Today, your smartphone is not too far out of reach.
Whether checking your email, scrolling through social media, looking up directions or ordering your favorite meal, mobile apps have become integral to daily life.
Have you ever thought about how a mobile app could help your business?
Numbers don't lie. For instance, there are over 7 billion users of mobile phones worldwide while a global average person spends more than 4 hours a day on their cell phone. That is an enormous audience just waiting to connect with your business!
Companies of all sizes, from the smallest startups to big businesses, tap into the possibilities of mobile apps to reach customers, streamlining operations, and improving their bottom line.
Below are 10 incredible benefits mobile apps can bring to your business.
10 Benefits of Mobile Apps for Your Business
Here are the top 10 benefits you should know about business mobile apps.
1. Enhanced Customer Engagement
With a mobile application, you are not bound by time or geography, so your business will be there for your customer all the time right in their pocket.
With push notifications, for example, you can send alerts to people when they need to know about some information at the best possible time, special offers, or just friendly reminders about your products or services.
But where it gets really interesting is that with mobile apps, you can create tailor-made user experiences that could never have been created before. You can collect data about your customers' preferences and behaviors and thus tailor the app experience to each user individually. Similarly, using tools like invoice receipt templates for Google Docs allows businesses to create customized documents that align with their branding, making administrative tasks more efficient while still offering a personalized touch.
So at this level of personalization, it is what makes your customers feel appreciated and understood, bringing in a much stronger bond between your brand and its customers.
And the more a customer will feel to become a part of, the more likely it is that they will remain and eventually become an advocate for your business.
2. Increased Brand Visibility
If you offer your app on either Google Play or the Apple App Store, you're putting your brand in the faces of millions of consumers.
But your mobile app is not just another icon on someone's phone-it is a power marketing channel in its own right. Every time a user scrolls through the apps on his phone, he is looking at your logo. Even if the person doesn't open the application, that brand exposure is still there.
That kind of constant visibility can do wonders for brand recall and recognition.
Think of this — how many times have you recalled a brand just because you saw its app icon on your home screen? That's the good power of staying on their most personal devices.
And that's not all. If your app provides value to users, they might even recommend it to their friends and family. Partnering with top app development companies can ensure your app is not only functional but also user-friendly and engaging. These companies specialize in creating high-quality apps that offer value, driving user satisfaction and, ultimately, word-of-mouth referrals.
3. Improved Customer Loyalty
With an in-app loyalty and rewards feature that can be used to make your customer feel appreciated, you can ensure he/her coming back for more.
Just imagine this. Your customer has purchased something in your app and immediately sees transparency around the loyalty points. That would make them feel good and already make them think about what they would like to use those points for in the future.
However, it gets even better. Your app can also provide deals and promotions to your mobile users on terms that are exclusive and cannot be availed of elsewhere. There is a flash sale that stays open for only a short period and might be accessed only through the app, or maybe it is an application-specific coupon code.
These kinds of promotions make the customers feel that they are VIPs and make them emotionally bond with your brand.
4. Valuable Customer Insights
In the world of business, there is a saying, "Knowledge is power." And when it comes to mobile apps, well that's like having a superpower to know all about customer insights.
With every tap, swipe, and click in your application, there is precious data about how your customer feels.
In more simple words, a mobile app silently witnesses how your customers are using your business. Which products are they visiting the most? Which features are used the most? At what times of day are they most active on the application?
All this and much more information could aid in making the most informed decisions about everything from product development to marketing strategies.
Besides this, your app can directly be a line for customer feedback. You can add rating systems and surveys, or even more plainly, a simple feedback form. This makes your customers' voices heard and provides an impression that you care about your customers' opinions.
For one, it gives you honest, real-time feedback regarding your products or services. You could thus make some special promo during that time to capitalize on the trend.
5. Streamlined Customer Service
We have all been there — waiting to talk to someone on the customer service team for an hour, listening to the same song on the end over and over again. Painful as it is for a customer, it also becomes a burden for any business.
But what if there was an easier way? All thanks to a mobile app.
With in-app support, you can altogether overhaul the customer experience of service. Just imagine having live chat functionality right within your app, where customers can get real-time assistance from you without ever needing to pick up the phone. It's convenient for them and efficient for you, after all, so it's a win-win!
A mobile app can make it easier to get your customers to the right people at the right time. All of the customer's account information is now at the fingertips of the support team, which helps to answer them faster and more personally.
Result? Happier customers who feel supported, and a more efficient customer service operation for your business.
