If you’ve decided to build a business app – well done. It remains one of the smartest ways to engage with your customers and provide them with an extra ‘something’ that will act as a differentiator.
There’s just one issue: it’s far too easy to create a business app that misses some of the key ingredients you’ll need for it to be a success. What’s more, if you don’t approach this kind of project correctly, you could waste a huge amount of time.
Whether you’re creating a productivity app, shopping experience or customer portal, make sure these key ingredients aren’t missing.
Customisation
No matter what type of app you’re building, it needs to offer some form of customisability.
Users expect this, and that’s absolutely fair enough when you consider the level of customisability offered by the likes of Facebook, Microsoft Office and the myriad of other digital tools we all use each day.
Security customisability, avatars and view settings are the bare minimum; have a think about the other forms of customisation you can build in.
Social integration
There are very few business apps that don’t benefit from some form of social integration.
There are two reasons for this. Firstly, people want to share stuff, always – whether it’s a potential new purchase or nugget of information they weren’t aware of.
Secondly, it’s great for the business itself, because social shares add social proof for what you’re doing and get your brand out to a much wider audience for very little effort.
Get rid of unnecessary clicks and hurdles
Once someone has signed up to use your app, you want to ensure they hang around. However, they won’t if you include too many clicks to achieve something or unnecessary hurdles to conquer.
Ask for the minimum amount of information from each user and make sure the journeys through every element of the app are as simple and swift as they should be.
Building an app is no different to developing a website in this regard.
Don’t forget analytics
To ensure you can continue updating your app and iterating its features, you’ll need the ability to take a look at how people are using it.
This can be achieved with analytics that tracks user movements and the ways in which they interact with your app.
Don’t worry – this can all be done anonymously, so there are no privacy concerns – just make sure you notify users of the analytics and give them the opportunity to opt-out.
Offer a feedback system
What do people really think of your app? Once they’ve downloaded it, signed up and started using it, they’ll fall into a black hole of opinion unless you give them the option to feedback.
It might feel like a scary thing to do which can only end in tears, but by including a feedback function you’ll demonstrate you care and receive incredibly useful insight you can use to make serious improvements to your app.
Wrapping up
It’s likely that most businesses – both big and small – will eventually find the need and requirement to build a mobile app.
If you’re about to start that journey or have hit a roadblock with yours, the above ingredients should get you out of that pickle.