This Is What A Business Lost By Not Creating A Mobile App

Some tried. Many failed. Most of them wanted to and built their company’s promotional app, with a brochure and corporate profile and all and everything about what they do!

Of course they did not get traction.

And the ones that knew these companies, did not venture into building their own apps, risking failure.

But no one questioned whether it was the right strategy. They simply blamed the platform and relegated to the fact that a mobile app is just not the right thing for their small business.

These are the businesses that didn’t build a mobile app. These are the businesses that had the potential to increase customer engagement, thereby helping them increase sales! But they did not build a mobile app.

Look at what you’ve been missing by not building a mobile app for your business!

#1 Communicate with customers: An app lends your business an opportunity to communicate more effectively with your customers than those unidirectional text messages. Give your customers the power to talk to you and get a response.

They can directly give a feedback based on their experience and receive actionable response. If they knew your business cares, they’d give you the benefit of the doubt before putting negative reviews on social media.

Gary Vaynerchuk has been quoted across numerous articles saying, “I genuinely believe that any business can create a competitive advantage through giving outstanding customer care.”

Give your customers the tools to talk to you. Build tools to make the customer touch points easier. For example, if you were a take-away, make it simpler for your customers to order from the mobile app instead of calling and placing the order.

#2 Offers, coupons and deals: who isn’t looking for a good deal? If I can’t get one today doesn’t mean I shouldn’t have access to one tomorrow! Mobile apps will help you to not only send out what’s new and latest offers/deals, but through targeted and optimized analytics, you can send out deals that are relevant to the customer and those that are sent out at the appropriate times.

For example, one of the biggest challenges with e-commerce marketers is dealing with people who abandon their shopping carts after placing items in it. What if the e-commerce merchant were to send the same customer a deal on the same item or a similar one after they’ve abandoned the shopping cart?

Retailers are using geo-location services to tap into user’s mindspace. An app called SnipSnap sends out reminders to use a coupon when the user is near a store that offered the one.

Push notifications help communicate the message. And now with Apple’s iOS 8 that is scheduled to be released in the next few months will make those very notifications themselves interactive.

#3 Turn customers into loyal customers: keep your customer coming back for more through reward points. Put your loyalty punch card in the form of an app instead of a handout. Let your customers earn points by completing various tasks on the app that enhances your brand value. For example, let them suggest your app to 5 of their friends and if they download and sign-up, this customer gets a freebie.

Reward points provide an incentive to consumers to keep going back to the same establishment. The simple reason why you see almost every establishment maintaining a customer loyalty program. As a business, if you were to start one in the offline world, it could cost you several thousands of dollars to build and maintain. But the same solution through an app could cost you a fraction of that.

#4 Better customer experience: if you were a restaurant owner, wouldn’t it be really easy for your customers to reserve a table through an app? Go the extra mile and provide them the option to choose a particular table based on the options they can see in the app. Now that’s a great customer experience enhanced by a mobile app!

If you were offering a professional service, wouldn’t it be great for your customers to log their issues with you through their app and book appointments too? Think a doctor-patient or a lawyer-client relationship. In fact, holds good for any service establishment.

#5 Make more money: well, lastly but not in the very least, you can make more money through a mobile app. What good is an engaged customer? They come back for more. And that means more business for you! An app can help you build a better relationship with your customers and the more satisfied and engaged a customer is, the more they are likely to recommend your product or service to their network.

So a business that did not build a mobile app, just didn’t know what they lost out on. If you were one of them, you now know the potential a mobile app offers and that it’s not only for the large enterprises, but even smaller businesses can increase sales and grow their business.

photo credit: BrittneyBush via photopin cc