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Four considerations for providing the best mobile customer experience

Is it harder to deliver a positive customer experience via mobile platforms? Forty percent of e-commerce executives say yes.

August 6, 2014 by Jeannie Walters — Chief Customer Experience Investigator, 360Connext

Is it harder to deliver a positive customer experience via mobile platforms?

Forty percent of e-commerce executives believe this is the case. More specifically, navigation and findability for mobile users is undoubtedly the number one issue they struggle with.

When the subject of mobile navigation comes up, I get a slight sense of déjà vu. Didn't we have the same concerns during the early discussions about navigation on the web?

Some leaders still believe the mobile experience should include all of the capabilities and functionality of the full website. But considering what customers are actually using the mobile connectivity for tells us that mobile experiences should be focused more on what users are actually doing there, and less on providing every little thing they might be looking for.

Here are some considerations to help you confront the challenge.

1. What are your customers looking for via mobile?

Is the customer trying to find your location while on the move? The mobile experience should make that easy, rather than keep it buried in the "contact us" section like on your full website.

Walgreen's pharmacy, a 2014 Webby Awards winner for Best Integrated Mobile Experience, realizes their mobile customers have more specific priorities such as prescriptions, clinic appointments, coupon management, photo processing and store locations. Putting these things front and center has made the mobile experience less complicated and more results-oriented.

And their mobile app takes this a step further, offering things like a bar code scanner for easily refilling prescriptions, a photo editor that lets you order prints from Instagram, a scheduler to create reminders for taking medication, and a virtual rewards card customers can scan at the checkout. Walgreens knows their mobile customers are not there to browse, but to get things done.

2. Customers have fat fingers.

Give them some room or there will not be any room for you on their mobile journey. How many of us have had to squint and aim for a barely legible link on a phone and missed? If your links and buttons are poorly scaled and aligned, customers will get tired of trying and exit for good.

Amazon's mobile site uses BIG buttons which are hard to miss and easy to see. Customers can easily get things done whether they choose to install the mobile app or not. Everyone's a winner!

3. Does there HAVE TO be an app for that?

It's not always necessary to have a mobile app. Sometimes it makes perfect sense to offer one, but we sometimes we just need information and account access via our mobile device.

Starbucks has a really popular mobile app, which is known for offering customer payment via mobile, but their mobile site focuses on what customers might need or want on the fly and doesn't force users to download the app in order to access the store locator or the blog.

If adding a mobile app isn't going to help your customers any better than a mobile site can, why complicate the experience with a flashy new app?

4. Know your customers.

Who are your real customers? What are they most likely trying to do on mobile? Keep these two things in mind and you will find the best mobile experience for them is much easier to piece together than you might have thought. If you don't really know who they are, you'll have to try and pack everything into one tiny, overstuffed package. Offering everything to everyone rarely works, so limit the choices for YOUR mobile customers.

Any customer experience is difficult to deliver if you don't know what you're trying to do. If you don't understand your customer experience mission, what your business goals are, and what makes the most sense for your customers, it's going to be more challenging than it needs to be.

Making what your customers need the most easy to find on mobile is like optimizing any other channel. Determining what the goals are and what your customers will need at that point of the journey will drive a better experience.

Don't fall for the talk of mobile trends or different mobile customers. Customers will always be busy people who need things in the moment they need them. Help them do that and everyone wins.

(Photo by epSos.de.)

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