TBWA\Helsinki works with Crowst to optimize clients’ online mobile experience

We are on the constant move, and the younger generations are accustomed to search for information and shop online, regardless where they happen to be. An always-on access to the Internet is considered as a norm, enabled by smartphones. According to Statistics Finland (Tilastokeskus 2018), smartphones are the most common channel to access the Internet for the vast majority of 75% of the Finnish population. Furthermore, around one fourth has purchased something online using a smartphone. The domination of mobility and smartphones cannot be questioned, and this development is strengthening even further. However, why online customer experience development is still so heavily focused on desktops? For TBWA\Helsinki it isn’t.

TBWA\Helsinki is part of the leading global TBWA agency network, a radically open creative collective, recently named one of the World’s Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company and Adweek’s 2018 Global Agency of the Year. Globally the TBWA collective has 11,000 marketing professionals in 295 offices in 97 countries.

Internationally the most awarded agency in Finland, TBWA\Helsinki has also been named as the Agency of the Year 2019 & Digital Agency of the Year 2019 Finland. A truly global, award-winning agency relies on disruption in its journey to help brands evolve into something that inspires people. The company works closely with its clients to create growth through data-driven insights and creative use of tech & media. In the cross-roads of innovation, brands and technology powered insights, TBWA\Helsinki and Crowst collaborate to help clients to optimize their digital customer experience.

Walking the talk on digital

Online purchases and webstores are designed based on careful planning, starting from the initial wireframes to the finest detail. Colors, pictures, messages, the placement of buttons, and various other elements together form the digital journey created to serve the customers’ online needs as well as possible. Ultimately, the success of the online purchasing journey may depend on a few pixels. Desktop design for online experience has existed for quite a while, but consistent mobile online experience development could still be considered to live its early stages.

“Today, it is not anymore a question whether a company should invest in its mobile online experience or not. It is a must, and the result optimally is a sustainable competitive edge on the market”, opens Kalle Kanerva, Senior Partner and Strategy Director at TBWA\Helsinki. “The way how we live our busy, mobile lives and the way how we are always open for everything new has a direct impact on how we learn, behave and buy as consumers”, Kanerva affirms. “We are not tied to our desks and desktops anymore, thus a valid customer experience planning requires a solid mobile-first approach and flawless execution”, Kanerva describes.

“We are not tied to our desks and desktops anymore, thus a valid customer experience planning requires a solid mobile-first approach and flawless execution”

Take the typical screen size of smartphones into account, couple this with the range of hundreds of smartphone models and spice it up with unique characteristics of the most common mobile operating systems. This equation is just the technological skeleton to start with, the real challenge comes when designing the digital journey with content and conversion points.

Energizing the online mobile experience

TBWA\Helsinki and Crowst collaborate to source and analyse first-hand consumer insights, aiming at optimizing clients’ mobile online experience. One of the concrete projects focused on the optimization of the digital mobile journey for a leading energy company. As a starting point, a study was set up to assess the current digital journey experience of smartphone users. Within the study flow, the respondents visited the energy company’s website using their smartphones, and answered the questions focusing on the experience, discoverability of relevant information and smoothness of the journey.

“It was exciting to integrate the online mobile journey in the study itself, enabling consumers to provide direct and fresh feedback based on their personal experience”, comments Eemeli Tani, Campaign Analyst at TBWA\Helsinki. “The approach we followed with Crowst removed the common mis-synch and lag between the online experience and study response, resulting in genuine, direct consumer insights”, continues Tani.

“The approach we followed with Crowst removed the common mis-synch and lag between the online experience and study response, resulting in genuine, direct consumer insights”

The incoming consumer responses can be followed in real-time on the Crowst Dashboard as automated graphs, charts and word clouds. When new responses come in, the graphs and other data adjust on the fly, reflecting the situation each time based on the responses received. “The responses provided us with excellent, concrete and actionable results. Information that enable us to work with our client to optimize the journey and carry out specific actions that contribute to better user experience”, Tani concludes.

Mobile design requires design by mobile

Naturally, optimizing consumers’ online mobile experience require a study design that involve both smartphone-based online experience and consumers. Traditionally, these types of projects have been challenging to execute as they have required detailed and careful background instructions to the respondents, special software and depending on the need, a controlled environment.

Not anymore. Crowst is designed for mobile and smartphone-driven insights, from the scratch. The respondents are instructed and guided during the study and response flow. Similarly, the online website visit is integrated in the study itself, as a seamless flow. This ensures the visitor’s experience is as fresh as possible, and the respondent is equipped all the information and elements needed to give a valid and justified response. And based on valid, well-justified responses strong insights are born… which are the lifeline for concrete development and business actions.