If you’re a company that sells a product or service to customers, chances are you have at least a rudimentary mobile customer service strategy. After all, more and more Americans are nearly hard-wired to their smartphones and tablets, and many even carry multiple devices.
We use our devices for Web surfing, shopping, price comparisons, customer support and even to process purchases, and we expect the same levels of customer support via our mobile devices as we would from more traditional media.
The global recession hasn’t done particularly good things for most companies’ technology budgets, and many companies are trying to meet rising mobile customer support demands at a technology disadvantage. The good news is that as the economy recovers and IT budgets loosen up, companies have a chance to build new mobile customer support infrastructures from scratch.
It’s clearly needed. According to many reports and surveys, many companies still aren’t anywhere near prepared for the mobile onslaught, according to IVR solutions provider, Angel, in a recent blog written by Don Keane (News - Alert).
“[The] Mobile Shopping Satisfaction Report, [an independent consumer study commissioned by Mobiquity] confirmed that 41 percent of smart phone owners and 43 percent of tablet owners claimed that they would be less likely to shop at a retailer if they had a poor experience using their mobile app,” wrote Keane.
Only a few companies are excelling in this area, and they’re mostly large retailers.
The Mobiquity report found that, of the top 20 retailers, the companies providing the most winning mobile experiences were Apple (News - Alert) (at its Apple Stores), Best Buy and Kohl’s, which all ranked highest for satisfaction among consumers shopping via smartphones and tablets.
Primary complaints about companies that were not ranked very highly included that these retailers’ apps and mobile sites are often slow to load, challenging to navigate and error-prone at checkout, according to the Web site Internet Retailer. While “slow to load” could be an issue with connectivity and wireless coverage, “challenging to navigate” and “error-prone at checkout” are problems that could certainly be improved with a better mobile customer service strategy and a redesign of websites and shopping carts.
The first step to improving the mobile customer service strategy should be surveying and talking to customers to determine their unique needs.
Perhaps 2013 should be designated “the year of talking to your customers.” It’s clear that too many companies still don’t know how to proceed down the relatively rough path of mobile customer service.
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Edited by Braden Becker