85% of Smartphone Users Prefer Mobile Apps over Mobile Web

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.  With over 61% percent of people in the US now owning smartphones, it is important that businesses now realize that the need to "dip their toes" into mobile applications is now.

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.

17% of Global Web Usage Coming From Mobile Phones

In a recent study done by Statista, an online statistics portal, the company discovered that 17% of global web usage and page views were coming from mobile devices. North America alone saw an increase in page views coming from mobile devices rise almost 6% over last year. While this may seem like a relatively small percentage of the overall page views, it is important to notice that it was a 6% increase over the 2012 number of 11% of the page views. As this number is expected to increase as more and more people buy smartphones, it is important for advertisers to realize the potential that this change has for its customers and the way they market to them.

Responsive Design

As noted in previous posts and several articles throughout the web, responsive design is the new trend in web development and design. Built to format to any type of device and format, responsive design allows users to view your website whenever and with whatever type of device they are on. Utilizing responsive design for a site not only allows the advertiser to create one unified template for both desktop and mobile, but also saves web developers time.

Mobile Apps

With the increase in page views via mobile devices, it is important to take into factor a mobile app for an advertiser. A mobile app not only allows you to occupy space on a customer's smartphone or tablet, but also can give them one touch or tap ability to visit your website. With a mobile app, advertisers can also reach their customers through push notifications, text messages and more.

Social Media

As customers increase their time spent on mobile devices, so should advertisers. Social media review and location apps like Yelp and Foursquare should be at the forefront of this development. By effectively creating and branding these pages, as well as promoting them on the website and brick and mortar shops of businesses, businesses are effectively creating a customer generated focus group that allows the business owner to see what their busiest days are, what time that they get the most people and so much more. This type of interaction between customer and business also helps to increase that pages rankings within search results pages, improving the businesses chances of reaching new customers.

With the numbers mentioned above only increasing as the years go on and more people switch to mobile devices over their desktop or laptop, it is important for businesses to adapt to the new platform, just like when the internet was the next big thing. Failure to correctly adapt can and will lead to losses in sales, drops in visits to the site, and potentially loss of page rank and position in the search results pages. 

Mobile Apps and Customer Service – A Customers and Business’s One Touch Resolution to Problems

As customers move towards mobile devices for quicker responses and solutions to questions such as “How to repair a bike?” and “How do I fix my flat tire?”, it is important that businesses realize the ultimate potential that a mobile app may have for customer service and helping to build customer relationships. A mobile app centered on customer service will help to ensure that the customer comes to a business’s app first, instead of relying on potentially harmful forums or blogs for solutions to their problems. How should a company go about implementing such an app? Consider the following when deciding if a customer service mobile app is right for your business.

Are Clients Using Mobile Apps?

In short, yes. With 4 of every 5 minutes on mobile devices being taken up by some form of mobile app, businesses can rest assured knowing that customers do in fact use mobile apps. Using this information, we can see that customers use a wide range of mobile apps, from games to social media to health application, and by creating a mobile app that will effectively engage the client using these services a business is helping to create a positive mobile image and relationship with customers.

Have Something to Share?

Integrating social media channels into a business’s customer service mobile app can help to relieve the stress of both the business and its customer service support by streamlining where questions and concerns are answered. Using the mobile app, a customer would be able  quickly interact with the business via verified social media outlets that the company has allowed on the app itself, eliminating the possible chances of a concerned customer trying to interact with an unverified Twitter handle or Facebook page. This will also allow the business itself to create a communication channel that will allow them to share news, press releases, and other pieces of information that may be valuable to the customers.

Collecting Data, Feedback and Customer Data

With more and more customers using mobile devices, a customer service mobile app can help a business to identify areas where there customer service may need work. By creating simple surveys and questionnaires that can be filled out by the customer in the app, a business can begin to transform the way their customer service processes orders and complaints. This in turn can help to streamline the process and help ease customer anxiety and build-up customer relationships.

A customer service mobile app may not be right for every business, but it is important to at least consider the idea of having one available for customers. With more and more channels becoming available for customers to vent their problems on and the potential of these concerns going unanswered, businesses need to realize that a custom mobile app can create a branded, verified way for customers to reach a business in a few quick taps on the screen of their mobile device and receive help and support immediately.