Your Business Requires a “Private” App
If you’re a business owner or in charge of Sales for an SME, you would have probably considered at one point if your company needs a mobile app – be it for outreach to your clients on new products or to constantly train and take feedback from sales executives in the field.
With over 44+ lakhs apps on the App Store, you might also be thinking the market is saturated & the existing combination of Apps such as Google Forms, Dropbox, Email & WhatsApp do just fine, so why bother? On the surface, this makes sense. But try answering these questions:
- Do the current consumer apps give you the exclusivity, privacy, confidentiality, and connect, which all your prospective customers look for before getting connected with your services and products?
- Can your website continuously engage your prospects/ clients with new products and push customised incentives to interested users?
- Do the existing apps give you visibility on communication between your sales network and prospects and clients?
- Does the app guarantee that your customers don’t take a screenshot of your product/ideas/pricing and share it with your competitors?
- Does your website or current app tell you when & what prospective customers are looking for?
These are just a few reasons for the in-built marketing value your private mobile app brings over consumer apps. If you are still wondering, then look at the smartphone stats – about 87% of the time is spent on apps while the remaining 13% on mobile websites.
A recent study by a top Indian app development company found out the following three key reasons why an SME creates an app:
- Increase sales (43%)
- Compete with other businesses (33%)
- Improve customer service (24%)
And finally, SMEs found their mobile apps to be most useful for:
- in-app forms & 2-way communication channel to streamline operations and free up service staff (56%)
- using push notifications to engage customers (30%)
- reward loyal clients and customers with special discounts (14%)
Planning Your Private App
Even if you feel that your private “branded” app is the right step for your organization, the task of getting the app designed, developed, tested, and maintained gets daunting sometimes.
This is because the first step that naturally comes to mind is to get the app built in-house or hire an app development company. But in the majority of cases, this step becomes ineffective given the high cost & time involved.
There is also a third option, “SaaS” (Software as a Service), which becomes the ideal offering for SME’s because it is cost-effective and provides for a configurable packaged software, like an email license, where you pay for the subscription on a monthly or annual basis based on the features you desire. SaaS additionally helps you gain access to the same enterprise-grade, secure, modern technologies that are available to large enterprises.
What about ROI?
No matter how you develop and support your “private” app, recouping your costs and measuring impact will always be on top of your mind. Thus, determining your KPIs is important to help you gauge your success in reaching prospects, retaining clients, and creating repeat customers.
If you’re a business owner or in charge of Sales for an SME, you would have probably considered at one point if your company needs a mobile app – be it for outreach to your clients on new products or to constantly train and take feedback from sales executives in the field.
With over 44+ lakhs apps on the App Store, you might also be thinking the market is saturated & the existing combination of Apps such as Google Forms, Dropbox, Email & WhatsApp do just fine, so why bother? On the surface, this makes sense. But try answering these questions:
- Do the current consumer apps give you the exclusivity, privacy, confidentiality, and connect, which all your prospective customers look for before getting connected with your services and products?
- Can your website continuously engage your prospects/ clients with new products and push customised incentives to interested users?
- Do the existing apps give you visibility on communication between your sales network and prospects and clients?
- Does the app guarantee that your customers don’t take a screenshot of your product/ideas/pricing and share it with your competitors?
- Does your website or current app tell you when & what prospective customers are looking for?
These are just a few reasons for the in-built marketing value your private mobile app brings over consumer apps. If you are still wondering, then look at the smartphone stats – about 87% of the time is spent on apps while the remaining 13% on mobile websites.
A recent study by a top Indian app development company found out the following three key reasons why an SME creates an app:
- Increase sales (43%)
- Compete with other businesses (33%)
- Improve customer service (24%)
And finally, SMEs found their mobile apps to be most useful for:
- in-app forms & 2-way communication channel to streamline operations and free up service staff (56%)
- using push notifications to engage customers (30%)
- reward loyal clients and customers with special discounts (14%)
Planning Your Private App
Even if you feel that your private “branded” app is the right step for your organization, the task of getting the app designed, developed, tested, and maintained gets daunting sometimes.
This is because the first step that naturally comes to mind is to get the app built in-house or hire an app development company. But in the majority of cases, this step becomes ineffective given the high cost & time involved.
There is also a third option, “SaaS” (Software as a Service), which becomes the ideal offering for SME’s because it is cost-effective and provides for a configurable packaged software, like an email license, where you pay for the subscription on a monthly or annual basis based on the features you desire. SaaS additionally helps you gain access to the same enterprise-grade, secure, modern technologies that are available to large enterprises.
What about ROI?
No matter how you develop and support your “private” app, recouping your costs and measuring impact will always be on top of your mind. Thus, determining your KPIs is important to help you gauge your success in reaching prospects, retaining clients, and creating repeat customers.