The mobile apps industry is growing and has not yet seen full growth. However, the data concerning the Swiss market are already very reassuring: according to Statista, Switzerland is the second largest user of mobile applications after South Korea.
Another study, conducted by Google, shows that 81% of smartphone users in Switzerland have already used their phone to search for a product or service. This does not convince you to create a mobile application for your SME? Good! The development of mobile applications requires considerable investment both in terms of money and time.
The first tip is: before you look at all the features of the future application, check if your company really needs it. At this stage, nothing better than asking you what goals you want to achieve through the application.
How can your business enjoy a mobile app?
Customer applications are perfect marketing tools that can benefit virtually every industry. However, companies also have an interest in developing applications for their employees, to reinforce the marketing strategy or to simplify internal processes. To get into the details, with a mobile application, you can:
1) Improve the image of your brand
What image of your company do you want to give to your (potential) customers? With a mobile application, you will be perceived as a modern, innovative company that listens to its customers. They will appreciate your efforts to pamper those who prefer to use a smartphone to access services or contact your business.
2) Strengthen customer engagement and facilitate communication
A mobile application can facilitate communication between the company and its customers. For example, you can have a feature that allows customers to contact you at any time, without having to wait for opening hours and spending nothing.
By making it easier for you to make contact, you will be more likely to hear from customers about their experiences. This will allow you to improve your customer service and, by the same token, your business efficiency. You will be able to customize the communication through data collection.
A mobile application can indeed access a lot of information about the phone and its user such as the telephone number, the telephone network used, the location, the e-mail address, the contact list, etc. Business intelligence technology will also allow you to plot the behavior of users to deduce their preferences and tastes. The collected data can serve as a basis for defining your marketing strategy.
Also, think about taking advantage of push notifications. They are far more effective at reaching their recipients than email marketing. The latter is an old method that still works for many companies today, but even if someone subscribes to your mailing list, you have no guarantee that he will notice your email in his box, or that he will read it. In comparison, the user engagement rate with push notifications reaches 40%.
3) Increase the visibility of your company to acquire new customers
And if your customers were prospecting for you? The good old word-of-mouth method is still the most effective, and there is nothing better to implement it than social networks. You may want to consider allowing users to share app content with their network. Your business will gain visibility and, by the same token, attract new customers.
In addition, a web application, that is, a site optimized for mobile will allow all people to find your business by simply typing keywords into a search engine. This is the best solution for start-ups looking to make themselves known.
4) Keep your customers loyal
Developing a mobile app can help you build customer loyalty. It is indeed an effective tool to implement promotional actions. You can, for example, offer discount coupons, send invitations to events or even organize contests.
5) Train employees and strengthen their commitment
With a mobile app, training may not become the favorite activity of your employees, but it will certainly be more engaging. The training app can contain videos, quizzes, gamification items, or dynamic results with charts to track user performance. It has the advantage of replacing many expensive and bulky tools such as manuals and tables.
6) Facilitate the management of appointments with clients
Another option is to create an application that will work as an e-brochure for mobile salespeople. They will be able to access all product information directly on their mobile device.
The application does not represent a weight constraint, can be downloaded by customers and, unlike a product catalog, automatically updated without printing costs. It is also possible to enter orders or, for intervention technicians, incident reporting. The application can be used even in disconnected mode and synchronize as soon as the connection is re-established. You can get ahead of your competition by choosing the right mobile app development agency from here.
