The world of business is an ever-turning, ever-changing, and ever-evolving one. Those of us old enough to remember the world before the changes that the advent of the internet brought about, will remember business being, well, considerably slower than it is today. However, with the rise of the web came a remarkable level of adaptability and change, and it wasn’t long before business was leading the way on the path that the rest of us ultimately followed.
Now, in the second decade of the 21st century, that pace of change hasn’t slowed on jot. In fact, the foot is still firmly on the acceleration pedal, and as all good business people know, to stay ahead means to maintain the edge on your competitors, and embrace change in all its dizzying glory. The internet is old news, and there can’t be many businesses out there today without a website, an online store, and the full gamut of internet-based tools at their disposal. However, there are still plenty of businesses out there which are lacking an app.
Make no mistake, as the net continues to find its home on mobile devices, and people continue to use their smartphones as their primary tool for pretty much everything, having an app for your business really is key to your ongoing success. To not have an app for your business is to miss out on a massive array of opportunities to take your products or services further, and that’s just the start of it. Your job as a business owner is to establish a deeper, more lasting, more trusting connection with your customers and clientele… and there’s no doubt about the fact that apps are the easiest, most easily digestible, and most effective way of achieving precisely that.
Let’s take a look at a handful of compelling reasons why your business absolutely should have an app, and why and how an app can genuinely take your company to new heights of communication, efficiency, and customer-focused success.
You Can Easily Communicate With Clients
This is the big one. An app for your business allows you to open a direct line between your company, and the smartphones which you clients keep on them all day, every day. Your job as a business owner is to establish an open, free-flowing channel of communication between yourselves and your customers… and a smartphone app facilitates this in ways which would have been unimaginable only ten years previously.
Have a special offer in your store? Have a new blend of coffee in your cafe? Want to promote a particular service, keep your clients updated on company news, or remind old clients of what you do best? An app allows all this and much more to happen in an elegant, unobtrusive, and sophisticated manner, which is proven to have high rates of efficacy among your customer base.
With news feeds on your app, those customers who take an active interest in what you do can stay updated on all your company news. You can even open comments threads or have social media integration to ensure that it’s a two-way channel of communication, inviting feedback and questions from your app holders. Such things make customers feel valued and part of your business’s ‘family’ – and that’s a powerful force which is typifying a very 21st century way of working. The same approach also facilitates business-friendly actions, such as upselling customers on their purchases, running loyalty card-type promotions via a digital platform (rather than the cumbersome and easy-to-lose physical cards), and keeping customers informed of ways they can gain a closer and more significant connection with your brand.
Push Notifications Keep Customers Engaged
One of the main benefits of having an app for your business is the fact that you can send push notifications to your app users with ease. This pop-up messages can be used to inform customers of important news or developments, remind them to visit your web store or use your services, or just prompt them towards a certain page on your app you want them to see. It’s a great way to forge that lasting connection between your business and your customer base, and keep them feeling as though you’re interested and willing to maintain a real relationship.
Improve Team Communication
Your business app isn’t just about connecting you with your customer base. Apps are also fantastic for businesses which require great communication within your own team and do away with some of the more awkward or cumbersome old-fashioned ways of communicating. If you need to send a message to all your team members at once, then making sure your staff have an app which keeps you all in touch is a great way of doing that.
What’s more, with a custom app, your business will be able to set up efficient task managers which allow jobs and tasks to be designated to team members in clear, user-friendly ways. These kind of app add-ons are hugely successful in businesses where team members have different roles at different times, and who need a certain amount of flexibility in order to work effectively. Furthermore, apps are highly effective when it comes to onboarding employees, and ensuring everyone is kept up to date at all times.
Make no mistake, team communication via a custom business app is the way forward, and streamlines work like nothing else!
On the Go Inventory Tracking
If your business requires inventory tracking or stock taking, then a custom app can be nothing short of a godsend. Automated systems via mobile apps are easy to implement and can save team members from drowning in spreadsheets and gaining headaches from keeping on top of sales and orders. Elegant, effective, and fully automated, our clients absolutely love the time and effort saving aspects of a quality custom app!
Boost Customer Loyalty
Having and maintaining a workable and successful business isn’t just about keeping operations streamlined, selling products, and staying on top of orders and deliveries. Today, customer loyalty is also absolutely essential, and the loyalty of your clientele is what will allow your business to grow and attract new attention and purchases.
Companies looking to boost customer loyalty have found amazing results through the implementation of a custom app for their business. Why? Well, partly because of the factors mentioned above: that apps open a channel of communication, and allow you to keep your customers updated about any news and developments. However, it’s also important to remember that business in the 21st century is as much about lifestyle and identity as it is about products and services. Your customers want to feel a sense of belonging when it comes to your business, and they want to feel as though you know them as much as they know you.
The possibilities and opportunities that apps bring in this regard are far-reaching – they’ll allow coffee shop staff to know your customer’s favorite orders, for example. They’ll allow clothes stores to know their customer’s size, preferences, or recent purchases. They allow customers to feedback on their experiences, chat with staff members, or gain loyalty points which can be traded for discounts or freebies.
It’s a brave new world of apps for business, and if your business doesn’t have an app yet, it’s high time you looked into this new dawn of tech integration and enhanced customer relations!
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