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

By Janet Jaiswal, Senior Director of Product Marketing —

This is the last in a three-part series on the Mobile Transactions Survey conducted by Harris Interactive. This study, commissioned by Tealeaf, indicates that the mobile channel is primed for a "perfect storm," a potentially disastrous situation created by a powerful concurrence of factors.

In the first post of this series, we discussed the high expectations users have for conducting business from their mobile devices—expectations that stand in stark contrast to the large number of issues consumers experience on this emerging channel. The second post discussed how users respond to the frustration of failed mobile transactions—many of them said they would no longer do business with the offending company through any channel.

To learn more about users' mobile experience, their reactions and how companies can mitigate user frustrations, download the Harris Interactive survey results.

In this third and final post, we will discuss the types of transactions mobile users are conducting via their mobile devices and how best to address the poor mobile customer experiences that can drive away customers and do significant brand damage.

If you think these transactions are limited to the mobile commerce sector, know that consumers want to do the same things on their mobile devices that they do on their computers. The survey shows that consumers who've completed transactions on their mobile devices in the last year have handled a variety of tasks:

• 69% have shopped via their mobile devices
• 57% have conducted financial transactions (such as online banking) via their mobile devices
• 31% have booked travel from their mobile devices
• 15% have conducted insurance transactions via their mobile devices
• 13% have completed other types of transactions from their mobile devices

So what can companies do to address user frustrations? No matter the online channel, the best remedy for poor customer experiences is a cohesive strategy for identifying common customer struggles, putting processes in place to quickly resolve those issues and proactively preventing future struggles from taking place. This customer-centric approach is gaining broad adoption by organizations looking to distinguish themselves with excellent customer service across all their channels—including mobile.

What does this approach entail?

• Make the Commitment: The first step is making customer experience a priority. Your customers should be able to easily navigate your mobile interface, gather the information they need to make a decision and conduct their transactions seamlessly. In light of how much time and budget most e-businesses are spending attracting visitors to their online channels, it makes sense to dedicate sufficient resources to ensuring those visits convert into revenue.
• Identify and Prevent Issues: Identify customer experience trends and nip potential problems in the bud. Are customers getting to a certain point in the transaction process but not pulling the trigger? By quickly spotting areas where mobile customers are struggling, you'll minimize the impact these issues have on future business.
• Get Your Contact Center on Board: The study shows that nearly one in four frustrated mobile customers call customer service to complete their transactions. However, most call centers are ill-prepared to pick up the ball from a failed mobile transaction. Giving your customer service agents insight into the mobile customer experience will significantly increase customer satisfaction, retention and order values.

The era of mobile commerce isn't around the bend—it's already here. In an effort to keep pace, organizations are scrambling to get new mobile capabilities into market—just as a decade and a half ago they were rushing to launch their first transactional websites. But those who leap into this channel without a plan for gauging and managing the mobile customer experience risk losing more business than they gain, and damaging their brands in the process.