3 ways a mobile app can transform your business

Apps have become a part of modern daily life, with the average Australian spending 38 days per year on their phone, according to a Huawei study. Whether you're running a hotel, managing a salon or selling clothing, having an app can transform your business – here's how.

1. Building brand awareness

A mobile app can be a great way of establishing the colour scheme and branding collateral for your business. In the competitiveness of the business world today, consumers are met with advertising at every turn. For this reason, it is important that you have immediately recognisable branding for your business. This branding should be memorable and able to be reflected across different aspects of your company, from your signage, to sales tags and of course, your app.

2. Personalising customer experience

Personalisation can be incredibly beneficial to retaining your customer base. A personalised shopping experience encourages 44 per cent of customers to shop again, according to Segment. Personalisation is made easy with the use of an app. By having a feature where customers can sign up as a member to a special club, you can use this information to send them targeted advertising directly addressed to them by name, or sending them promotions if it's their birthday. Targeted advertising is a key way of pleasing your clients – you can track their sales history or browsing habits within the app, and create customised push notifications of recommended products they may like.

An app enables your clients to not only purchase and browse your wares at any time, but gives you the potential to provide customer assistance to them, even in the middle of the night. Artificially intelligent chat-bots are rising in popularity, and can offer intuitive responses to your customers based on keywords they use when asking a question. This way, your customers won't need to wait till opening hours to call and ask a question about your business.

Intuitive software is important when it comes to booking, too. If you own a salon, or even a plumbing business, having an app where potential clients can view your calendar and book services makes life not only easier for them, but for you too. Bookings are easily viewable for each of your employees and the customer won't have to guess when their favourite hair stylist might be free, as they can see the available time-slots right in the palm of their hand.

3. Bringing in more income

While developer fees, digital design costs and the maintenance of making an app for your business may feel like a sting to the bank account, the cost-benefits may be greater depending on what features you include.

Consumers aged between 18 and 24 are more 76 per cent more likely to purchase items via mobile with 7 per cent of this group making a daily habit of purchases, according to a Deloitte study. Apps also provide the opportunity for flash sales and special deals – if you have an excess of a product you need to shift, you can send out an instant notification informing your app users of the sale, or providing them with a special subscriber only discount code that they can use when completing their order. In-app advertising for other businesses is another way of generating extra revenue – however, this can be repetitive and a pain for customers, so be careful of how you approach this.

If your business transformation plans include upgrading to a new Gold Coast commercial property, get in touch with the team at Ray White Surfers Paradise for a friendly consultation.