Digital Disruption from EX²

Since the earliest days of marketing, word-of-mouth advertising has been one of the most productive ways to drive sales and brand recognition. Whether "it" is a movie, a laundry detergent, a restaurant, a new car or a roofing company, people like to know what others think about it. This same tendency to seek the opinions of others is also found when people are considering an app.

Your customers as well as your employees have increasingly cut the cord connecting them to a desktop computer. The first mobile apps may have only created a few ripples, but the demand has reached tsunami levels in recent years. Mobile apps have become essential for any business that wants to optimize customer engagement, deliver marketing messages that will actually reach the intended audience or provide field personnel with powerful tools to make their jobs easier while improving customer service. However, when developing a mobile app, it is important to avoid these five common pitfalls.

In the last three decades, there have been many disruptive technologies that have changed how businesses operate. It is difficult for many people to understand, for example, how companies once conducted business without websites, email or personal computers. Today, some people marvel that a company does not use Skype, cloud computing or social media. Of all the innovative technologies that have appeared in recent years, however, mobile has certainly proven to be among the most disruptive.

 

Here at EX² we have been developing Android and iOS applications for a number of years. Creating native apps requires specialized knowledge applicable to the device you are developing for: Java for Android, and Objective C (or more recently Swift) for iOS. This specialized knowledge does not come cheaply both in terms of the cost of existing resources with this knowledge or time spent by your existing team learning the languages and platforms. Also, with similarities in market share between Android and iOS users we can't ignore either side and only have an app that serves one OS.  Finally, using Cordova significantly reduces maintenance cost as most code is shared across the operating systems.

After the pizza giant’s recipe re-launch in 2009 introduced the world to a "better, more flavorful" pizza, the Domino’s Pizza franchise began enjoying a steady rise to the top of the pizza heap. This came about after customer service surveys repeatedly praised Domino’s for their speed and efficiency -- just not their pizza. The franchise is now enjoying having all three to customer satisfaction, but only because they have made sure to continue offering top-notch service. To make sure their speed and efficiency ratings stayed high, Domino’s embraced the  opportunities offered by new technology to get their pizzas to hungry customers faster and better: the Domino’s Pizza ordering app.

Every enterprise has goals it would like to meet. For some, the current primary goal is to increase the company's share of the market. Others are driven to increase profitability, while still others might feel compelled to improve the customer retention rate. Regardless of your specific goal, you may have recognized that mobile apps have become a necessity in today's world. At the same time, you might be reluctant to commit to having a mobile app developed because you believe one or more of the following myths.

Numerous studies have demonstrated that businesses need mobile apps if they want to be more accessible to their customers and provide a better customer experience. Studies have also indicated that many users are fiercely loyal to a particular platform. Developing a mobile app to work on just Android or iOS can be risky, especially if the geographic location of the targeted users is critical. For example, iOS is the most widely used platform in North America, while Android has a larger global base and is expected to become increasingly popular in the U.S.

The people of the world are quickly becoming addicted to their cell phones and mobile apps. According to a report from Nielsen, users average more than 30 hours each month engaged with apps. Mary Meeker, a mobile analyst, stated in her "Internet Trends Report" for May 2013 that the average user checks his or her mobile phone 150 times per day.

Perhaps you have recently concluded that a mobile app is absolutely necessary if you want to drive revenue and engage your customers. Perhaps you have staff in the field who could do their jobs more efficiently with the right mobile solution. Whatever your motivations, you are wondering whether custom mobile app development is the best option to meet your needs. Choosing to have a custom app developed requires you to weigh the benefits and disadvantages of this option as well as review other options that might be better for your specific needs. First, however, you will need to define the type of app you will need.