Today, we’re joined by Zainab Hussain, an e-commerce strategist who specializes in customer engagement and operations. With a deep understanding of the digital landscape, she has a unique perspective on a problem many of us face daily: when self-service technology, designed for convenience, becomes a source of frustration. Drawing from insights in a new report on digital experiences, she’s here to unpack why so many digital journeys fail and how organizations can redesign them to restore customer trust.
This conversation explores the friction points that cause customers to abandon tasks and the emotional toll of poorly designed digital systems. We’ll discuss how the burden of these systems extends beyond a single user, the importance of measuring customer effort over simple completion rates, and how to create a seamless transition from digital tools to human support. Ultimately, we’ll look at how a return to simple, respectful design can fulfill the original promise of self-service.
Given that nearly three-quarters of consumers have abandoned a purchase because the process was too annoying, what specific design flaws typically cause this friction? Please walk us through the initial steps a company can take to diagnose why customers are walking away from a seemingly simple task.
The core issue is that so many digital processes are built to serve internal systems, not the customer. When 73% of people walk away from a purchase, it’s a direct result of accumulated friction. These flaws often look like small things: an extra form field, a confusing password reset, or a session that times out and erases all your work. Each one adds a little more weight until the customer feels completely burdened. The first step for any company is to stop looking at the process from their own perspective and start experiencing it as a customer. They need to map out every single step and identify where the journey feels heavy. That’s where the trust is breaking down.
With 82% of people feeling they now perform tasks that employees used to handle, how can organizations shift this perception of being an “unpaid staffer”? Could you share an example of a company that successfully makes customers feel supported rather than burdened during a complex digital process?
That “unpaid staffer” feeling is so pervasive because it’s a problem of perception as much as design. When 82% of people feel like they’re doing a company’s work, the experience becomes emotionally draining. To shift this, organizations must make the journey feel intuitive and supportive, not like a chore. For example, a successful process in a complex sector like financial services wouldn’t just present you with a long form. It would break it down into manageable steps, pre-fill information it already has—something 84% of people say they’ve had to re-enter—and offer immediate, context-aware help. The customer feels guided and respected, not like they’ve been handed a manual and left alone.
Many customers feel frustrated or exhausted by digital tasks, and 78% report having to help someone else navigate a confusing process. How does this “shadow work” impact long-term brand perception, and what are the hidden operational costs when design failures spread through families and communities?
This “shadow work” is a powerful, and often invisible, signal that a brand’s design is failing. When 78% of people have to become tech support for their family and friends, it means the frustration is multiplying. The immediate operational cost is that these customers don’t just disappear; they switch to higher-cost channels like call centers. But the long-term brand damage is far worse. The experience is no longer just about one person feeling frustrated; it becomes a shared story within a community about how difficult your company is to deal with. That communal perception is incredibly hard to undo. Instead of building empowerment, you’re building a reputation for exhaustion.
Instead of just tracking task completion, what unconventional metrics, like the number of restarts or channel switches for help, should leaders prioritize to measure customer effort? How can a team realistically integrate this ‘effort score’ into their dashboards to drive meaningful design improvements?
For too long, we’ve been obsessed with simple completion rates, which tell you nothing about the struggle. The real story is in the effort. We know 91% of people have had to restart a task after an error—that’s a critical metric to track. How many times did someone have to retry? How long did they wait before coming back? How often did they click the “Help” button or switch from their laptop to their phone to call support? These are the moments where confidence crumbles. A team can integrate this by creating a customer ‘effort score’ dashboard. By visualizing these friction points, the problem becomes undeniable. It shifts the conversation from “Did they finish?” to “How hard was it for them?” and that’s when you start seeing real opportunities to improve.
When self-service fails, 36% of people want to speak with a person. What does a well-designed handoff from a digital tool to a human agent look like? Can you describe the technology and training required to ensure customers don’t have to start over from scratch?
A well-designed handoff is seamless and empathetic. It recognizes the customer’s frustration and respects the effort they’ve already invested. When that 36% of people decide they need a human, the worst possible experience is having to start over. The technology should support this transition with tools like co-browsing, where an agent can see the customer’s screen and guide them, or intelligent routing that passes the customer’s entire session history to the agent. This way, the first thing the agent says isn’t “Can you tell me your account number?” but “I see you were trying to complete this form; let’s finish it together.” That transforms a moment of failure into a moment of genuine support.
Customers often want simple features like the ability to save progress or get clear step-by-step feedback. Why do you think so many companies overlook these fundamental needs, and what organizational barriers must be overcome to prioritize this type of simple, respectful design in their projects?
It’s astonishing, isn’t it? Thirty-one percent of people just want to be able to save their progress, and 26% want simple feedback on where they are in a process. These aren’t luxury features; they are basic signs of respect for a customer’s time. I believe companies overlook these fundamentals because they are often focused on launching the big, new shiny thing rather than refining the core experience. The organizational barrier is often siloed teams—the tech team isn’t talking to the customer support team, who isn’t talking to the marketing team. To overcome this, leadership must champion a culture of empathy and make customer effort a primary measure of success for every project. It requires a shift from a project-centric mindset to a journey-centric one.
What is your forecast for the future of digital self-service?
My forecast is that the pendulum will swing back toward a more balanced, human-centric model. For years, the push was for full automation at all costs, but the data clearly shows the diminishing returns of that approach. The future isn’t about eliminating human interaction; it’s about making it more meaningful. The best self-service platforms will be those that master the art of the graceful handoff, using AI and automation to handle the simple tasks while seamlessly connecting customers to knowledgeable humans for the complex, emotional, or high-stakes moments. The companies that thrive will be the ones who finally understand that self-service should empower customers, not replace the human connection that builds lasting trust.
