for a first-time guest, I only want them to take one step: identify as a guest.  All we want you to do is tell us you’re here. Now we clarify: we say the same thing a hundred different ways, trusting that they will eventually understand what they should do. We ask them to identify as a guest online by pre-registering to attend. We ask them to turn their flashers on to be directed to a guest parking spot. That parking spot is conveniently located near a first time guest tent.  We ask them to stop by the tent. We ask them to check their kids in with us into an automated system that will identify them as a guest. We ask them from the stage to stop by the tent and let us know they’re here. We tell them we have a gift for them. All of these are different ways to say the same thing: if you’re a guest, we want you to tell us you’re here.

6. Make it accessible.

Create multiple platforms for your guest to take the same step. Take the example above. We want guests to tell us they’re here. How can they do that? Take your pick.  They can 1) fill out a connect card in the service, 2) submit a prayer request, 3) stop by our Next Steps area, 4) register for an event, 5) stop by the first time guest tent, 6) check their child into Kids Community, 7) introduce themselves as a guest to a staff member, 8) complete an online pre-registration on the plan your visit page of our website, 9) download our app. Every single time a profile is generated in our system, we know we’ve had a guest walk through our doors.  Now, we can contact them and begin the follow-up process. This is just a simple example; the same is true when it comes to joining a group, signing up to serve, or anything else. Give your guest multiple ways to take a step and allow them to use the one that works best for them.