Mobile customers are increasingly encountering digital journeys that appear technically sound but still leave them confused, delayed and unable to complete what they came to do.
In fact, Fullstory’s 2026 Digital Benchmark Report found that mobile users generate nearly three times as many rage clicks as web users, highlighting how traditional performance measures can miss important signs of customer frustration.
As mobile becomes a central channel for browsing, buying and accessing services, businesses need to understand not only what breaks, but where and why customers get stuck.
In conversation with CX Today, Jason Wolf, President of Fullstory, discussed why technical performance metrics alone are no longer enough.
“You see an element on the page that should take you to another location, and it simply doesn't," he said.
"What that indicates to the consumer is [they] don't understand me. To the owner of the product, [they have] led them down a faulty path.”
Your Mobile Customer Is Experiencing a Different Journey
Mobile shopping has become a central part of the digital journey, primarily due to its convenience, which is often perceived as faster and simpler than traditional web experiences.
Due to these rising expectations, customers have often left little room for friction, so even when mobile experiences appear to work properly, they can still leave customers struggling to complete basic tasks.
In fact, mobile users reportedly recorded fewer error clicks and post-error exits than web users, as removing the need to navigate complicated menus or long loading screens can often contribute to these high expectations.
When looking at dead clicks, however, mobile users encountered almost four times the amount that web users did.
“With a dead click, people think something is going to happen, and nothing occurs,” Wolf reported.
As a result, these moments can leave customers unsure whether the application is responding or whether the service is functioning as intended.
An apparently minor interaction can quickly undermine confidence faster than expected, particularly during moments of purchase navigation or completing a time-sensitive task.
For leaders that rely on session duration as a measure of engagement, this can leave them blind to issues, as average session duration has reportedly increased 42% YoY, while active time rose by only 7%.
With 93% of an average session considered passive, many customers were spending considerably more time in digital experiences without a corresponding increase in meaningful activity.
Wolf warns:
“That void often turns into just longer time in the session, but no inherent action.”
Teams that interpret extended sessions as evidence of customer engagement can risk overlooking the friction driving that behavior, as a technically functioning application can still create a frustrating journey if it does not behave as customers expect.
