The Case for Customer Friction

"The customer is always right."

"Reduce friction in your sales process."

"Be accessible to your clients."

These platitudes might work for Amazon or McDonald's. But for experts, consultants, and anyone who trades wisdom for money, they might be destroying your business.

I just spent 30 minutes reading a magnificent contact page belonging to a locational astrologer who turned customer friction into a business model. This practitioner has built what might be the most friction-filled onboarding experience in the history of service businesses.

His FAQ page reads like a manifesto written by someone who's been personally affected by every email, voicemail, and spelling error since 2003.

But here's the kicker: The current version is actually the POLITE one.

The Evolution of Boundary Setting

I dug up his 2016 page from the Wayback Machine, and it starts with this fascinating revelation: "In the past some people have been put off by the grouchy content on this page. I reviewed it and see they were right. I have deleted or changed most grouchy content here."

He TONED IT DOWN. The version that exists today is this practitioner after years of refinement.

The 2016 version included remarkable policies:

A "Stumped Fee" where he charged people when he couldn't help them. His reasoning was that turning down so many inquiries took a bite out of his time and income.

Mid-call disconnections with the policy: "If I know I can't work with a client, I don't stay and chit chat. I'm done. Click."

The Email Exponential Decay Formula, an actual mathematical progression: Call and send no email for fastest callback. Send one email to wait longer. Send two emails to maybe get called in 2 months. Send three emails for a strong chance of never being called.

Pre-PayPal Check Protocol where he'd schedule appointments based on trust that you mailed the check, but using FedEx or UPS instead of regular mail would "complicate things and slow down my getting it considerably."

The Bad Listener Policy including an entire dramatized dialogue showing how he'd disconnect someone who made him repeat payment instructions three times. Complete with stage directions: "Me: (Finished) 'You don't listen. I can't work with you. See you later.' Click."

Anti-Nervous Client Manifesto with multiple paragraphs about clients who call 1 minute after appointment time, featuring his policy of letting the phone ring while "tapping my fingers and waiting for it to stop."

My personal favorite was his admission that famous clients are "a special breed" who think he'll "betray them, talk about them, ruin their life." He then proceeds to explain why he considers himself superior to his famous clients, ending with: "There, that knocked out at least 90 percent of the potential high-maintenance, high-stress fame-clients. Phweww! What a relief."

The evolution is fascinating. He went from charging disappointed clients to merely refunding them. From hanging up mid-sentence to just being "crotchety." From a 3-strike email policy to his current "email wilderness expedition" approach.

The Economics of Intentional Friction

Every client who doesn't align with your process costs more than time. There's mental residue from difficult interactions. Context switching between incompatible working styles. Energy drain that affects your work with aligned clients.

This practitioner figured this out and built a moat around his practice. Not a decorative moat but a serious, "turn back now or proceed with caution" moat.

His current contact page includes statements like "I venture into the email wilderness about once a month" and a 500-word explanation about people who can't name their actual town. He provides explicit instructions to NOT spell using "Sam-Apple-Boy" format and declares that a certain percentage of clients annoy him so much he refunds them instantly.

This isn't poor customer service. This is client curation through process design.

The Strategy Behind the Friction

Most businesses optimize for conversion by lowering friction, capturing more leads, making it easy to buy. This practitioner optimized for alignment instead.

Consider his "no email" policy where each email a client sends puts them further back in the queue. Send three emails and you might hear back eventually, if at all.

Normal business logic says this approach seems counterproductive. But strategic logic reveals potential brilliance:

Serious clients pick up the phone because if you can't call, you might not be ready for major life decisions.

He avoids email overwhelm with no inbox management and no constant interruptions.

Every interaction has immediate context since phone calls force real-time decision making.

The Uncomfortable Truth About Boundaries

Your boundaries communicate your brand more effectively than any marketing copy.

When you read his page, you know EXACTLY what you're getting: An expert who knows his worth, someone who won't accommodate every preference, a process that works one specific way, and zero tolerance for certain behaviors.

Some people read that and leave immediately. Perfect, because they likely weren't ideal clients anyway.

Others read it and think, "Finally, someone who takes this as seriously as I do." Those people pick up the phone, follow the rules, and probably get excellent results.

The Real Cost-Benefit

Let's examine what this practitioner's approach actually achieves:

Traditional Model might involve hundreds of inquiries leading to endless emails back and forth, creating confused clients where few actually proceed and even fewer end up satisfied. Time spent could reach hundreds of hours across all interactions.

This Friction Model might see those same inquiries filter down to only those willing to call, with most following his exact process, a higher percentage actually proceeding, and most ending up satisfied. Time spent focuses on actual service delivery.

By adding friction, he potentially improved his success rate while cutting time investment significantly.

The Price of Pleasing Everyone

If you're drowning in accommodation, you might recognize these patterns: "Sure, text me anytime!" followed by "Email works great!" and "Let's hop on a quick call!" with constant promises that "we can be flexible!"

Six months later, burnout and resentment creep in while you wonder why boundaries feel so porous.

This practitioner's clients respect his time because he made disrespecting it structurally difficult.

Considerations for Your Own Practice

If this resonates, here are some approaches that might work:

Identify your biggest friction point by finding what client behavior creates the most disruption.

Design structural solutions, not gentle suggestions but actual process changes that redirect behavior.

Document everything clearly like this practitioner's detailed page, making rules impossible to miss.

Allow self-selection since every client who balks at boundaries is identifying incompatibility early.

Own your approach without apologizing for having standards or saying "sorry for the inconvenience."

The Sovereignty of Standards

This practitioner understood something fundamental about sovereignty: Your boundaries protect your freedom to do exceptional work. When you control who enters your practice and how they engage, you maintain the energy and focus to deliver transformative results.

The Strategic Perspective

That practitioner's contact page isn't accidentally friction-filled. Every requirement serves a purpose: ensuring only aligned people make it through.

Your easy process might be too easy. Your open door might benefit from structure. Your default "yes" might need reconsideration.

Because the cost of misaligned clients isn't just time or money. It's the energy you need to do your best work for the right people.

Based on publicly available information. Make of it what you will.