Infographic: Top five complaints about mobile customer experience

By
Hayden Richards

An Eptica study has revealed that Mobile websites failing to deliver right experience to 52% of UK consumers. With rapid advances in technology, mobile devices are as powerful as the desktop and consumers expect a similar experience. All businesses should be looking into responsive web design as a first port of call. Don’t undertand the concept? Ethan Marcotte recently wrote an A List Apart article about “Responsive Web Design,” He draws a parallel from the notion of responsive architectural design, whereby a room or space automatically adjusts to the number and flow of people within it:

“Recently, an emergent discipline called “responsive architecture” has begun asking how physical spaces can respond to the presence of people passing through them. Through a combination of embedded robotics and tensile materials, architects are experimenting with art installations and wall structures that bend, flex, and expand as crowds approach them. Motion sensors can be paired with climate control systems to adjust a room’s temperature and ambient lighting as it fills with people. Companies have already produced “smart glass technology” that can automatically become opaque when a room’s occupants reach a certain density threshold, giving them an additional layer of privacy.”

The key findings of the 2013 Eptica Mobile Customer Experience Study which surveyed levels of consumer satisfaction with mobile websites and apps are that 52% of consumers said that over half the websites they visited weren’t optimised for mobile devices, making it difficult to interact with companies. An additional 16% had difficulties with the majority of sites they tried to access.

A lack of functionality on mobile sites and apps compared to standard sites was the leading usability issue, highlighted by 36% of respondents. This was closely followed by slow loading speeds (34%) and sites that were not optimised for smaller screens (also 34%).

The Study also uncovered significant differences in responses between men and women. On average women were happier with the mobile experience, with 54% saying that over half the websites they visited were optimised for mobile devices, compared to 42% of men. Nearly four in ten (38%) of women highlighted poor optimisation for smaller screens as the number one mobile usability issue, compared to a lack of functionality which was identified by 37% of men.

Mobile devices are increasingly the first choice of consumers for internet access. By mid-2014 more people will access the web through mobile devices than PCs. The online experience is vital – recent research from Google found that if a mobile site takes longer than a second to load it interrupts the visitor’s flow – but that the average response time is seven seconds.

“Over half of us have smartphones, and tablet use is now mainstream, but it seems that many brands are lagging behind consumer expectations,” said Paul Barnes, VP Operations, Eptica UK. “The public demand the same experience on their mobile device as on their PC, but are being failed by substandard sites that are slow to load and don’t fit smaller screens.Many of these are basic issues that companies need to sort out before they lose customers to their rivals.”

The top five key factors that put people off interacting with companies were:

  1. Sites that lacked functionality compared to standard sites (36%)
  2. Sites that were slow to load (34%)
  3. Sites that were difficult to navigate as they were not optimised for smaller screens (34%)
  4. Lack of an app for consumer’s device (22%)
  5. Difficult to find information on a company’s mobile site (18%)
Smashing Magazine has a comprehensive resource on Guidelines For Mobile Web Development I recommend you look at here. It also explains why you should not make separate mobile websites.

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