Does Your Business Actually Need An App?
A good app is a great thing, but not all apps are created equal. Ever found yourself cursing that you’ve got to download an app to track your package from a distributor that you’ll never use again, or putting your card details into yet another restaurant app that will clog up your phone’s precious remaining memory? You’re not alone and it’s reasons like this that you need to consider when you’re thinking about creating an app for your business. That’s why we’re here to talk you through the do’s and don’t’s of app creation.
Frequency of Use
Whilst your business is your primary interest, for the vast majority of your customers, it won’t be. It’s important to remember that even though you might provide incredible service, most people’s lives won’t revolve around you. Will you be just another one-time-use app clogging up their phone? Quite possibly. However, if you provide a service that a customer could conceivably use a couple of times a week or month then an app could be useful. Coffee membership cards, gym passes, delivery services, all of these are small-ticket products that get used frequently. Looking around at your competitors could help you to decide whether your product or service is used frequently enough to warrant having an app.
What’s In It For Them?
Apps can be a great way of delivering little bonuses to your loyal customers, encouraging them to spread the word and get you more. As in the example of the coffee membership app above, instead of collecting coffee loyalty cards in your purse, you can pop your stamps onto your phone instead. The big bonus of this for the consumer, other than the free coffee, is that forgetting your phone is a great deal less likely than forgetting your loyalty card. Apps that give away free things to customers are always more appreciated than ones that don’t. See if you can work out a way to give something back to your customers for downloading your app.
What Should It Do?
First of all, if you can’t answer this question in one succinct sentence, then an app probably isn’t necessary. Now that hurdle is out of the way, it’s time to think about how to perfect your app ready for your customers to use. The best way to work this out is to decipher exactly what your customer would find useful. For example, when scrolling through the top mobile poker apps consumers could be looking for a number of things. In this instance ease of use, variety of games and speed of withdrawals could all be factors that different individuals rank different levels of importance. If you’re struggling to decide on the aspects of your app that are the most important then a case study group can prove invaluable. Listen carefully to the results of the case study and create simple mock-up apps to present to the next group. Working with prototypes in this way will ensure that you don’t spend a huge amount of time and money on something that doesn’t quite fit the bill.
