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When Every Experience Matters, Bad Software Can Have Devastating Consequences

Marcus Merrell
Sauce Labs

One idea those in the DevOps world have been preaching for years is the importance of customer experience. Build a product that will delight your customers and they will keep coming back, or so the conventional wisdom goes. On the flip side, deliver poor CX and people will vote with their feet (out the digital door).

But just how damaging can it be for a brand when a consumer discovers a bug on a company's website or mobile app?

Image removed.

This information can be hard to quantify, but it's exactly what the new Sauce Labs report, Every Experience Matters is here to explain.

Most developers don't realize how closely their work is tied to a brand's success and revenue stream, but in a world where consumers have so many choices, user expectations can make or break a transaction. Today we'll look at a few of the insights that came from the report.

Every brand is a digital brand. Every company, regardless of industry, has a web presence that represents the primary way users engage with that company. Any time we browse a web page or mobile app, there is the possibility of a coding error crashing the site or lowering its performance in a way that a user would notice.

How common are these bugs?

Nearly a quarter of consumers (23%) say they encounter an error or experience issue that keeps them from accomplishing a task online at least once a day. In other words, millions of consumers are logging on to shop, pay bills, connect with people, and other important daily tasks, only to encounter a problem that stops them in their tracks. These bugs lead to abandoned carts, negative reviews and a loss of brand equity. Eventually, these errors start to negatively impact a company's reputation and destroy trust.

Patience may be a virtue, but it's also one that most consumers lack: when we drill into the data, the results are alarming. Almost one in five consumers (18%) will immediately abandon a transaction the moment they encounter an error. The majority of them will just go directly to your competition. 64% are a bit more forgiving and they will give you the benefit of the doubt by refreshing your page 2-3 times before eventually giving up, but the bottom line here is that your customer's time is money. Without swift resolution, they have no problems taking their business elsewhere.

Image removed.

To make matters worse, consumers aren't shy about sharing their negative experiences. About half of those surveyed (49%) reported discussing negative experiences with family and friends meaning that errors and challenges can spread to potential customers via word of mouth. A quarter (25%) took the extra step of writing a negative review for the world to see. (Just sorting by new on Reddit will show plenty of these.) Most concerning were the 20% that said after experiencing one error on a brand's website or app, they would leave as a customer forever.

These statistics may sound daunting, but all they really do is confirm our instincts that consumers are impatient, and our users aren't too forgiving. The easy fix for a developer is to catch errors before they are released to the masses, in the form of an aggressive testing strategy.

Whether a developer operates in a low-code environment or relies heavily on automation testing, there are tools that can put your customer first and set you up for success. Test features like API testing and Error Monitoring can catch bugs earlier in the SDLC and help devs and testers catch problems quickly and save the company money. In a DevOps world increasingly obsessed with speed, we must remember the importance of quality. To your users, every experience matters, so we should always be mindful to put our best foot forward and protect brand reputation at all costs.

Marcus Merrell is VP of Technology Strategy at Sauce Labs

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When Every Experience Matters, Bad Software Can Have Devastating Consequences

Marcus Merrell
Sauce Labs

One idea those in the DevOps world have been preaching for years is the importance of customer experience. Build a product that will delight your customers and they will keep coming back, or so the conventional wisdom goes. On the flip side, deliver poor CX and people will vote with their feet (out the digital door).

But just how damaging can it be for a brand when a consumer discovers a bug on a company's website or mobile app?

Image removed.

This information can be hard to quantify, but it's exactly what the new Sauce Labs report, Every Experience Matters is here to explain.

Most developers don't realize how closely their work is tied to a brand's success and revenue stream, but in a world where consumers have so many choices, user expectations can make or break a transaction. Today we'll look at a few of the insights that came from the report.

Every brand is a digital brand. Every company, regardless of industry, has a web presence that represents the primary way users engage with that company. Any time we browse a web page or mobile app, there is the possibility of a coding error crashing the site or lowering its performance in a way that a user would notice.

How common are these bugs?

