Creating a seamless user experience across channels – mobile apps, desktop sites, emails, in-store, and beyond – sounds simple. But in practice, even the best brands struggle with consistency. Why is that?

Because cross-channel UX (user experience) requires multiple teams, tools, and technologies to work in sync. And often, they don’t. Marketing may own email campaigns. Product teams may design app experiences. Web developers handle desktop UX. Meanwhile, customer support and retail have their own perspectives. The result? The customer experience becomes fragmented.

Users don’t think in channels – but teams often do. Customers expect the same clarity and ease whether they’re logging into an app, opening a promotional email, or visiting your website. But when internal silos create disconnects, users feel it – in the form of confusion, repetition, or having to start over. This customer friction leads to lower conversion rates, higher support costs, and missed opportunities to build loyalty.

Structural and strategic challenges

One key challenge is that many companies focus their UX efforts within silos. For example, app teams may optimize only for mobile, without testing what happens when users switch from the app to a website. Or, the design team might craft emails without reviewing how links render across devices.

These misalignments arise because:

• Teams often lack a shared view of the full customer journey
• UX testing tools may be underutilized or used in isolation
• Research budgets or headcount don’t support cross-functional testing
• Time pressures reward short cycles over journey-wide thinking

Even companies using platforms like UserTesting can struggle to get deep insights if the testing scope is too narrow – or if the team lacks experience defining the right scenarios and interpreting results.

How expertise bridges the gap

This is where working with experienced user experience researchers – like those in SIVO’s On Demand Talent network – can offer critical value. These professionals help connect the dots across channel-specific journeys, guiding your use of UX testing tools to uncover where friction arises and why it matters. Instead of isolated feedback, you get insight-rich narratives that reflect complex customer behavior.

Tools like UserTesting make it easy to run quick feedback loops. But it’s expertise that turns that feedback into foresight. And in the fast-moving world of digital experiences, that distinction can set your team – and your customers – up for success.

Every time a customer moves from one platform to another – say, from an email to a mobile app, or from desktop to in-store – there’s risk of losing them. Why? Because that handoff can feel clunky, inconsistent, or just plain confusing if the experience isn’t tightly aligned.

Understanding where and why users hit friction points is the first step in fixing them. Here are some of the most common cross-channel UX breakdowns we see, many of which can be spotted through targeted UX testing using platforms like UserTesting.

Mismatch in content or design between channels

A user clicks a promotional email offering 20% off, only to land in an app that displays a different price or lacks clear direction. These mismatches break user trust, especially when customers feel like they’ve been misled or have to hunt for what was promised.

Re-authentication or losing session data

Another common issue arises when users start a task on one device (e.g., adding a product to their cart on mobile) and switch to another, only to find their progress lost. Having to re-enter information, re-authenticate, or re-navigate causes frustration that often results in drop-off.

Navigation and functionality differences

Mobile vs desktop UX frequently differs – sometimes dramatically. Features may be easier to access on one than the other, or certain tools (like filters or help chat) might be missing entirely. Without testing across devices, brands often overlook these gaps.

Inconsistent tone or branding across touchpoints

When the app feels sleek and modern, but the website feels outdated, customers notice. Or when promotional wording in SMS messages doesn’t match what's displayed after a link is clicked, users may question the credibility of the brand.

Vague transitions from online to real-world experiences

In industries like retail, healthcare, or fitness, customers often move from digital journeys to physical ones – like using an app to schedule an appointment or pick up an item in-store. Without clear instructions or coordinated systems, this transition can be a major pain point.

How to identify these friction points with UserTesting

With platforms like UserTesting, teams can replicate real user scenarios, such as:

• Following a user journey from an email to app to website
• Switching devices mid-task to observe whether progress is saved
• Testing mobile vs desktop workflows for the same activity

These types of user experience research sessions help highlight not just design flaws, but mismatched expectations and emotional responses – key areas for improving overall satisfaction.

However, to get the most out of tools like UserTesting, having the right expertise is crucial. That’s where SIVO’s On Demand Talent professionals can help. These seasoned researchers know how to create smart, scenario-driven tests that mirror real-world behavior – and deliver insights that lead to action. They don’t just flag friction – they help fix it.

UserTesting has become a go-to tool in the UX world, especially when it comes to diagnosing issues within the digital experience. But when the customer journey spans multiple platforms – from mobile apps to desktop websites, emails, and even physical touchpoints – identifying where friction happens can become much more complicated. Cross-channel user experience testing requires more than just checking if an interface works; it demands seeing how real users transition between platforms in real time.

Start by Mapping the Full Customer Journey

Before launching any tasks in UserTesting, it's important to have a clear customer journey map. Know where your users might begin (e.g. an email or a social ad) and where they might go next (app, mobile browser, desktop site, in-store). This map will inform which tasks you ask participants to perform and in what order. Without this foundation, it’s easy to collect fragmented insights that lack context.

Use Tasks that Imitate Real Behaviors Across Platforms

The key to spotting cross-platform UX issues is designing tasks that mimic real-world transitions. For example, users could be asked to start browsing on the mobile app, switch to your desktop site to complete a purchase, and then confirm a follow-up offer via email. Watching users perform these transitions helps identify friction points, such as login issues, inconsistent layouts, unclear messaging, or lost progress between devices.

