Do you also ask what else you can do for your business, how to maximize profit and not to lose clients? Have you already got an idea to make a mobile application for these purposes but you are still not sure whether it is a step in the right direction? The following 5 reasons will make your decision-making easier.

1. Get a new business channel and be seen more

Mobile devices are on the increase, smartphones replace “dumb” phones very fast, and although the number of tablets does not increase much these days (due to the highly saturated market), phablets do much better and smart watches are also likely to be successful in the future. We have all those smart gadgets with us mostly all day long and use them intensively. An average European spends more than two hours a day on its mobile darling! Mobile applications take the largest proportion of that time.

Source: Flurry analytics, ComScore, NetMarketShare

Be seen!

As a matter of course, users most often use only a few favourite applications. However, this does not change the fact that they must unlock the device and find the application on one of the screens of the system or in the list in order to use the application. At that moment the icon of your application with a perfect graphic design catches their eyes.

Willy-nilly, the user notices it, even though subconsciously, and keeps the information about it. The subconscious human mind notices every image and text it comes across, which is an advantage for your business. Even if your application is not in the top ten list and is used by your clients only sporadically, you will impress yourselves on their mind more and more every day.

Take the advantage – be always close to your clients, they will remember you at the right time.

And what about your business brand?

Are your customers able to identify you among the other companies in the branch? If you integrate the brand sensitively into the design of the application, you will fulfil its potential even a bit more and earn plus points as compared to your competitors. Keep in mind that to really remember a “new” business brand, you must see it about 20 times. The more you are seen by the clients, the closer you are to making a deal.

2. Your customers like mobile applications. Let them have it!

The use of mobile applications is very comfortable for the users of mobile devices. They can get instantly to their favourite functions and contents and in many cases they even do not need to be online. Easier satisfaction of everyday needs, such as buying a public transport ticket, using a mobile library or audio library, instant sharing of interesting matters in social networks, etc. results in a much more time of using your services, which leads to higher sales.

If you do not have a mobile application but the competitors do, you are giving your clients a reason why to use their services and not yours. 

Give your clients an opportunity to have within their reach what they want or need, and strengthen their loyalty this way. 

A rather old but still valid Google research shows that as early as in 2011 the users could be divided into three major groups, depending on the manner how they used mobile devices:

• I want to find out something quickly –  9 of 10 persons in the first group took an action after finding the information in the browser and a half of those actions led to a purchase
  
• I am looking for a store / service / establishment nearby – the second group largely mingles with the first one but the main difference is that if they find some local information, 88 percent of them take some action afterwards (make a call / visit the store, etc.) within a day
• I want to buy something – 27 percent of all purchases took place through mobile pages and as many as 22 percent through a mobile application

A nice summary of the information obtained in the research is available on the website SearchEngineLand.

As it follows from the survey, a large proportion of a mobile device use concerns the information that leads, either directly or indirectly, to an order. Not having a mobile application means that you lose your market share voluntarily.

3. Increase your profit and win new customers

With a quality application you can also win new customers or poach them from your competitors. Here is a practical example: In the past we were contacted by a bus carrier facing an unpleasant situation when it did not manage to poach clients from competitors even after investing into the fleet and even by the lower fares. On the contrary, the internal statistics (after removing season variations, etc.) showed a clearly visible trend of a decreasing number of clients.

When analysing the types of clients and their behaviour in the course of booking, we found out that a substantial number of the “lost” ones changed the booked time several times during the day.

They mostly did so twice but 30 percent of them did so even several times during the day. This led us to the assumption that those people did not have a strictly given time of departure and planned their journey according to the current needs arising during the day. Afterwards we guessed where they might change the booking because they were not likely to have a desktop with Internet connection at their disposal all the time. 

The solution how to win them back was, as a matter of course, a mobile application that made it possible for them to monitor the bookings, change them, cancel them and add new ones. Together with improving the booking process for a desktop (UX revision) we achieved an increase in the number of regular customers by as many as 25 percent!

4. Be ahead of your competitors

A majority of large companies operating in any branch in the market have already had a mobile application or are getting it done but mobile applications are rather rare among medium-sized and small businesses. And this is where you can draw away from the competitors, win recognition of your clients, a major part of which will certainly be thrilled by your mobile application, and get the credit among experts. Moreover, you will throw down the glove to your competitors that will begin to emulate you at once.

However, not all competitors realize that making a quality application requires a lot of designing work in respect of its functions, processes and look.

And they also do not realize that a perfect analysis of clients’ needs and a novel method of their satisfaction form the absolutely necessary basis. So you do not have to be afraid much that you lose the advantage over your competitors fast – on the contrary, due to new information obtained from the operation of the application and its continuous improvement and extension you will keep on top. 

What matters is to begin as soon as possible and not to rest on laurels.

Increase the involvement of your customers

The more you are seen and the more communication channels you occupy and the higher utility value you offer to your customers, the more they will like you and will not tend to use the services of competitors or to make their purchases elsewhere. 

5. Address your customers directly

Do you know that with the function “push notification” you can address your customers e.g. when they appear not far from your brick-and-mortar store or when you have a convenient campaign for them, no matter whether they are using your mobile application at the moment?

Practical example: You have the mobile application of your favourite restaurant installed. Through the application you can book a table for a particular time, order a home delivery, etc. One day you pass by that restaurant and it happens that you mobile receives the message: “Come to our afternoon barbecue! We have a free drink for you as our loyal customer 🙂”. Do you think it is exaggerated? It is not, this is exactly the way how you can fantastically promote virtually anything. Just beware of the frequency of bombarding your clients this way with various messages and their relevance.

As an entrepreneur you must remember that the main objective of a mobile application is to solve a real problem. So not any ground-breaking ideas, which is something a start-up enthusiast may dare to use, but only hard data, statistics and their reasonable analysis will give you the answer to the question how the mobile application should look like.

And, of course, the selection of a skilful and quality team matters as well. Good luck!