According to recent report from Compuware, mobile applications are preferred by smartphone users over mobile web sites by 85%. Reasons cited were that apps are more convenient, faster, and easier to navigate than mobile websites.
Medical, Shopping, Banking, and More Now Mobile
No longer are customers sitting down at home in front of their desktop computer to get their shopping, news updates, or banking done. Now users are embracing apps that allow them to schedule an appointment, streamline their banking, notify them of current and breaking news, and texts them when a deposit has been made into their accounts. Having a mobile app for customers not only allows them a quick, easy, and effective way to keep in touch with a business, but also allows the business to collect data on who and how their app is being used, very similar to how Google Analytics for a website. With the ability to track analytics from a mobile app, businesses can now learn about their “mobile customer”.
Convenience Factor of Mobile Apps vs. Mobile Websites
When asked about the benefits of using a mobile app vs. a mobile website, the biggest factors cited were:
- Convenience (55%),
- How fast they are (48%)
- Easier to browse (45%)
- Better user experience (28%)
Knowing these convenience factors and implementing them into a business could offer up essentially an endless possibility of benefits for the business owner. Faster customer service, better customer relationships and increased opportunity for market share through referrals are just a few of the examples that a mobile app could help a business.
Enhance the Customer Experience
While a mobile app will help to instill a better customer and user experience, it is important that it is updated frequently, much like a blog, with fresh and relevant content and information that will keep the customer coming back to the app. Push notifications when personalized content, special offers, perks based on interests are all great ways to ensure that this will happen. Ways to improve downloads of your app include social sharing and referral and review options available within the app. Mobile apps, just like desktop websites are the image and identity of your company to both new and old users. Failure to implement a successful brand image on either could result in loss of clients, visitors and profit. So how do businesses ensure that a mobile app will portray them in the best of light? Stephen Pierzchala, Technology Strategist at Compuware said it best:
“With consumers expecting greater experiences with mobile apps now more than ever, fulfilling those expectations doesn’t just happen — it takes a conscious effort throughout every stage of the design and development process to get it right. Performance is a crucial contributor to providing a dependable mobile app user experience, so performance should be considered a key driver in the design process. Mobile applications need to focus on a core utility, and they need to be fast and reliable in order to be valuable.”
If you would like an in-depth look at the report, you can download it here.