Watch for Signals of Frustration

Beyond technical bugs, UserTesting captures the qualitative side of user behavior. Pay attention to:

• Confusion when interfaces or information appear differently across devices
• Moments when users have to repeat steps or re-enter data
• Verbal cues and facial expressions that signal friction or hesitation

These moments give you direct insight into what your customer journey feels like and why a user might abandon their experience altogether.

Look for Inconsistencies, Not Just Errors

Sometimes the issue isn’t a major problem, but a small inconsistency that chips away at user trust. For instance, a checkout flow that looks polished on desktop but clunky on mobile can signal poor coordination between teams or tools. These inconsistencies undermine brand perception and lead to drop-offs that are easy to miss without cross-channel testing.

Integrate UserTesting Findings into Broader CX Strategy

Don’t let your insights sit in isolation. Share findings with product teams, marketing, and customer support to make sure the right teams can act. When treated as part of your broader customer journey mapping and customer friction analysis process, UserTesting becomes far more than a testing tool – it becomes a strategic lever to fix broken customer journeys and improve digital experiences end to end.

As more research teams embrace DIY UX testing tools like UserTesting to move faster and control budgets, one challenge continues to emerge: extracting meaningful, actionable insights from the influx of raw feedback. While these platforms make it easier to run tests independently, the research still needs structure, strategy, and interpretation – that’s where expert researchers come in.

DIY Tools Provide the Data – Experts Bring the Insight

Without the right research question, even the most advanced UX testing tools can produce vague or misleading results. Experienced researchers help ensure your test setup aligns with business objectives, customer behavior, and realistic scenarios. They know how to frame tasks that deliver useful variation in user behavior and how to avoid bias in study design.

For example, a junior team member might ask participants to “click around and share what they think” – yielding few takeaways. An expert researcher, however, crafts guided tasks that reveal specific friction points across a multi-channel experience, such as how easy it is to resume a shopping flow that started on mobile but finishes on desktop.

Interpretation Is Critical to Avoid Misleading Conclusions

DIY testing tools provide a firehose of video clips, quotes, and survey data. But having data is different from understanding it. Skilled researchers know how to synthesize findings into patterns, weigh outliers versus common behaviors, and avoid drawing false conclusions from a single anecdote. This is particularly important when analyzing cross-platform customer experience mapping, where inconsistent results can come from differences in platform design or user expectations, not necessarily broken design.

AI Can Support, But Humans Add Context

Many tools now offer AI summarization or sentiment tagging. While helpful for efficiency, these tools can miss subtle but important insights – such as emotional shifts between device switches or the frustration felt when users confront familiar issues repeatedly. Human researchers add vital interpretive context that AI can't replicate (yet), ensuring your findings actually drive change.

Build Team Capabilities As You Go

Another advantage of working with experienced researchers is knowledge transfer. They don't just run tests; they coach teams on how to get better at using the tools. Over time, your team becomes more capable of independently designing high-impact research, balancing efficiency with strategic depth.

In short, the true power of DIY tools like UserTesting is unlocked when paired with human expertise. For organizations with growing needs but limited internal bandwidth, tapping into experienced insight professionals – even temporarily – is a smart, scalable solution.

When it comes to filling research gaps or supporting a big UX testing push, many companies weigh three common options: hiring freelancers, partnering with agencies, or turning to On Demand Talent. While each path has its place, On Demand Talent stands out as the most flexible, effective way to get high-quality insights, faster and more sustainably.

Freelancers May Lack Focus and Support

Freelancers can offer speed and affordability, but often come with variability. Many freelance researchers are juggling multiple clients, may not have deep experience with tools like UserTesting, and typically work outside your established workflows. This can lead to disjointed research output or lost context over time – especially in complex projects like cross-platform customer experience mapping, where continuity and alignment matter.

Agencies Are Comprehensive But Costly

Full-service agencies like SIVO Insights deliver end-to-end market research, but partnering with agencies for smaller or more tactical needs – such as short-term UX testing – can be overkill and cost-prohibitive. Often, agencies have fixed timelines and require minimum scopes that don’t flex with your needs.

Why On Demand Talent Is Different

SIVO’s On Demand Talent is designed for today’s evolving research landscape, offering a fractional, highly experienced solution that flexes with you. Our professionals are carefully vetted experts in consumer insights, user experience research, and digital journey testing. Many bring a deep understanding of DIY tools, including how to optimize tests within UserTesting to uncover nuanced transition friction between mobile apps and desktop websites – and how those issues affect the end-to-end customer journey.

Benefits of On Demand Talent Over Other Options:

• Speed: Access insight professionals in days or weeks – no long hiring cycles
• Expertise: Get senior-level capability from day one – no training needed
• Continuity: Our professionals can plug into your systems and team structure
• Scalability: Support complex or high-volume testing efforts without committing to permanent headcount
• Internal Growth: They don’t just do the work, they help your team build lasting research capabilities

Unlike freelancers who may come and go, or agencies that stay on their terms, On Demand Talent acts as an extension of your team. Whether you're solving a short-term user experience issue or tackling a broader customer journey mapping initiative, our experts are committed to your outcomes – not just deliverables.