Mobile is driving traffic – so how can you optimise customer experience?
Mobile continues to dominate web usage but with mobile performance expectations sky-high, the goal of delivering a consistently fast and efficient service is continuing to fox even the biggest players.
The majority of sites don’t yet run synthetic monitoring on genuine iOS/Android browsers. If you still use the less-than-real emulated user-agent approaches to mobile monitoring which don’t render the page in the same way as your customers experience it, then you’re blind to the true CX and the performance of page elements 24/7. Leading to abandonment and reduced conversions – if customers can’t complete transactions due to slow page rendering, or partly broken Buy-Now buttons for instance.
In addition, problems that impact mobile experience can prove hard to pinpoint and are easily missed, often arising on only a subset of devices, browsers, products or product categories – making it difficult to identify, replicate and troubleshoot.
A fresh approach that has the user experience at its core
The key to returning accurate, actionable data you can trust is simple: walk in your customer’s footsteps. For a true picture of your customer experience and the problems they encounter, then you must utilise monitoring that runs on exactly the same iOS and Android software and browsers as your customers use.
If you’re basing optimisation decisions on mobile performance data that is not from real iOS/Android browsers or is not following end to end journeys with dynamic intelligence, you’re missing a trick and could be lulled into a false sense of security.
The most common mobile issues uncovered with real browser monitoring on our clients’ sites
‘Buy’ buttons that are visible but not actionable – possibly only for specific areas of the site and often not in all product categories.
Page objects covering up others, making it impossible for the user to see or complete their transaction.
Broken or missing menu navigation – such as where the last item on the menu has ‘dropped off’.
‘Checkout’ buttons failing, causing the ‘refresh’ icon to spin indefinitely (and frustratingly) for certain product types.
Slow page actions controlled by Javascript, e.g. when expanding a product description.
Understanding the root causes of mobile performance issues
Many performance issues occur as a result of coding problems relating to the nuances between devices, browsers and libraries. The only way to resolve these issues is to monitor with dynamic intelligence on real mobile browser software to pick them up and drill down to the root cause. Some common causes are:
Javascript library interactions. Often sites use different Javascript libraries for Android and Apple iOS which can get ‘out of sync’, added to which, developers may forget to code for the nuances between the libraries. The result is Javascript on a page that is no longer compatible in all page-types.
Failure to incorporate the small rendering/DOM quirks between browsers on Android and iOS, versus desktops.
Incompatibility between third party library interactions (aside from Javascript). All websites are dependent on third-party page libraries, fonts et al; when those components get updated they don’t always remain 100% compatible.
thinkTRIBE provides realistic synthetic monitoring services on real iPhone and Android browsers (not emulated!) to maximise mobile performance and customer experience. Find out more about our unique approach to mobile monitoring, or call us to book a demo on 01227 768276.