Mobile apps have secured a special place on every business owner’s to-do list who wants to grow their business digitally. As a result, mobile app development is increasingly viewed as a highly profitable business investment across all industries and niches.
As companies compete among themselves to be the first to bring about the most novel and robust features to the market, mobile apps are evolving at an unprecedented rate. And it isn’t just the consumers that are gaining from this tech-rush, but businesses are also unlocking creative and effective ways to benefit themselves with mobile apps.
Sure developing a mobile app brings in a ton of traditional advantages like improved sales and better marketing opportunities for any business involved, but apps also offer many often underappreciated benefits that more companies need to take advantage of. I’ve discussed three such ways in which mobile apps can be further utilized by businesses to better grow their profits and customer satisfaction.
Access to Invaluable Customer Data
To anyone who has ever published an app, it must be evident that apps produce a vast amount of customer data that businesses can tap into. However, most companies fail to realize the true business potential of this as well as the right way to use it.
So, let’s try to understand what customer data is and the right way to use it. Customer data encompasses many data points like user behavior, session duration, shopping habits, page views, and other demographic data. It’s a broad term, as you can tell, and frankly speaking, you can collect almost any type of data based on how your app is designed.
But how can you leverage all this to your advantage you’ll be thinking? Good question, here is how:
First of all, user data helps you calculate your acquisition cost and your ROI. Meaning analyzing data can help you better understand how much you spend on average to gain new customers as well as the average amount you’ll be making off of them. These figures won’t be absolutely accurate down to the decimals, of course, but they’ll give a good idea of what you need to tweak and improve in your mobile app strategy.
Beyond that, customer data allows you to build practical and effective user profiles. These can further help you better understand user behavior (even down to the individual level, if you do it right) and equip you to serve your customers better. A report from Statista suggested that around 25% of all apps were only launched once after being downloaded, meaning around a quarter of all apps fails to retain acquired users. One good way to get around this problem can be personalization. For instance, mobile users in the US can be shown results, offers, suggestions, and even ads based on their location and other demographic data by mobile app development companies USA. This creates the type of personalized and relevant user experience customers have come to expect these days, and it is only possible by utilizing the available user data.
Mobile apps take customer service to a whole new level
Another often underutilized advantage of mobile apps is the direct communication channel they open up with your customers. Just with the push of a few buttons, you can send out push notifications for your users to see, but the real magic happens when the connection is reversed.
Apps make it possible for customers to connect with companies easily, and there are many advantages of it, like being able to collect relevant feedback and improving customer service. Let’s focus on the feedback part first. There are many ways of going about it, the major ones being app surveys and in-app forms. But why should you prefer app-based feedback over other traditional channels? The simple answer is because it is quick, direct, and convenient.
In-app feedback is quick because it is built into the app itself, users need not visit and register on another site or page, and thus they are more likely to finish the feedback process. Mobile app developers can utilize this to test out new features, quickly improving and patching them with real-time feedback. Beyond that, when customers give feedback often, it becomes easier for companies to understand their user base and fulfill their needs better.
More than feedback, Mobile apps can be utilized as an excellent channel for customer support. The truth about customer service is that no one likes to wait upon phone calls trying to get in touch with a company’s executives. To get around this, businesses must encourage app-based self-service to enable the customers to help themselves. A nice place to start is with having a dedicated FAQs section and a detailed knowledge base about your product and business integrated straight within your app. For customers who’ll need more help than that, companies can also add automatic chat support within the app. This will help resolve most queries in no time, increasing customer satisfaction and retention.
Transform your brand into something people love
If you notice closely, the above two points lead us seamlessly into the present one. When customers see a brand that offers personalized and relevant experience while being receptive and responsive to customer feedback, it boosts trust among users. Quick and responsive customer service also inspires loyalty as it sends out the message that the company cares for its users.
But mobile apps can also be utilized in many creative ways to further improve customer loyalty and brand image. One good way to do so is by implementing a loyalty program. These come in all shapes and sizes, but perhaps the simplest way to spot one is to identify if a company rewards its customers (with discounts, offers, relevant promotions, etc.) for being loyal to them. And under such a broad definition, it might seem like loyalty programs are everywhere, but the real reason behind their popularity is that they simply work. A study from Citi Retail Services discovered that around 86% of customers are more loyal to brands that offer reward programs.
But how can your mobile app help you make the best out of your loyalty program? The answer is simple; loyalty programs work best when it is easy and convenient to participate in them and when the rewards they offer are instant and something the user cares about. All of these things are much easier to achieve when the program is executed through a mobile application. Given the direct and real-time nature of app communication, loyalty programs feel highly responsive and rewarding on mobile devices, which boosts customer engagement and retention.
Beyond just offering effective loyalty programs, your mobile app can be an excellent tool to building a brand that your users really love. How? Because apps allow brands to engage with their audience on a much deeper level compared to traditional channels. By employing a user-centric design, a robust customer service infrastructure, and exciting programs that engage the individual user as well as the community, a mobile app can carve out an image for itself that its users would love to be associated with.
Conclusion
There are a million exciting ways in which a mobile app can benefit your business, some popular others not so much, but ultimately what matters the most is that a company learns to play to its strength when it comes to mobile apps. You’ll have to find creative ways to express and celebrate the ways in which you and your product can help your customers.
Regardless of how you choose to utilize and monetize your mobile app, it is clear that apps are the future of our ever-growing digital economy. Goodfirms has curated a list of top mobile app development companies that you can pick and choose from for businesses wanting to develop their own app but lacking the required expertise for it.
How will you leverage your mobile app to take your business to the next level?
Author Bio: Darren Mathew is passionate about Tech, Business, and the evolving relationship between the two. He is a blogger at GoodFirms – a leading review and rating platform that lets consumers compare and choose the right service provider for their needs.
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