Nearly a quarter of consumers (23%) say they encounter an error or experience issue that keeps them from accomplishing a task online at least once a day. In other words, millions of consumers are logging on to shop, pay bills, connect with people, and other important daily tasks, only to encounter a problem that stops them in their tracks. These bugs lead to abandoned carts, negative reviews and a loss of brand equity. Eventually, these errors start to negatively impact a company's reputation and destroy trust.

Patience may be a virtue, but it's also one that most consumers lack: when we drill into the data, the results are alarming. Almost one in five consumers (18%) will immediately abandon a transaction the moment they encounter an error. The majority of them will just go directly to your competition. 64% are a bit more forgiving and they will give you the benefit of the doubt by refreshing your page 2-3 times before eventually giving up, but the bottom line here is that your customer's time is money. Without swift resolution, they have no problems taking their business elsewhere.

Image removed.

To make matters worse, consumers aren't shy about sharing their negative experiences. About half of those surveyed (49%) reported discussing negative experiences with family and friends meaning that errors and challenges can spread to potential customers via word of mouth. A quarter (25%) took the extra step of writing a negative review for the world to see. (Just sorting by new on Reddit will show plenty of these.) Most concerning were the 20% that said after experiencing one error on a brand's website or app, they would leave as a customer forever.

These statistics may sound daunting, but all they really do is confirm our instincts that consumers are impatient, and our users aren't too forgiving. The easy fix for a developer is to catch errors before they are released to the masses, in the form of an aggressive testing strategy.

Whether a developer operates in a low-code environment or relies heavily on automation testing, there are tools that can put your customer first and set you up for success. Test features like API testing and Error Monitoring can catch bugs earlier in the SDLC and help devs and testers catch problems quickly and save the company money. In a DevOps world increasingly obsessed with speed, we must remember the importance of quality. To your users, every experience matters, so we should always be mindful to put our best foot forward and protect brand reputation at all costs.

Marcus Merrell is VP of Technology Strategy at Sauce Labs

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Industry experts offer predictions on how AI will evolve and impact technology and business in 2025. Part 2 covers the challenges presented by AI, as well as solutions to those problems ...

In the final part of APMdigest's 2025 Predictions Series, industry experts offer predictions on how AI will evolve and impact technology and business in 2025 ...

E-commerce is set to skyrocket with a 9% rise over the next few years ... To thrive in this competitive environment, retailers must identify digital resilience as their top priority. In a world where savvy shoppers expect 24/7 access to online deals and experiences, any unexpected downtime to digital services can lead to significant financial losses, damage to brand reputation, abandoned carts with designer shoes, and additional issues ...

Efficiency is a highly-desirable objective in business ... We're seeing this scenario play out in enterprises around the world as they continue to struggle with infrastructures and remote work models with an eye toward operational efficiencies. In contrast to that goal, a recent Broadcom survey of global IT and network professionals found widespread adoption of these strategies is making the network more complex and hampering observability, leading to uptime, performance and security issues. Let's look more closely at these challenges ...

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The 2025 Catchpoint SRE Report dives into the forces transforming the SRE landscape, exploring both the challenges and opportunities ahead. Let's break down the key findings and what they mean for SRE professionals and the businesses relying on them ...

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Gartner revealed its top strategic predictions for 2025 and beyond. Gartner's top predictions explore how generative AI (GenAI) is affecting areas where most would assume only humans can have lasting impact ...

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AWS is a cloud-based computing platform known for its reliability, scalability, and flexibility. However, as helpful as its comprehensive infrastructure is, disparate elements and numerous siloed components make it difficult for admins to visualize the cloud performance in detail. It requires meticulous monitoring techniques and deep visibility to understand cloud performance and analyze operational efficiency in detail to ensure seamless cloud operations ...

Imagine a future where software, once a complex obstacle, becomes a natural extension of daily workflow — an intuitive, seamless experience that maximizes productivity and efficiency. This future is no longer a distant vision but a reality being crafted by the transformative power of Artificial Intelligence ...