According to StatsSA most recent General Household Survey, the amount of households that use cellphones to communicate is at 88%, and continues to grow rapidly. In fact, the number of cellular mobile users is greater than that of desktop users.
What businesses need to take note of with this is that the preferable channels of communication are not the same. Mobile users prefer apps to websites – and this is not a preference that should be taken lightly. Studies have shown that the mobile experience of a brand by a consumer has an exponential impact on your brand image; to put this into perspective, a recent Oracle study found that over half of consumers surveyed stated that consumers will lose interest in your brand, and view it negatively, after a sub-par app experience.
Here are a few reasons businesses are developing apps;
- Pop-up ads, banners, emails and SMSes are a thing of the past.
With an app, you are able to create your own push notifications, which pop-up on anybody’s phone who has the app.
- Online payments.
Online payments can be processed through a single channel, so there is no need for third party payment channels – making the payment faster and reduces the worry of whether or not the third party portal will perform as it should.
- Communication is easy and effective.
There is no need to employ several channels to communicate to your consumers – all your communication can be done via your app, saving time and creating connections with consumers – thus creating brand loyalty.
- Analytics.
An app provides all the insights and analytics you need for successful management and marketing. These analytics could include; geographic location, user retention, account status, acquisition performance, customer engagement rating, detailed device and OS information, time elapsed since last login, the point at which the consumer exits the app, and the navigation path (customer journey).
