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

By Janet Jaiswal, Sr. Director of Product Marketing —

There is no doubt that as the mobile channel grows and more companies rush to launch their mobile-optimized websites and mobile apps, there are bound to be some challenges. To learn more about users' mobile experience, Tealeaf commissioned Harris Interactive to conduct a study in February of this year. The survey of more than 2,400 US adults shows the onset of a "perfect storm" when it comes to the mobile channel. That is, we've got three strong storm fronts converging on this space, each making the others yet more volatile.



Storm Front #1: Users have great expectations of the mobile channel
Many e-businesses have looked at the rapid user adoption of the mobile channel, along with the compelling business value it offers, and decided that they have to roll-out mobile functionality as quickly as possible—sometimes at the expense of doing things the right way. But the data tell a different story—that a "Just Do It" approach to the mobile channel could actually do irreparable brand damage. Why?

47% of users expect the experience on their phones to be better than the experience in-store
80% of users expect the experience to be better than or equal to in-store
85% expect the experience to be better than or equal to online using a laptop or desktop computer

  Users have Very Little Patience for Poor Mobile Customer Experiences

Storm Front #2: Users are encountering errors when interacting with mobile
The facts are clear. In the mobile survey, 84% of users reported that they experienced problems when conducting online transactions on mobile devices. These respondents cite a range of problems—issues well beyond common challenges like carrier connectivity issues and page load speeds. Although these issues can be easy to ignore when a business is focused on getting functionality live as quickly as possible, they can be critical barriers to customer conversion and satisfaction.

Storm Front #3: Users share poor experiences in the mobile channel
Given that the mobile channel is still quite new, these expectations might be unreasonably high. Nevertheless, the survey found that when expectations aren't met, mobile users are very likely to take their business elsewhere. In fact, 63% of users surveyed would be less likely to buy from the same company via other purchase channels (online, in-store) if they encountered a mobile transaction problem.

Furthermore, today's mobile users do not keep their experiences to themselves. According to the Tealeaf survey, nearly four in five adults (78%) who encounter problems completing mobile transactions share those experiences with others. This fact has huge implications for brand equity—and for the trade-off that e-business professionals must make between time to market and optimization in the mobile channel. This time, mistakes have an even greater impact on the business and brand than they did fifteen years ago in the early days of the transactional website.

How Do Users Share Poor Experiences in the Mobile Channel?

40% of users share via a social media channel (Facebook, Twitter, blogs, or others)
60% share via in-person conversations with friends and families

So what does this mean for your company? It means that while it's good to have a mobile presence, you should proceed carefully so not to damage your carefully built brand and turn away customers for good. With the proper planning and the right customer experience management solution, your mobile strategy can succeed.

Read the complete survey results, including the types of problems users encounter in the mobile channel and ideas on how to improve your customer experience.

What are you doing to ensure that your mobile services don't cause your customers to struggle?