Why automating your business over mobile is important

Once upon a time, if you were starting a new business, it was technically enough to have your own website. But today, not having a mobile app for your business will leave you behind your competitors. The mantra for new-age startups is getting your mobile app first and then the website. The same thing applies to small-and-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as well.

Many SMEs don’t realise the potential of having their own app. It could be either to run their internal business or to have one for their end customers.

This article discusses why having your own mobile app is important to grow your business. It is important to understand that having a mobile-friendly website does not mean that you have an effective mobile strategy.

Does my business need an app?

Being an owner of a business, the first thing you need to ask yourself is if it make sense for you to automate your business process on mobile. These use-cases might help you decide. For example, following these tasks can be much faster and can be done in your mobile app:

1. Customers doing payment transactions,
2. Customers accessing you inventory,
3. Customers can see their previous activities history,
4. Chat feature amongst you, customers and employees,
5. Tracking your sales team’s location in real-time on map,
6. Letting your employees mark their attendance,
7. Receiving updates from employees,
8. Assigning your employee tasks by notification.

Business benefits

Suppose you do not sell your product online through e-commerce. You might think there is no need for an app for your business. Hold on, you are thinking on the wrong track.

Social campaigns around your brand

You can actually utilise the power of mobile to create context-based social and fun experiences such as coupon codes and cashback promotions for your customers and keep them engaged with your brand. This will add value to your brand and surely attract new customers.

Generate repeat customers

This also increases customer loyalty as they keep coming back to gain more rewards through your app and hence helps your brand build a long-term relationship with your customers.

Start new income stream

You can monetise your app by adding mobile ads or in-app purchases.

Increased visibility and sales

Suppose you run a salon; you would definitely like to project it as a one-stop-shop for all salon-related tasks. Having a mobile app can help you build a community around your brand.

Customers benefits:

Connect on-the-go in real-time

It does not matters what business you are in, but your customers definitely needs a channel to connect back with you. By having your brand’s own app, you are essentially providing them this channel.

Your app can have a chat feature, which lets your customer connect with you at any time. This makes a huge difference in customer’s overall experience with your brand.

Mobile app gives you the ability to reach your customers wherever they are and connect with them in real time using push notifications.

Personal advertising platform

When compared to sending out an email for marketing, sending out a push notifications right into your customer’s mobile app gets more readability of the message you want to convey them.

Your app can act as an advertising platform for your business when you want to showcase any new product or services amongst your customers. The ROI on app could be calculated by the value it adds to your brand.

Conclusion

Those companies who automate their business process on mobile platforms are already ahead of the game and effectively taking advantage of the power of a smartphone. Try to be the first in your business to offer a mobile app to your customers. They would surely be very impressed by your brand’s belief in being technologically advanced.

(Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of YourStory)