A lovely lesson in how friction shapes behaviour. Or why Compliance is about to kill a renewal.

This week, my travel insurance is due for auto-renewal, but my insurer has been unable to take payment because the card on file has expired. An email told me to log into the portal to update it. I did, but there was nowhere to enter my new card details. I messaged the provider and, five days later, received an email explaining that they’re very busy and the functionality has temporarily been removed.

So now I need to phone them, where, joy of joys, '𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴’.

I really don’t want to call them. Not least because they’ve told me they’re busy, so getting to speak to someone is likely to involve waiting. And ‘𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴’ will inevitably include an attempt to upsell me services I don’t want.

Even if it all that goes better than expected, I’ll still have to enter compliance-by-phone hell: answering questions the renewal notice has already taken as read, before being audio-waterboarded with tedious, never-ending disclosures, none of which I’ll pay any attention to.

I know, I know. It’s a regulatory requirement and it’s all for my protection. But the behavioural outcome is that I’m now going to shop around.

I’d love to unleash an AI agent on the phone call and let it endure the waiting, upselling and disclosures for me. Sadly, I can’t do that (yet!). But I can unleash one online to search for another insurer, so that’s what I’m now doing.

Heck, I might even save some money. And even if my current provider is still the best option, I’ll still have avoided the pre-scripted hostage-video hell.

Turns out the easiest way to get me to shift my business elsewhere isn't a competitor's advert, you just need the fear of an awful compliance process.