Smartphones and mobile devices are everywhere around us and other than making phone calls and sending text messages, these devices serve almost every purpose we can imagine through a host of mobile apps installed on them. The metamorphosis of mobile devices from a simple communication device to an integral part of our daily lives has truly been outstanding. A huge factor behind the massive growth of handheld devices, first and foremost smartphones, is the presence of numerous mobile applications filled with brilliant features and jaw-dropping utilities. These applications brought various changes into the marketplace including the way we book hotel rooms, order products, they introduced new team communication tools and methods, changed the way we transfer money, etc.
One of the key features of the modern digital environment is being multi-channel-oriented. Nurturing an effective presence in those channels will provide much necessary contact with potential customers that nowadays is a vital business challenge. In terms of business, mobile apps are considered to be one of the most powerful tools of today’s business for targeting audiences and communicating with your customers. According to Statista, the current number of smartphone users in the world is 3.5 billion, meaning 45.04% of the world’s population owns a smartphone. In other words, almost every adult in the world owns a smartphone and the market continues to grow.
Customers want access to information about products or services instantly at their fingertips. Are you still thinking about whether to create a mobile app for your business? In this article, we are going to share a list of benefits that a mobile app can provide for your business and how to build one.
Listening To Your Customers Will Get You Far
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Customer communication is no longer just about the face-to-face interaction between you and your customers at the premises of your physical store. With around 3.5 billion active smartphone owners and users, creating a mobile app for your business can be a turning point when it comes to customer service. Just like that, you will be available to your customers 24/7. They will have all the necessary information about a product or a service whenever they want. Along with consistent communication with your customers, you will be able to raise brand awareness and build trust on a much higher level. As a matter of fact, when your target audience recognizes your business as trustworthy, potential customers will pay more attention to what you offer.
Mobile apps serve many functions as they can provide general information, prices, booking forms, user accounts, messengers, a news feed, and much more. Surely one of the biggest benefits of having such an app is that all the information you would like to provide to your customers – such as promotions and special sales – is right at their fingertips. Push notifications play a significant role in this key area of mobile apps as with them you are getting even closer to direct interaction with the app user, and you can easily remind customers about your products and services. Through the mobile app, you can also provide more value to the most loyal of them with so-called loyalty programs. For instance, you can encourage your users to collect points each time they interact with your brand through the app and later they can use the collected points to get discounts or special offers.
Truly satisfied customers are way more likely to buy products or upgrade services and are less likely to cancel. Customer satisfaction leads to increased sales – as easy as that. Extraordinary customer experience is a major competitive advantage that drives new sales, and as of 2020, customer experience is set to overtake product and price as the main brand differentiator.
Create The Perfect App For Your Customers
When it comes to developing a mobile app, you should know that the process of creating one is not limited to coding only. App development involves many stages, including idea description and clarification, communication with a software development company, cost estimation, prototyping, design, mobile development and back-end, release and of course – marketing. It’s certainly not an easy thing to do – but the game is certainly worth the candle.
First things first, contact a reliable software development company and give them a general description of your application. The cost of building your dream app depends on various factors such as the company you outsource the development work to, platform choice, pricing model, the scope of work, etc. A very important aspect while developing the app is to choose the right hosting. Since there are several possibilities on the market, make sure to consult with your software development company in order to choose the hosting that suits your business plan the best. As a hosting platform on the rise, docker container hosting might be the best solution for your needs with multiple options to save money and time as well. Either way, you will need to build two parallel apps for Android and iOS to ensure a seamless experience on multiple devices.
The user interface (UI) is an integral part of every mobile app. The mobile app logic is provided by a server, which is built with web development technologies like PHP, .Net, Ruby, and others. The app logic term refers to many things such as live chat, referral/customer loyalty program elements, social features, and payments which are essential to your application. And then, there is the design part. We recommend that your design decisions should always be based on thorough user research. Altogether with a user experience designer, you’ll think of how app screens should be connected to each other to help your customers use your app in the most convenient way and make sure the design meets the Google Play and App Store requirements.
Spread The Word
After you’ve finished everything regarding the development of the app and carefully designed it, your app will be ready to launch. And here comes the hardest part of the equation – application marketing. Even though apps consume over 90% of the total mobile time, the majority of smartphone users use around 30 apps on a regular basis. When deciding about the app marketing with your marketing consultant always have in mind to market the app feature that will help you stand out from the competition as the starting point of your campaign. You can always build a simple WordPress promo website with an explainer video and information about your project. Another way to market your app is to run a blog that documents the app making process and share news on social media. Conduct early tests to refine your products or services and you can even plan a soft launch to test your business model and app altogether.