The Perfect Storm, Part II: The Mobile User Experience as Revealed by Harris Interactive

By Janet Jaiswal, Senior Director of Product Marketing —

In my earlier post on the 2011 Harris Interactive Mobile Transactions Study, we discussed the high expectations that mobile users have despite the surprising number who are experiencing mobile transaction failures—and subsequently sharing those poor experiences via social media. Based on a survey of more than 2,400 US adults, the Harris survey indicates the mobile channel is primed for a "perfect storm," a potentially disastrous situation created by a powerful concurrence of factors.

In this second post, we will discuss in greater detail the types of interactions that are causing mobile customers to struggle, and the business implications of these frustrations.

Users Are Experiencing Mobile Issues
More than 4 in 5 online adults who have conducted a mobile transaction in the last year have experienced a problem. Here are the most common types of issues users experienced:

• 34% received an error message
• 29% said the app/website was difficult to navigate
• 25% were unable to complete a transaction due to an endless loop
• 23% had trouble logging in
• 16 % said they encountered insufficient, incorrect, or confusing information

Some of these issues are technical in nature, but many of the things that cause mobile consumers to struggle are not error- or problem-related at all, making them harder still to detect, diagnose and resolve effectively.

Reactions to Mobile Frustration (please don't try this at home)
Just how frustrating are customer struggles on a mobile device? The survey found that more adults are extremely or very frustrated by failed mobile transactions (58 percent) than by going to the DMV (50 percent) or waiting in traffic (56 percent). Ouch! The survey also found that mobile consumers often resort to interesting ways to vent their frustrations.

• 23% of mobile consumers who experienced an issue in the last year cursed at their phones.
• 21% deleted the poorly functioning app
• 11% screamed at their mobile device
• 4% threw their mobile device

Customers Vote with Their Absence
This may leave your wondering how users respond when encountering mobile problems. The survey revealed that mobile consumers have little tolerance for poor experiences. If they encounter problems from their mobile devices, many abandon their transactions and take their business elsewhere:

• 43% would abandon the mobile transaction and try later on a computer
• 16% would become more likely to buy from a competitor
• 14% would email or log a complaint with customer service
• 12% would abandon the transaction at the app/site and try a competitor's app/site

Significantly, customer struggles on a mobile device can drive consumers away from doing business with a company entirely. In fact, 63 percent of online adults surveyed said they would be less likely to buy from the same company via other purchase channels if they experienced a problem conducting a transaction on their mobile phones.

To learn more about users' mobile experience and strategies on how to address possible issues, download the Harris Interactive survey results. In the third and final post of this series, we will discuss how companies can mitigate user’s frustrations with the mobile channel.