July 31, 2026

Businesses today are obsessed with one goal making everything faster. They want deliveries, shorter queues, one-click checkouts, instant approvals and quick service which have become symbols of superior customer experience. It seems as though less waiting always means happier customers.

But does it?

During a recent experience, my classmates and I stopped at a popular highway restaurant that was packed with weekend travellers and waiting for a table is almost part of the experience. The staff hurried between customers, searching for available seats yet no one seemed eager to leave. We waited amidst the chaos and eventually enjoyed our meal.

A few days later, a night before my stats quiz, I realised I had forgotten to buy a calculator. Like many students today, I opened a quick-commerce app and ordered one. Since the delivery took longer than expected, I impatiently began refreshing the tracking screen every few seconds watching each update as though it would somehow make the rider move faster.

Though these experiences seem unrelated, but somehow they are connected by the same question. That, why do we tolerate waiting an hour at a packed restaurant yet obsessively track a 10 min delivery in another? Waiting itself isn't the problem, how we experience that wait is.

Why Waiting Doesn't Always Feel Bad

We have been taught to eliminate all frictions whether it is distraction during exams or reducing bottlenecks on a production line. Faster checkout, faster delivery, instant services and real-time responses. Where faster meant frictionless and frictionless became synonymous with better but looking at the market reality, we have neglected what customers actually dislike.

We don’t hate friction, we hate friction without a purpose.

The quick commerce order instead of displaying just “your order will arrive in 10 min” gave updates. The result remains same regardless but it pulls back the curtain to show me every tiny human step of the delivery chain.

The highway restaurant offered the same reassurance. Staff members constantly moved between tables, customers were being seated, meals were leaving the kitchen and the queue kept advancing.

Behavioural researchers call this the Labour Illusion^[1] the tendency of valuing a service much more when we can actually watch the hard work and efforts that goes into it. In their Harvard Business School working paper, Ryan W. Buell and Michael I. Norton demonstrated that customers perceive greater value when they can observe the effort involved in delivering a service. When businesses make their effort visible, waiting no longer feels like wasted time it feels like reassuring progress.

We often see this on digital platforms, particularly on fintech apps which frequently employ progress messages during tasks such as payment processing or portfolio scanning /credit limit approval. These indicators show messages such as "Scanning 1,000+ market variables for your financial safety." Instead of a blank screen. The result may take the same amount of time but visible progress reassures users that the system is actively working. Brad A. Myers' in his research mentioned about the percent-done progress indicator, which showed that providing continuous feedback during computer tasks significantly reduces user uncertainty and makes waiting feel shorter and more acceptable.

Why Crowds Create Confidence

At first, I wondered whether the long wait would actually be worth it but as I watched families enjoying their meals, waiters moving quickly between tables and new customers willingly joining the queue, my skepticism gradually disappeared. The crowd itself became evidence that the experience was worth waiting for. Behavioural psychologists describe this phenomenon as Social Proof^[2] when faced with uncertainty or evaluation we look at crowd behaviour to validate our choices but while waiting we could see people enjoying their time and food being served hot, waiters always on their toes which was a visual story turning doubt into anticipation of consuming the food/product. Modern business and digital platform do this regularly to ease skepticism. Take Myntra for example with pop ups before checkout like “Over 200 people bought this in last 30 days”, “People also bought this” by creating a crowd like feeling these platforms and business transform friction into a stamp of quality.

The Friction We Choose

Visible effort builds confidence, social proof builds trust and sometimes, the effort customers invest themselves builds ownership. However, not every meaningful experience comes from visible effort. Sometimes, we value something more simply because we helped to create it.

Nike introduced Nike by You where instead of buying a ready-made pair of shoes customers can spend extra time choosing colours, materials and personalised details to create shoes that reflect their identity. The process is slow yet far more rewarding as the final product feels uniquely theirs.

Behavioural scientists call this the IKEA Effect^[3] the tendency for people to value something more when they have contributed to creating it. The extra steps are not seen as an inconvenience but as an investment that builds psychological ownership.

When ordering customised pair of t-shirts, laptops etc the brand shifts labour on your shoulder. Ironically, these additional steps introduce friction into the experience and you do not mind extra steps as you do not actually do it yourself but rather feel a deep sense of psychological ownership because your identity is baked into the product.

For businesses, the lesson is simple, customers don't always seek the fastest experience. Sometimes, they willingly embrace friction when it allows them to participate, personalise and feel connected to the final product.

The Managerial Lesson

As consumers and management students, we are trained to optimise systems, minimise delays and expect speed at every step which are excellent operational goals but there is one profound question one should ask before erasing every single point of friction. Managers should understand one important aspect, Is This Friction Creating Frustration or Creating Meaning?

As customers, value complete transparency, seeing genuine effort, feeling reassured and getting the chance to be part of a brand's story. What we do not appreciate is, hidden fees, non-friendly user interfaces or pointless delays such frictions are frustrating. The waiting never changed. What changed was the meaning behind the wait.

Operational efficiency may improve business performance, but meaningful friction is what creates and improves memorable customer experiences that build trust and loyalty. Humans are not cold spreadsheets we are emotional creatures who value relationships and what we create.

A good manager isn’t the one who eliminates every second of waiting but the one who knows which moments deserve to be frictionless and which ones deserve to feel meaningful. As future managers, our goal should be to recognise and understand such moments that demand ease. The simple lesson is, Make Business Effortless but Effort Unforgettable.

^[1] Introduced by Ryan W. Buell and Michael I. Norton in their 2011 Harvard Business School paper The Labour Illusion. Buell, R. W., & Norton, M. I. (2011). The Labor Illusion: How Operational Transparency Increases Perceived Value. Harvard Business School Working Paper No. 11-072.

^[2] Cialdini, R. B. (2009). Influence: Science and Practice (5th ed.). Pearson.

^[3] Norton, M. I., Mochon, D., & Ariely, D. (2012). The IKEA Effect: When Labor Leads to Love. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 22(3), 453–460.