What are Mobile Apps

What are Mobile Apps?

Mobile apps are something that are commonly seen in almost every person’s day to day life. It’s hard not to see someone using one, or using one yourself, even if you don’t know the term.

What are Mobile Apps?

If you’re wondering what they are, Mobile Apps are applications and software that are designed to run on a mobile device, like a phone or tablet for example. Basically anything you use on a phone is a Mobile App; games, social media, even the basic apps like contacts that comes with the phone is a Mobile App.

How can They be Used?

Now, you’re probably wondering how they can be used for business, the most basic way is to use already existing apps to benefit your business. Microsoft Teams for example, can be used to hold virtual meetings and connect with far away partners and staff, without the worry of having to schedule a venue, time, costs of travel and all that. Teams means that just the meeting time would have to be decided, and then everyone could join from their own homes, let alone from their offices.

Some Mobile Apps are services that are already online services rather than apps, like the Google Drive app for example. Meaning you could do any work you needed to from anywhere, and there is even a ‘work offline’ option, so an internet connection wouldn’t be needed. There are many apps like this as well meaning employees can work from home or wherever they currently are, not to mention as well these services allow easy sharing of files with colleagues – making workflow easier and tasks finished faster. 

Another way Mobile Apps can be used is having access to your emails, if an important email comes through whilst you’re away from your main computer, rather than leaving the reading and replying to when you’re back, depending on the importance – it could end up creating issues, you can access it any time and respond at any time, anywhere.

Same way with social media apps. If you advertise your business through these apps, having quick access to them from anywhere at any time is very useful. Especially if there’s someone who has a query, say if it’s the weekend, instead of leaving them hanging until Monday – you can answer their question straight away. 

More Complex Uses 

There are more complex ways of utilising Mobile Apps, for one, you could create your own business’s app for users to access your services better, that would be affected by what kind of business it was. But by having one, customers can use your services on the go, or check what they need to involving your business anywhere, makes it better for customers to use your services and makes your business look better as well – especially if the app functions well.

Doing so also increases your brand’s strength without extra advertisement, having a useful app that’s branded to your business will gain the user’s trust and approval, meaning they’re more likely to keep using your service and even recommend your business to other potential customers – essentially free advertisement.

With a Mobile App, there is the potential for use of loyalty schemes, which for the customer can offer rewards and product recommendations, and for the business, you can encourage social sharing which can lead to more potential customers being exposed to your business. For example, you have Sainsbury with their points system, where the more you spend, the more points you get – and with these points, if you have enough, you can buy items at a huge discount. They have an app that recommends specific items that will give you extra points when you buy them, encouraging customers to come shopping with them, rather than any of their competitors.

Benefits of Mobile Apps

As what has been stated above, Mobile Apps can bring many great benefits to a business. They can increase the customer engagement that you already receive, and if done correctly, can give you an edge over your competitors.

There is also the opportunity for personalised advertisements to customers and potential customers, which would be more likely to receive more conversions than the typical advertisement.

Customer service can be vastly improved with the ability to respond to questions and queries from anywhere, with much improved speeds than usual, even if you were still working in the office, you could use a mobile device to respond to customer questions whilst you worked on your main tasks on your computer.

Drawbacks of Mobile Apps

Whilst there are a lot of positives to Mobile Apps, there are some negatives as well. For one, most Mobile Apps will require a stable internet connection, and depending on the app’s content, it might need to be fast as well as a stable connection. Not everywhere has internet or at least reliable internet connection, meaning that the whole idea of mobility would be made naught if there is no way to access it, where you currently are. 

Creation of a mobile app can be difficult as well, and then publishing the app can be tricky on some platforms. And most likely a business would have to hire a programmer to create and maintain the app for them. Not to mention as well, depending on your business, the app you seek to make could be in a heavily saturated market, which means you would have to come up and create a reason why your app should be used over anyone else’s.

Are They Worth it?

In conclusion, yes. Mobile Apps are almost always worth it for the majority of businesses, and for those in sectors where it wouldn’t work so well, you have yourself a perfect niche to create something unique, so try before giving up on creating a Mobile App. In general every business could make use of apps that currently exist like Teams, Drive and Email apps like Outlook’s app for example, it would vastly improve the business’s digital infrastructure. 

 

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