Developing An App – Episode 1 – Why?

Does your business really need an app?

The simple answer is yes you do, otherwise your competition could gain a major business advantage over you. I guess you would expect us to say that but a business that has its own app can steal the march on its competitors by offering their customers the benefit of quick and easy communication and purchases, improved customer service and keeping up to date with them on the go. In 2016 90%* of companies surveyed said they were going to increase investment in their mobile apps so if you are not one of these 90% you could be in danger of falling behind.

1 – Improve Perceived Value With Your Clients
Giving your customers an app to keep in touch with their orders not only gives added value but benefits such as a free draw or loyalty points is a good way to add even more perceived value. We know customers who have promotions such as ‘freebie Friday’ or ‘Manic Monday’ where app users can win small items like some business cards, a banner, branded pens and notepads. It works a treat, engages app users, builds loyalty and doesn’t cost the company much in costs.

2 – Build A Stronger Brand
Consider this, everyone is looking at their phones everywhere they go. Is the opportunity to be there with them a good one? Letting them know of your special offers, discounts, exclusive app offers, loyalty discounts, news feeds? Of course it is!

Even if they are mostly using their devices for LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook, your app is there on their phone and if you have a well designed icon they will still see this during every day navigation and be subconsciously reminded of your brand.

3 – Win More Business Quicker
There are so many reports that have been commissioned over the years that provide different measures on how much it costs to win new clients versus selling new services to existing clients. Having an app allows you to push those new services to the existing clients quicker than ever before and gain a faster ROI.

New customers can be attracted by the knowledge you have an app that allows them to order anytime of the day or night quickly and gain improved customer service.

4 – Staying Ahead Of Your Competition
Let’s face it, your competition will be trying to court your customer all the time. If they don’t have an app, the perception is that they are well behind you in technology, service levels won’t be as good and it will just reaffirm how advanced your business is to them. They will consider it a backward step to even considering changing supplier!

5 – Boost Efficient With Order Submission To Your SOP/MIS/ERP
E-commerce is mostly thought of as the concept of selling online to the masses 24 hours a day with low overheads. If this is your thought then you are right but you are missing a major advantage for your business.

You can gain major efficiency savings by submitting these online orders directly into your SOP/MIS/ERP system via an API. Recent studies have indicated that the cost of administering online orders where they have to be rekeyed into an order or invoice system can range from £30 to £80 per order, so all your profit could have evaporated before the administration of that order is complete. On smaller value orders you could even be loosing money.

6 – Make It Easy For Your Customer To Re-Order
If you supply physical product, consider printing a code on the item or box that your app can read. This allows a buyer to notice they are getting low, scan, confirm quantity and submit in less than 3 clicks. Be smart and use the GPS within the device to establish what location they are ordering from to preset delivery. Quick and efficient. If you then submit this order to your internal system via an API then it goes direct to production with no manual touch points.

Your own dedicated business app keeps you ahead of your competition on so many levels.

Coming in Episode 2: When designing your app, should you also take the opportunity for a rebrand?

* https://arc.applause.com/2016/01/18/mobile-app-investment-in-2016/