.jpg)
In an era where “frictionless” is a rallying cry for every digital team, it’s easy to forget that not all friction is bad. In fact, in financial services—where trust, security, and long-term relationships matter most—the best user experiences aren’t always the ones with the fewest clicks. They’re the ones with the right clicks.
Across banking, insurance, investing, and even event ticketing, a new lesson is emerging: frictionless doesn't mean effort-free. It means intentionally designed—removing the right barriers while adding the ones that protect, guide, and reassure.
Here’s how three companies—Ally Bank, Nationwide Financial, and Eventbrite—are redefining digital experiences with a more nuanced take on friction.
1. Ally Bank: When Friction Is the Result of Internal Logic—Not Customer Need
“Customers don’t think in org charts,” said Sathish Muthukrishnan, Ally’s Chief Information, Data, and Digital Officer on this episode of The Frictionless Experience.. “They think: ‘I need to check my Ally account.’”
For years, Ally offered six different mobile apps, each aligned to a different line of business. Auto loans. Mortgages. Investments. It made sense internally. But to customers? It was bewildering.
So Ally took on a massive challenge: unify all six apps into a single platform. The goal wasn’t just technical consolidation, it was emotional alignment. One brand. One login. One customer experience.
And ironically, one of the unexpected frictions came after removing the barriers.
Sometimes, reducing too much friction can create a different kind of anxiety: Was that it? By reintroducing a small checkpoint, Ally wasn’t slowing users down—they were making the experience feel real, secure, and human.
More importantly, the unified experience gave Ally a new kind of visibility—one that let them serve a “segment of one” and anticipate customer needs across product lines.
True transformation didn’t come from moving faster. It came from slowing down, pooling budgets, and aligning teams to think like customers—not departments.
2. Nationwide: The Real Friction Is the One You Don’t See (Until It Breaks Everything)
At Nationwide Financial, the biggest source of customer pain isn’t on the screen. It’s in the form that comes back “Not In Good Order”—or NIGO.
One missing signature. One outdated version. One typo. That’s all it takes to derail a months-long financial transaction. And in a B2B2B2C model, where advisors play a key role in facilitating retirement and insurance products, these errors don’t just cost time—they risk reputational damage and lost revenue.
As Bobbi Jo Allan, VP of Digital Product Management and Innovation at Nationwide, put it on this episode of The Frictionless Experience: “NIGO is a symptom. It tells you that something upstream didn’t happen the way it needs to.”
Nationwide’s answer? A bold move toward a “formless future.” Not just digitizing forms—but eliminating them altogether. Guided workflows. Pre-validated inputs. Systems that make it almost impossible to mess up.
But even Nationwide knows there are moments where friction is critical.
In emotionally charged financial moments—market volatility, emergencies, or even potential elder fraud—Nationwide uses friction not as a speed bump, but as a safety net. It's not about stopping the customer. It’s about slowing down just enough to make sure they don’t make a decision they’ll regret.
And that’s what makes friction purposeful: when it's placed strategically, not arbitrarily.
3. Eventbrite: Fighting Fraud with Friction—Without Killing the Experience
For Eventbrite, a platform that sells millions of event tickets, the stakes around trust and fraud prevention are massive. If a bad actor gets through, real users can lose money—or faith.
That’s why Tutu Adenle, VP of Global Customer Experience, champions a different approach that she discussed on this episode of The Frictionless Experience: tactical friction.
This kind of surgical, data-driven friction is designed to protect the rest of the customer base. As Tutu put it, “You’re not stacking tools randomly. You’re triangulating fraud signals. Each tool catches what the others miss.”
Even recovery is part of the experience. When fraud does happen—as it inevitably will—how a company responds can cement (or destroy) loyalty. As I shared during the episode, I received a fraud alert while in-flight. By the time I landed, the card was already replaced.
That kind of responsiveness is friction—but of the best kind. It communicates care, vigilance, and trust.
The Takeaway: Don’t Remove All Friction. Remove the Wrong Friction.
Across all three stories, one theme stands out: friction isn’t the enemy. Thoughtless friction is.
The right kind of friction:
- Prevents mistakes (Nationwide)
- Protects users (Eventbrite)
- Reassures and builds trust (Ally)
- Reveals deeper insight (Ally)
What unites these brands is not a relentless quest to make everything easier—but to make everything smarter. To ask: Why is this step here? And Who is it helping—or hurting?
As Bobbi Jo said, “Money is emotional.” So are trust, safety, and loyalty. And those things can’t be measured by milliseconds alone.
The Frictionless Experience Is a Human One
What Ally, Nationwide, and Eventbrite show us is that truly great experiences aren’t just fast. They’re thoughtful.
Sometimes, the most customer-centric thing you can do is to pause—to ask someone to confirm, to add a checkpoint, or to provide just enough friction to make a decision feel real.
So don’t aim for zero friction.
Aim for purposeful friction—the kind that protects, empowers, and connects. That’s how you build trust. That’s how you scale humanity. And in today’s digital world, that’s what customers remember.
During the holiday rush, every shopper matters
Optimize the customer journey before the eCommerce event of the year.
