The other night, I went out to dinner with a friend. After we had paid, the waiter provided us with a receipt and the opportunity to get $5 off our next meal by completing a survey about his service. Instead of waiting to get home and go online, we completed the survey in the restaurant on our smart phone.

Americans spend a lot of time on their phones, and marketers want to know who exactly is using them and how.  An important question is where are customers using mobile and where in the lifecycle are they using mobile.

For example, I often use my smart phone in a store to comparison shop by checking a price. If the price is right, I will make the purchase in the store. I’m not alone in doing this. Turns out 16 percent of customers use mobile to compare prices while in a store.

Another way I use mobile is when I’m looking at a catalog while watching TV. When I find an item I want to purchase, I use my phone’s browser to connect and buy.

“When you are able to find out this information you can prioritize your improvements and benchmark your performance,” says Eric Feinberg of ForeSee, who writes for his company’s blog.

As mobile experiences continue to improve, so will the value of smart phones in our lives.