How to Leverage Mobile App Development For Your Business in 5 Steps
Most small businesses do not leverage the power of technology due to the fear of costs. But, sensible small business owners will agree that the cost of technological advancement has dropped in the last decade or so. It is now possible to exploit the advantages of low costs to elevate your business and empower yourself to achieve things more quickly and effectively.
According to a study conducted in 2015, major top executives in the key industries found apps to be crucial to their business success and to improve the customer experience and engagement. The app technology is included in the customer experience from most brands today. For a majority of app users, apps have been a part of their daily lives since the last few years. Let us check how businesses can leverage app development for their business.
App Development Costs
It is so common that it is easy to commit the mistake of thinking that app development is easy and should not cost much. For instance, the actual cost of an app lies in the custom engineering needed to make it all happen. As per a recent report, the average cost of a mobile app is $270,000 and development time can range from 8 months to more than a year. However, there is some good news for small businesses around the world. If you are driven to provide a complete customer experience then do not allow the high cost of app development worry you. If you are a small business, you can get most useful mobile apps developed under $60,000.
Let us check how businesses can leverage app development for their business.
Customer Engagement
Mobile apps allow customers to get easy access to the most needed and secure information as and when they require it. Due to this reason, businesses are able to serve their customers in a much better way by offering a positive experience. These positive experiences often result in getting more recommendations and positive feedback from customers. Now, positive reviews and recommendations are one of the best ways to acquire new customers who can actually become loyal customers over a period of time. Moreover, app engagement doesn’t have to be snazzy to be valued. More boring functions like account management or remote management can go a long way with clients.
Products or Services Promotion
By making good use of mobile apps related to your business, you can offer acute information to your customers regarding your products or services along with any promotions or discounts. This can be done on a personal level to increase engagement and connect with the audience. If you are a retail business owner,a mobile app can provide a lot of opportunities to you. It allows you to benefit from in-store beacons to trigger on-the-spot promotions, announcements for events or just allow a better personalised experience to your customers. If you are able to do that through the app, there are high chances that the customers will keep coming back to you for more.
Increase Sales
You can improve your sales by including a mobile shopping cart if possible. If you already sell your products digitally then a mobile app is one of the sure shot ways to improve the sales. This is because a mobile app will offer a flexible solution to make a purchase and offer the convenience of enhanced shopping experience. More often than not, B2B buyers also have similar requirements when they are in a remote location and a mobile application can solve this issue.
Customer Service
Mobile apps offer customers a simple yet effective way to engage with your business as you can include information about the company, products/services and any discounts or promotions along with hours of operation. This can be achieved through calling, texting or sending an email to your business. It is also a great way to include feedback form by sending a survey by text or email at the end of the transaction. Most businesses are looking for innovative ways to improve customer service and engagement to motivate the customers to build a long term relationship.
Improved Customer Experience
Businesses can make good use of mobile applications by providing personalised functions like messaging, photo sharing, loyalty programs and push notifications etc. There are various factors that can change the dynamics of businesses and it can also affect established businesses along with small businesses. Though, most issues are not related to small businesses but small businesses still need to be a part of this disruption.
Mobile applications can act as one of the greatest tools for small businesses in the present as well as future. It is evident that you might have got an idea about the advantages of a mobile app for your business.
Final Word
Once you have gone through the above steps, we hope that you can get a fair idea of the importance and relevance of mobile applications for your business. You can consult a mobile app development company to get an estimate of the development cost and start your journey towards your first mobile app for your business. As soon as you have the ball park, you can compare it with the benefits you can get through the app.
If you have a retail store and are selling online already, it would only help you to develop your app to be omnipresent in today’s digital world. You can contact Nimblechapps, a cool mobile app development company for your project estimate today.
Dhruvil is a Writer & Marketeer for Nimblechapps, joining December 2014, based out of Sydney, Australia. He has worked briefly as a Branding and Digital Marketing Manager before moving to Australia. At Nimblechapps, he worked on Social Media Marketing, Branding, Email Marketing and Blogging. Dhruvil studies Business at University of Western Sydney, and also handles Operations for the company in Australia.