3 Ways to Remove Sales Friction [for Service Providers]

Bob Bob Ricard is a swanky London restaurant that sells more champagne than any UK restaurant.

It was founded by a man named Leonid Shutov, a former creative at ​Ogilvy​, the most famous advertising agency in the world. ​Ogilvy wrote the book ​on how to get people to buy (seriously, it's considered the "advertising bible" - I own a copy myself).

When starting up his new restaurant Leonid pondered: "How can I make this restaurant as profitable as possible?"

His solution? Get people to order as much of the highest margin product as possible - champagne. 🍾

Genius! Except one little detail....how? 🤔

One of the most obvious methods would be to increase demand for the actual product. E.g. he could’ve focused on how to make the champagne itself more appealing.

This might include directing the waitstaff and sommeliers to talk up the champagne to patrons. (I live in Napa, California - trust me, it's a popular strategy.)

Bob Bob Ricard took a completely different approach.

Leonid assumed many patrons walking through the door were already fans of the tiny bubbles.

So instead, he focused on removing friction from those patrons' ability to actually get the champagne itself. 🥂

"Where’s the friction when you’re sitting in a restaurant?!"

It’s a reasonable question.

Let's consider though: to get anything in a restaurant, you have to speak with a waiter. (Including extra napkins - the bane of my parenting existence.)

If they happen to show up at your table when you want something, then great.

But how often do you have to interrupt your conversation and divert attention from your company to flag down a waiter who's suddenly incapable of eye contact?👀

Leonid decided to remove all of that potential friction by installing a brass plaque with a big button at each table that reads "PRESS FOR CHAMPAGNE."

According to an ​interview​, about 95% of Bob Bob Ricard patrons press the button. According to Shutov, they sell more champagne than any other restaurant in the country.

Bob Bob Ricard's "Press For Champagne" button is a stellar example of how removing friction in the client journey or buying process leads to  higher conversions and sales. #BTNDC​  

Removing friction in your service business client journey

Now let's take a look at how we can remove friction in the client journey of service businesses.

Automated Scheduling

A lot of service providers unintentionally create friction with their scheduling.

Whether it's scheduling an initial discovery call or booking actual appointments and services, if you're manually emailing or calling back and forth, that's a hugely inefficient use of time.

It's also a source of frustration to both parties.

Automated schedulers like Acuity and Calendly fix all of that and can be used on any website platform.

​Acuity​ is owned by ​Squarespace​, (but can be used on any site) so Squarespace has scheduling page templates all ready to go. ​Calendly​ is another popular scheduler.

With a click of a link, your leads can book and reschedule themselves at their leisure.

Built-in parameters allow you to determine your overall schedule as well as details like gap- time between appointments, cancellation time frames, how far out you can be booked etc.

Automated schedulers not only save you time, they also project professionalism to your clients and customers.

ManyChat

Unless you've been living under an Instagram rock, you've encountered ManyChat. It's a wildly successful example of removing friction.

Manychat's entire value proposition is friction removal.

Previously on IG when you wanted to share a link to your lead magnet freebie, you had to direct them to your bio. From there they’d have to locate your link, click on it, and sign up.

Expecting people to stop their scroll to do all this meant conversions were not high. Instagram isn’t a fan of people leaving their platform, so they didn’t make it easy.

Friction with a capital “F.”

Manychat changed all of that. Now if you’re a subscriber (they even have a free version) viewers simply type a word into your post's comments, and voila! Manychat automatically DMs them your link.

Less friction = higher conversion rates

One ​Instagram expert​ I respect said "If you're not using ManyChat, you're not even playing the same game" (compared to those who do).

Reducing friction in your business may not be quite as fun as pressing the champagne button, but higher conversions and sales is definitely a reason to celebrate! 🥂