Developing a business app for your enterprise needs to be initiated once you have weighed the pros and cons of the finer aspects of this process.
Most large businesses who generate revenue in millions of dollars have already conceptualized, built and disseminated their business app. It is the medium and small enterprises which are in a dilemma about having their own to reach out to customers.
Vital advantages and disadvantages of deploying a business application can be understood as you scroll below.
Pros
Brand Building
Apart from registering themselves in the minds of customers through products and services, a business app can help enterprises build their brand through a good user-interface (UI) and user experience (UX).
As a Smartphone app’s success relies heavily on a customer-friendly design, the UI and UX are vital cogs in the wheel of brand building.
The more customers install and use your app for specific needs, the more positive impressions you will be imparting on them, enabling them to refer your app to their peers leading to rise in business through new customers.
Real-time Feedback
Obtaining real-time feedback from customers on products and services can benefit businesses immensely as strategic business decisions can be made.
A simple survey or a rating on the app at the end of a business transaction can empower you with an honest understanding of what customers think of your brand while ensuring positive feedback is also seen by prospective customers, thereby giving them a healthy impression of your brand resulting in higher installs of the business app.
Customer Engagement and Loyalty
A business app helps enterprises maintain a strong bond with their customers through regular communication of their products and services.
As an app is viewed as a personalized platform, latest deals and offers through notifications can inform customers about what they can expect and when, thereby engaging them constantly with your brand making them loyal.
Data Analysis for Strategic Decisions
As has been said by global tech pundits, data is the new oil!
In this context, a business app will generate sufficient amount of user data for you to analyze and turn the understanding to make strategic business decisions which can create a win-win for both you and your customer.
However, ensuring your customers data is safe and isn’t misused goes without saying.
Cons
Price and Process
Adopting a customized business app for your enterprise involves a considerable investment and time.
While the investment goes into paying for the technical services of building an app, the actual process involved in terms of the duration would be lengthy and might undergo revisions from time to time depending on the enterprises’ requirement and levels of customization.
This means that you need constant support from the app builders to keep the application running 24*7 without any glitches which could hamper customer interaction on the platform.
Continual Communication
Once an exclusive business application has been launched by firms to interact with customers on a regular basis, the onus is now on the firm to keep their customers engaged through continual communication in the form of messages, notifications, alerts, etc.
When firms lack a communication strategy, having a business app will not necessarily aid in improving your revenues. It is important communication with customers is well planned and executed on a continual basis.
Regular Upgrades
As customer base keeps increasing, it becomes imperative for the enterprise to keep upgrading its application to accommodate newer versions in terms of quality and quantity.
It could be upgrading the features of the application, providing customers with a seamless user experience while on the app, or expanding their data storage capacities, businesses have to review and redo the existing functionality of the app.
Hosting
Business Apps need robust hosting platforms as well to ensure the data gathered is safe and secure. Apart from security, data needs to be available round the clock for to enable firms support customer requirements as and when they come in.
To ensure this happens on a real-time basis, firms need to invest a considerable amount of money to take their entire operations to the cloud.
However, taking the entire app operations to the cloud has its own benefits as well as it ensures a healthy RoI.
Also read our blog Future Trends in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Software Solutions