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We've all been there. On the phone, waiting in person for customer service, or interacting with a chatbot,

trying to get an answer or solve a problem,

the barriers to real progress pop up at every turn.

Sometimes these barriers are the result of poor design or unforeseen events or overly

complex bureaucracy. At other times, these barriers seem to be there on purpose, designed to keep you paying for a feature or

subscription or service you'd like to cancel. And sometimes all barriers evaporate, either by an accident

of good design or to deliberately make it simple for you to benefit from government programs or to purchase products.

TAP-to-pay is a really easy way to check out at a store more quickly, pay for gas at the pump, or even use an ATM.

In this episode, I'll look at how much our decisions can be affected by the amount of friction in our way.

Whether a purchase is made easy thanks to one-click shopping,

or difficult, thanks to a requirement to mail in a complex rebate form

or speak to a live customer service representative.

Your estimated wait time is 53 minutes.

I'm Dr. Katie Milkman and this is Choiceology, an original podcast from Charles Schwab.

It's a show about the psychology and economics-stakes decisions.

We bring you true stories about high-stakes choices, and then we examine how these stories

connect to the latest research and behavioral science.

...