Should Your Business Have an App?
There has been a huge surge in the number of businesses working on their own apps in recent years. As more and more people get their hands on smartphones, it becomes increasingly worthwhile for companies to put time into this sort of resource.
Of course, deciding whether or not your business needs an app can often be a big challenge. To help you out with this, this post will be exploring the impact an app could have on your business, along with some information to make it easier to start building one.
Who Can Benefit From An App?
There are a lot of different types of business which can benefit from having an app. Of course, this doesn’t apply to everyone, and it would be impossible to include examples of all of the companies which could benefit in a single article, but the list below should give you a good idea of whether or not your company could see benefits from an app.
Online Sales
Online stores can always benefit from an app, giving customers somewhere to shop without having to go to a website for it. These were some of the first businesses to make their own apps.
Service-Based Businesses
The service industry is bigger than ever before, with the web making it possible for companies to sell their work in a much more convenient manner. Having an app can prove very useful for businesses like this, making life easier for employees and customers alike.
Entertainment Companies
More people than ever before are accessing content on their phones. It makes sense for companies that provide entertainment to have their own apps, as people will want to be able to access videos, games, and other content on their phones all the time.
What Are The Benefits?
The benefits an app can provide to your business will be one of the largest deciding factors when it comes to choosing whether or not to have one. Not every company will need these benefits, and some will even see them as negatives, so it’s worth assessing them for yourself to make sure that you’re not going to waste your time.
Value
The value of your business is quite an important thing in the digital world. An app is a digital asset, and this increases the value of your company, especially when you have a lot of users on it. This can make it easier to secure loans, sell your company, and even increase share prices.
Retention
Retaining customers for a long time is a constant battle for modern businesses. Not only do you have to make sure that you’re able to keep a lot of people happy, but you have to find ways to keep your business in their minds.
Few people uninstall apps from their phone, leaving your logo somewhere they will see it time and time again.
Accessibility
It’s becoming increasingly common to find normal people using their smartphones instead of a computer. This can make an app great for companies who want to target as many people as possible, even those without normal computers.
Reputation
It can be all too easy to assume that reputation is only built around what people say about you. Having an app can prove to improve your reputation, giving customers the impression that you’re far more professional than your competitors who don’t have their own apps.
Building Your App
If these benefits look like they might be good for your business, it will be worth spending as much time as possible working to ensure that you can make use of them.
Building an app is a complicated process, and you’re going to need to take each step as it comes, working hard to ensure that you don’t make mistakes along the way.
Your Support
This process will always start with some outside support. You won’t be able to build an app while running a business and will need someone to do the programming for you.
Alongside this, it can also help to have a company like UserZoom to run tests and make sure that your idea is going to be successful. You should always do plenty of research before choosing the professionals who will be working on your app for you.
The Planning
Planning an app can be a challenging process, especially when you’ve never built one before. You will need to know how the app will function, the features it will have, and the design it will follow before the process of building it begins. This can take a huge amount of effort, and many people simply don’t have time for it. Fortunately, your developer should be able to make this easier for you.
The Building Process
Once you’ve made your plans, you can give them to the developer to start building. It’s a mistake to leave it with them until the app is finished, though, as there could be small changes which need to be made along the way. This makes it worth having regular meetings with your team, while also working to ensure that the whole project is following a strict schedule.
Testing The App
You can’t risk letting your app into the world until it’s been tested properly. People will get a bad impression of your app if it isn’t functioning properly when it is released, and this can be very damaging to your chances of success with it.
As a big part of this, it makes sense to use companies like UserZoom to get a clear insight into the struggles a user might have with the application. Even if things are functioning correctly, challenging menus and poor UX will make people want to stop using your app.
As time goes on, more and more companies are going to start developing their own apps. This can be a costly process, and a lot of people find it hard to sell themselves when they’re going through it.
Of course, though, even once your app is made and it has people using it, the work isn’t going to stop, and this makes it worth assessing your need for this resource before you decide to build it.
So… should your business have its own app? Are you going to start the design process?
