Unnecessary communication
- Repeated calls or email
- Status-chasing
- Questions the process should answer
Digital Friction Audit
Find what is harder than it needs to be.
Local Works examines how customers and employees move through important business processes, identifies possible friction, and determines what questions need to be answered before recommending change.
Start with the workflow, not the software
Digital friction is unnecessary effort in getting something done.
Manual work can be entirely appropriate. The question is whether the effort is necessary for the business need—not whether every human step can be removed.
- Call when reasonable self-service could exist
- Send repeated emails or wait for callbacks
- Print or scan documents
- Repeat information or copy it between systems
- Switch between disconnected tools
- Visit physically when the task could reasonably be handled another way
- Perform repetitive administrative work
- Wonder what happens after submitting a request
Customer journey lens
Follow the work from beginning to end.
The audit looks at the relevant parts of the journey, including what the customer sees and what must happen behind the scenes.
Find
Can someone locate the business and the relevant service or information?
Understand
Can they understand what is offered, what it costs and what they need to do?
Contact
Can they ask a question or start the process easily?
Book / Join
Can they schedule, register, reserve or become a member without unnecessary steps?
Pay
Is payment clear and appropriately connected to the process?
Receive Service
Does the customer understand what happens next?
Manage
Can customers make reasonable changes, updates, pauses or cancellations?
Return
Is it easy to come back, repeat the process or continue the relationship?
Not every business uses every stage. The audit examines only the parts that are relevant to the business.
Behind the customer experience
The customer experience often depends on work happening behind the scenes.
The goal is not to eliminate human involvement. It is to understand where people spend time on work that may not require human judgment.
- Repeated data entry
- Spreadsheets used to bridge systems
- Copy and paste between tools
- Manual status updates
- Staff answering the same questions repeatedly
- Unclear ownership between departments
- Handoffs that depend on memory
- Information stored in multiple places
- Manual reconciliation
- Workarounds because systems do not connect
Evidence discipline
Seeing friction is only the beginning.
A visible inconvenience is a reason to investigate, not proof that a change is worthwhile.
- 1
Observed fact
Record what can actually be seen.
- 2
Possible friction
Describe the effort it may create.
- 3
Unknowns
Name what is not yet known.
- 4
Questions
Ask what would test the concern.
- 5
Evidence
Collect information that answers those questions.
- 6
Decision
Choose what, if anything, should happen.
Investigation signals
What the audit looks for.
These conditions may point to useful questions. Their presence does not mean they all must be fixed.
Duplicate work
- Entering data more than once
- Copying between systems
- Maintaining parallel records
Waiting and handoffs
- Callbacks and approvals
- Unclear ownership
- Work sitting in inboxes
Disconnected tools
- Manual transfer between systems
- Spreadsheets used as bridges
- Isolated payment, scheduling or intake
Missing self-service
- Common account changes
- Scheduling or registration
- Information updates and routine requests
Process ambiguity
- Customers do not know what happens next
- Employees follow different processes
- Status is unclear
No predetermined answer
The audit does not begin with a product to sell.
- It does not assume new software is necessary.
- It does not assume automation is better.
- It does not assume the current system should be replaced.
- It does not assume a visible inconvenience is economically important.
- It does not assume custom development is the destination.
Configure
Use an existing tool more effectively.
Integrate
Connect tools where it makes sense.
Automate
Remove justified repetitive steps.
Custom Build
Create only what evidence supports.
Leave Alone
Keep the process when change is not justified.
These are alternative outcomes—not steps in a path toward custom software.
After a finding
A finding leads to questions, not immediately to a project.
The full method turns observations into a grounded decision.
See the Local Works methodology- Possible friction
- Understand the current workflow
- Collect evidence
- Estimate the burden
- Review existing capabilities and options
- Compare the cost of change with the value of improvement
- Decide what, if anything, should happen
Where the method may help
Repeatable workflows appear in many kinds of organizations.
The method can be useful anywhere customers or staff move through repeatable workflows. These are examples of settings where the questions may be relevant—not claims of industry specialization or existing clients.
Hypothetical examples
Examples of friction we might investigate.
These are illustrations only. They are not Local Works customer stories or claimed results.
Membership change
Joining happens online, but changing billing information, pausing or canceling requires a call or visit.
Appointment request
Website form → inbox → staff callback → calendar → confirmation email.
Event inquiry
Social message → email → phone call → separate payment link.
Customer intake
An employee manually re-enters information from an online form into another system.
Staff handoff
One team records information in one system while another maintains a second copy elsewhere.
Request an audit
You don't need to diagnose the problem yourself.
Provide enough context to begin a useful conversation. Questions about costs, volume, systems, or technical requirements belong in discovery if they become relevant.
You bring the frustrating workflow. We'll start with the questions.
You do not need to know whether the answer is configuration, integration, automation, custom software or no change at all. That is what the investigation is for.
Review the audit intake