1. With the rapid rise of smartphones in the past decade, my dependence on mobile phones has increased dramatically. As Hyder (2018) points out, "More than 50 percent of the world population uses mobile devices to connect, communicate, research, and purchase". Gladly, I am one of them :), and using a cell phone is now an integral part of my daily routine. When I encounter a problem or need, I will instantly grab my smartphone to find the answer. From the customer journey perspective, I spend most of my time in awareness and consideration and less likely in advocacy and conversion.
2. In my daily routine, the top 5 that I use most frequently are: Chrome, Amazon, YouTube, UberEats, and Yelp. Google Chrome is currently Canada's most used search engine (Kunst, 2022). It offers a fast loading speed and personalized user experience so that I can search for information with more ease. Amazon is the most well-known e-commerce brand in North America, with a massive range of product selections to help me find great deals on Amazon. YouTube is a famous video site globally, and countless people upload new videos every day. Many valuable videos can be found on the app, such as video tutorials, life experience sharing, etc. I can learn a lot of practical knowledge from these videos. UberEats provides users with a wide range of meal choices, allowing them to taste nearby delicacies without leaving home while saving the hard work of cooking. Finally, Yelp is convenient booking software that helps users make reservations and allows users to view the ratings and reviews of various businesses so that users can make the correct decision.
3. Whenever the micro-moment of "I want to go" or "I want to know" comes to my mind, my first choice is always to open Chrome to search. I am obsessed with fishing, so I frequently use Chrome to look for the "Best Fishing Spots in Ontario/near Toronto" or "how to catch pike/bass." The weather has been turning warm recently, so I had a micro-moment of "I want to know how to grow hydrangeas." I searched it on YouTube because I wanted to see someone vividly demonstrate it to me. I also use YouTube to help me when "I want to cook" because video tutorials are always more specific and vivid. And when the micro-moment of "I want to buy" popped up in my mind, Amazon would be my first choice because this app was made for shopping. Furthermore, when "I want to eat junk food" hits me hard, I will instinctively open UberEats to find my meal from its fast-food list. Finally, when "I want to eat a fine dining" appears in my mind, I will use Yelp to book an incredibly fancy restaurant because I can queue up virtually, which saves me lots of time.
4. As Battalino (2018) states, "Poor UX is bad for business because it will cause users to abandon your site." I have encountered various bad user experience cases, and it is frustrating. For example, the most recent one was when I searched for "best bass fishing rod" the first things that showed up on my screen were paid ads, and they occupied the entire screen. I had to slide all the way down to avoid all those paid ads and to see the most valuable organic content, which was slightly annoying. I do not want to see the paid ads first as a consumer. Instead, I am interested in unpaid, organic reviews so that it helps me with the "awareness" or "consideration" stage and eventually make the conversion. Also, talking about Amazon, I always feel "delay" and "lag" while using this mobile app. It often takes more than three seconds to load the product's information, while "2 seconds is the new threshold that an online customer is expected for a webpage to load"(Weller, 2014). Thus, low loading speed will lower users' intent to keep browsing, which may stop users' customer journey.
5. Based on all these answers, I think user experience is one of the most crucial aspects of improving the customer journey. Assuming that Amazon can make its mobile app run more smoothly, users might be more than likely to spend more time picking the products they are interested in, leading to a higher conversion rate. Besides, I think it will cause some adverse impacts on the customer journey when Chrome aggressively shows its paid ads to the customer instead of offering real informative content. Chrome or any search engine app should reconsider the quantity and location of their paid ads so that customers can be more pleased to choose or purchase.
Reference:
Battalino, A. (2018). 4 signs of poor user experience. Zivtech. Retrieved May 26, 2022, from https://www.zivtech.com/blog/4-signs-poor-user-experience
Hyder, S. (2018, January 18). Forget the millennials, the connected consumer is who you should be chasing. Forbes. Retrieved May 26, 2022, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/shamahyder/2018/01/18/forget-the-millennials-the-connected-consumer-is-who-you-should-be-chasing/?sh=65770d934172
Kunst, A. (2022). Search engine usage by brand in Canada in 2022. CAS - Central Authentication Service. Retrieved May 26, 2022, from https://www-statista-com.gbcprx01.georgebrown.ca/forecasts/998487/search-engine-usage-by-brand-in-canada
Weller, A. (2014, January 6). Why a slow website will cause you to lose customers: Broadcast. Crucial. Retrieved May 26, 2022, from https://www.crucial.com.au/blog/2013/06/24/slow-website-equals-lost-customer/#:~:text=Forrester%20Research%20conducted%20a%20study,of%20shoppers%20will%20wait%20no
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