Smartphones wouldn’t be half as interesting if they weren’t for mobile apps. There would barely be a reason to look at a smartphone. More than 90% of the time people spend using smartphones is spent inside an app. That’s more than four and a half hours of attention being occupied by apps every day. Too many businesses, this sounds like an open invitation to build a custom mobile app. For the right kind of business that uses the right kind of app developer, a mobile app can be a great asset. That’s exactly why KexWorks is offering app development as a service — we know how valuable it can be.
It can go the other way around, too. The two main stores where people get apps hold together more than five million different apps. A lot of apps are only opened once after users download them. Businesses shouldn’t rush with mobile app development. It would be best to carefully consider your options and use these questions to assess whether a mobile app is what your business needs.
Is Your Business Already Addressing Mobile Users?
Every business, even a small brick-and-mortar one, needs to go after potential customers on mobile devices. There’s so much value to be extracted there that no business can afford to overlook mobile users. Developing a mobile app is one of the ways to go after them.
However, apps shouldn’t be the go-to method for attracting, or at least getting closer to, mobile users. The first thing you should do is make a mobile-friendly website. Then, you can see how many visitors the website has, and how keen they might be to interact with your business online.
Are Your Competitors Investing in Mobile Apps?
If the corner of your industry is investing heavily in mobile apps, it might be a sure sign that you should follow suit and call us to develop an app for you. There’s no reason to stay out of this arms race if you can easily catch up to your competitors.
But you might not need to. Your competitors might all have mobile apps, but that doesn’t mean their apps are performing well. Their apps might be completely useless to them, which indicates that an app might be useless to you, too. Best snoop a bit around their apps.
Is There a Problem the App Solves for the Customer?
You can have a mobile app built for your business just because you think apps are cool. But that’s usually a sure way to get an app you don’t need. The customer is the person who has to need the app, and they will especially need it if it solves a problem for them.
The problem your app needs to solve can be as simple as “having no time to go window-shopping.” However, if you want your app to be a real success, it’s best to dig a bit deeper and find a real need or a problem. Then, if the app solves it, you can expect customers to love using the app.
How Many Repeat Customers Does Your Business Have?
Mobile shopping can be a real chore when compared to desktop shopping. It’s much easier it is to insert your information when shopping for a desktop device than to ruin your thumbs trying to do it all on a mobile device.
If your customers have to go through this on a regular basis, it makes sense to create an app that will hold their information. They’ll have a much easier time shopping from you and less thumb soreness. Your business, on the other hand, will have a boost in conversion rates.
Do You Have Anything Extra to Offer?
Apps can be very fun and very useful. They offer things websites don’t, which is one of the reasons why users like them so much. The more fun and utility your app provides, the more you can expect people to come back to it.
One of the things your app can offer is easy access to your business loyalty program. But you’ll need a loyalty program for that. If you don’t have one, think about adding some features that take advantage of the smartphone’s hardware. Something to do with a camera or the accelerometer.
You don’t need all the answers to, point towards having an app. Just a couple of will do. The important thing is to have good reasons to believe an app will deliver value to your customer base. That’s your part of the job. You can count on us for app development and everything else.
