Get the best out of your Mobile App

A little more than a week ago I discussed the importance of being mobile and the advantages you get with having a mobile presence. One of those advantages is customer engagement, and that’s what I’m shedding light on here. For your mobile app to give the best results for your business you need to have customer engagement at the forefront. Your app will not be of much use if it has a large number of downloads but fails to boost your business – its main purpose. There are many apps available that are rich with content and media but fail to drive customers towards the business that they represent. Here are a few ways to make your app get more business for you:

Gamify

People love playing games on their mobiles. Drive customer engagement by making your app experience into a game. For example, a furniture business can enable users to design their own furniture. Similarly tourism companies can make an app that rewards users with bonus trips or use scavenger hunts. Stray Boots is an app that makes the tourist experience in various cities into a scavenger hunt game.

Reward

Reward your customer when they check-in with your app or share them with their peers. You can create a reward based system with the collection of badges or points after a certain number of check-ins and shares.

Notifications

A very important way to drive customer engagement is through notifications. Relevant and timely notifications can help you get more customers as they are reminded of their needs and the fact that you can fulfill them. A garage business can remind users with notifications when it’s time for their next tune up and suggest offers based on the customers car and its needs.

Facilitate

Use your app to facilitate customers with customer queries and in store payment methods. You can also use the reward feature of your app to help customers avail discounts at your stores to drive sales.

Shopping Lists

Enable users to create shopping lists within your app. This will help you learn more about the customer and what he/she prefers. To get a more in depth view on the customers’ needs you can allow customizable lists such as ‘wants’ and ‘must haves.’ Metro app is helps users make shopping lists out of the items in their grocery lists and then tick off the ones they’ve already added to their cart.

Location Based Offers

Use the GPS function on your customers’ mobile device to ascertain their whereabouts and provide location based information about stores and make offers relevant to that location. For example, a restaurant app can give suburban users family meal offers, while giving lunch and dinner offers on the go for users in the city. Pirq is a location-based smartphone application that enables users to discover quality deals from selected restaurants and cafés in real time. Users receive a 20% to 50% discount off their entire bill.

Maps

Help customers find your store through a map of your stores within the app. An added bonus would be to guide users to the nearest store from where they are searching. Detailed mapping of the inside of your store can help customers get to areas where the products they need are located. For example, The ‘Find-it’ feature in Meijer’s app saves time, enables self-service, and makes sure shoppers don’t leave the store without finding what they need is a win-win for both shoppers and retailers.

Scheduling

If you’re a service oriented business, than you can allow clients to schedule appointments and meetings through your app. You can place a list of available appointments on a calendar and enable customers to choose out an available slot that suits them.

Early Access to Offers and Promotions

You can make your mobile app as the go to place to get early access to offers and promotions. This will help in bring more customers to your app and in that way it can be a promotional tool for your business.

Social

Enable customers to log into your app through their social media accounts. Assess the most popular networks among your customer base, like Facebook and Twitter, and add this feature to make it easier for them to spread the word about your app as well as share their activities. You can also, with their permission, pull data from their social profile, to learn more about them and make better personalized offers.
You can use any or all of these tips to get your app to improve your customer engagement to and eventually profit your business. At Ephlux we strive to make awesome mobile apps that can one or more of these features of your choice. Tell us what you prefer and we’ll do the rest.