Digital Engagement Blog

Quick: why do you own a cell phone? Is it to play Candy Crush or Angry Birds? Is it to update your Facebook profile with the proud news that your theatrically gifted seven-year-old has been cast as the third tree from the left in the school’s production of the Wizard of Oz? Is it to peek at football game scores during the interminable condo association meeting?  It might be for all of these things, but it’s primarily for convenience. If you’re old enough to remember a life before mobile phones, you’ll recall that making calls while on the go involved finding a phone booth and a quarter and pretending not to notice the highly questionable substance sticking your shoes to the floor.

Imagine this phrase uttered in a bored tone by a cashier, and it might take you back to the last time you made a complex purchase in a brick-and-mortar store. Armed with product knowledge, you entered the store and found a sales person and explained what you wanted. If that person wasn’t helpful, you were referred to a manager, and you explained what you wanted all over again.

Although there are a variety of ways for shoppers to experience poor customer service (see our recent blog “The Worst Shopping Experience Ever”), it’s costing companies more than just lost revenues when it happens within their apps.

Are mobile shoppers abandoning their shopping carts on your app? If you’ve put time, money, and effort into your mobile app, it can be frustrating when shoppers begin using it, but then simply abandon the app without making any purchases.