6. Increased Sales and Revenue
A mobile app can also be an effective way through which you can increase your sales and revenue.
For the first time, your business now opens up to the world of mobile commerce. With a few taps, your customers can browse products, make purchases, and conveniently track their orders for them but lucrative for you.
After all, the less effort you put into your customers' buying from you, the more probable it is that they will. It will accelerate your sales cycle.
But that's not all about streamlining the buying flow. The mobile application offers great opportunities for upselling and cross-selling. Imagine a customer adds a pair of shoes to their cart. Your app can suggest matching accessories or show other customers' favorite pairings.
And here's something cool - mobile apps can remove most of the transaction friction.
Saved payment info and one-click ordering are features that will remove the friction that probably would have made them drop their purchase.
7. Improved Operational Efficiency
A mobile app can make all the difference in your operations, especially in those areas you present to your customers. But its benefits do not stop here. It can be an effective tool that helps smooth out internal processes and facilitates overall operational efficiency as well.
While one of the major benefits of a mobile app is its power to automate several business processes, things that you used to do by hand can now be handled by your app.
For instance, your app could automatically post changes in sales to inventory, remind you of appointments coming up, or even print reports detailing key business metrics.
But perhaps of most interest and certainly widely beneficial is the potential of an app to drive awareness into the area of inventory management. Your app can alert you when your stock is running low, track which of your products are selling fastest, and even help predict your future inventory needs based on sales trends.
More importantly, one can centralize the team with the help of a mobile application, so there would be easy and fast communication from any place.
From updates sharing towards task assignments to collaboration on individual projects, the app can help your team stay connected and aligned.
8. Cost-Effective Marketing
Marketing can be at times like a bottomless pit – you are pouring money in, hoping for some meaningful return.
What if there is something better? Something where marketing your business is made easier while simultaneously cutting down on expenses? A mobile app!
Furthermore, the app itself could be an effective marketing tool. Each time a user opens your app, he is interacting with your brand. It is like holding a billboard that your customers voluntarily read every day!
Push notifications, for instance, will enable you to send individualized communications directly to their devices. Maybe you're running a flash sale or maybe launching a new product quick notification can alert all of your users in a matter of a second.
This direct line to your customers could, therefore, dramatically decrease your reliance on more expensive traditional marketing channels.
Instead of paying for a radio ad with little guarantee that your message will reach your target market, you're communicating directly to people who have already shown interest in your business by downloading your app.
9. Improved Customer Onboarding
In the digital world, your customer's first interaction with your application can be the point of difference for them while experiencing your brand. That's where powerful customer onboarding would play out, and a mobile app can very well be the deciding moment for that.
For example, such in-app guides will help users make the most of your offerings, thus increasing their satisfaction and chances of being long-term customers.
Additionally, this will simplify the process of getting started for the first time. The ability to complete the registration process through a mobile app, for instance, might facilitate a fast and painless onboarding of new users.
This can mean either allowing them to sign up using their social media accounts or dividing the registration process into manageable, step-wise steps.
Thus, instead of firing off a million questions up-front, your app can collect that information over time as every interaction teaches you more and more about what the user likes and doesn't like, and so on.
While doing that, you are not only making a good first impression but also laying down the groundwork for a long and fruitful relationship with every new customer.
10. Expanded Market Reach
Expanding geographically in the past meant a new location and a new space.
And now with a mobile app, you can reach those sitting in any corner of the globe without ever taking a step out of your cubicle at work.
Your business becomes global overnight with an app. You may be as small as a local store or as large as a larger corporation; your app can be downloaded from anywhere.
It means incredible opportunities for growth and expansion that were once available only to large multinational corporations.
But it is more than just reaching globally. It is about relevance globally. Localization capabilities in many apps mean you can configure your content, currency, and even language depending on the region.
This increased footprint doesn't translate to more consumers; it translates to more heterogeneous consumers.
Conclusion
As we discussed in this article, mobile applications bring tremendous value to businesses that operate small or large, commercial or industrial.
Having a mobile strategy is not a want but a necessity. Your customers are mobile, and so are the businesses and organizations that they consider interacting with.
Of course, developing a mobile app is not a move to be taken lightly. It involves investment, both in terms of time and resources. But as we've discussed, the potential returns can be significant, in customer loyalty, operational efficiency, and bottom-line growth.
So what are you going to do? If you haven't gotten there already, it's time to begin investigating how a mobile app might help your business.
