Mobility and the Customer Experience

In less then five years, the face of communication and connection has been changed. We have moved from an Internet connected society, to a world that is connected through Mobility. Morgan Stanely recently outlined this growth by a factor of 10x over the traditional PC or Desktop Internet device. Continued growth through 2020 and beyond is certain, so be prepared.

A recent research document by Sterling Commerce and Demandware reveals that over 96 percent of American consumers own a mobile phone and almost 50 percent of this population has a smart phone. Mobiles were used by 15 percent of consumers to make a purchase. Almost 25 percent of consumers use their mobiles to compare products and prices. Twenty five percent of the respondents were interested in the idea of receiving information on specials and promotions on their mobile devices while shopping. Demand for customer experience that includes mobile technology is fast on the rise.

Vegas.com has embraced a mobile strategy for enhancing its customer experience. The website, which receives over one million unique visitors every month, provides information on travel, entertainment and products for people visiting Las Vegas. The company offers separate website versions for visitors visiting them from PC and mobile. Prior to implementing its mobile strategy, the company had only a “click to call” website for mobile visitors, which directed them to the call center. The mobile user conversion rate was low and abandonment rate high. Mike Brown, Vice President, Optimization, attributes this negativity to the lack of optimization of the website to the mobile. The website was huge for the small mobile screen and took substantially long to load. Mobile users weren’t offered any purchase options either.

However, with increase in the usage of smart phones, Vegas.com wanted to deliver customer experience through mobile phones so that customers need not have to switch to another channel for better experience. Teaming up with SiteSpect, the company developed two versions of Vegas.com, one customized to smart phone users. The mobile-optimized website offered only the most important information and as such it was not a huge site that took forever to load. The website appearance was customized to mobile screens and the entire website was available to the user in just two screens of the iPhone. Customers feel happy to know that the site has been specifically created for them, says Brown. And truly customers were happy because after six weeks page views were up by 15 percent, mobile bounce rate went down by 20 percent, and conversions were five percent more.

Another service provider that is making it easier for its customers to stay connected seamlessly through their mobiles is Comcast. The leading cable network now offers an SMS service Comcast4u for its customers. Users registering for Comcast4u receive customized help in response to an SMS message. For example, typing “PRIME TIME” gives the user information on the day’s primetime program; a “HIT” message enables the user to reset his cable box from anywhere. Typing “CALL ME”, users can send a call back request to the Comcast call center. It is expected that most users will receive access to this service within the first six months of 2011.

What does this mean for you? If you are a businesses looking to make a difference with their customer service experience you need to focus not only on marketing strategies but also on changing customer behavior. It is important that companies make mobile technology integral to their customer experience strategies.