If you ask someone to think of a Canadian invention, it’s quite likely the telephone will come to mind. Canadian’s today love their smartphones – as of 2016, 76% of Canadians own a smartphone. This is a sharp increase from 2014, where only 55% of Canadians owned a smart phone.
What does this mean for businesses today? It means that businesses now, more than ever, can benefit from mobile app development to create a mobile experience for their customers. Having a mobile friendly website is no longer enough. With mobile app development you can achieve much more with your customers because once downloaded the app stays on the device.
Here are some of the benefits of mobile app development:
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Provide more value to your customers to cultivate customer loyalty
A mobile app will not only increase interaction to promote sales, but also add a level of value. For example, a mobile app can feature a loyalty program where the more a customer interacts with your business, the more points they collect and can redeem for free stuff.
Mobile scheduling and reminders is also a way a mobile app can add value for customers. If you are a service such as a salon or exercise studio, use a mobile app to allow customers to make appointments or sign up for classes, then uses SMS messaging to confirm appointment and to send class reminders.
Mobile Payments. As of 2016, market research has seen an increase in mobile app payments. This trend is expected to surge indicating an increasing level of comfort with mobile payment technology. Mobile payments offer a lot of convenience to your customers and therefore added value.
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Build brand and recognition
If you build an app that your customers will love while at the same time being well branded and beautifully designed, the sooner they will be inclined to buy your product and/or service. In advertising this is called the “effective frequency”: as a rule of thumb, hearing and/or seeing your brand approximately 20 times is what will get you truly noticed. Furthermore, the more regular interaction with customers, the more fostering trust, which turns into more sales.
Ease of use, enjoyment, and pleasing design are important factors for the success of your app. There is a psychological factor in human-computer interactions where in the user’s mind, if it looks attractive, it must be easy and enjoyable to use.
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Connect better with customers
Using push notifications can serve as a medium of communicating new releases or products to your customers. Notifications give you the ability to open discussions with your customers to carry out market surveys and provide solutions to their grievances when it arises.
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Predictive Analysis
The use of apps as data collection tools cannot be over-emphasized. Collecting data from how users engage with your app can say a lot about their likes and dislikes. You can use this information to track the progress of certain products and services and cultivate marketing campaigns targeted towards user preferences.
At 76% adoption, having a mobile strategy is necessary to simply stay afloat. Whether you are a small, medium, or large business, a mobile app is becoming a standard component of business.
