For modern businesses, an app is one of their most important sales and retention tools. Customers are just as likely — if not more — to judge you on your digital presence as they are to judge you for your retail space.
Because of this, your business is smart to focus on four keys to retaining customers through your mobile platform. What are these four keys?
- App Functionality
First of all, make sure that your app works consistently. A problematic app or one that is too slow will not only fail to contribute toward customer retention, but it will also turn off potential customers before they even get started.
Start with a simpler app experience as you begin. This allows you to focus on getting the core process right without a lot of distraction. As you create an app that works well for everyone on a regular basis, add features and functions to boost the experience.
Be sure to base additional features on thorough testing as well as customer feedback to avoid creating any functional issues.
- First-Time Experiences
Think about the app from the perspective of a first-time user. Many customers today won’t give your app more than one chance to impress them, so don’t waste it.
The process of signing up and making an account should be intuitive and easy to navigate. Create a short walk-through for new customers, emphasizing only the most important functions but making it clear how to use them. And avoid wasting users’ precious time and attention with obnoxious ads or unnecessary side trips.
- Habit-Forming Activities
Using the app needs to become habit for your customers. You build this habit in a variety of ways. Push notifications are an excellent and effective tool, as long as you don’t overwhelm users with too many notifications. Tailor reminders for the individual user based on their interests or choices. Make notifications fun and gentle rather than aggressive or repetitive.
Help customers in your brick-and-mortar locations see the benefits of the app as well. Make it useful for the most common of your transactions, such as refilling goods they’ve already bought or scheduling appointments in less than a minute. And offer helpful tips, special discounts, or new products to appeal to (or intrigue) customers between visits.
In short, make the app into the go-to place for repeat and low-level activity with your business.
- Innovation
Be always on the lookout for new ways to make the app work better for you and for your customers. If you’re a medical provider, you may add a patient portal where clients can view their medical information or interact with providers when they have questions. A hair salon, on the other hand, might add a virtual queue or offer ways to save styles or nail ideas into a portfolio for use in their next visit.
Keep your app on the forefront of your business promotion as well as social media plans. It should be an integral part of your overall marketing and customer service strategy, leading the way with promotions, services, and new ways to help your customer. No matter whether a customer visits a social media site, your app, or your store, they should recognize the experience and feel like they’ve been here before.
Focusing on these four key elements in your app will help you retain more customers and make a more enjoyable experience for everyone. At jācapps, our team of experts will help you build an easy and efficient app that works well to keep customers engaged. Call us today to make an appointment to learn more.
