jācapps

As the co-owner of two small business, I understand and appreciate all of the challenges we face in normal times.  And these are far from normal times.  We worry about the health of our staffs and the health of our businesses.  The rules that have always applied are being challenged, and we are forced to pivot quickly in order to keep everything together.

If you own a business that sells product to consumers, you know what I mean.  Pre-COVID-19 it was about having appealing locations, attentive service, and adequate stock displays.  We used advertising, social media, and other marketing techniques to drive traffic, and consumers stopped in to either browse or to buy.  Businesses didn’t require having any kind of relationship with these consumers, because they could just re-tool with more advertising and marketing.

And that’s the biggest lesson learned – in order to survive during and after the COVID-19 crisis, businesses are going to have to invest in having digital, one-to-one relationships with their customers.

I love restaurants, and here in Detroit there is a group that has six unique bistros that are really outstanding.  We’ve been customers of one of their restaurants for close to 30 years.  Like all restaurants, they are now closed, and trying to promote curbside pickup.  In the past week, they’ve shuttered two of their locations and we are in fear there could be more.

They are failing because they don’t know who I am.  Sure, the wait staff greets us when we come in because of our longevity, but the company doesn’t know us.  They have a weak email relationship with us, no mobile app, and no way to activate the thousands of customers who love their restaurants.  If I didn’t drive by their restaurant and saw the sign about curbside pickup, I wouldn’t have known they are offering it.

And looking around, they aren’t alone.  To my eye, the majority of local restaurants and retailers haven’t invested in developing digital relationships with their long-term customers and can’t activate them as shopping patterns radically change.

When things return to normal, every business needs to invest in three things (these are generalities – I’m sure there are other tactics that apply to specific groups):

1. eCommerce – Online shopping and ordering for curbside pickup is going to be with us long after a cure is found for COVID-19.  There is no guarantee people are going to flock back into stores when this is over.  Online ordering + curbside pickup and/or home delivery might become the norm for all businesses (let’s face it, giants like Target and Wal-Mart were doing this before the crisis, and are perfectly positioned to serve customers during this disruption).
2. Data & Database – How many businesses are like my restaurant, with long-term customers but no information on them?  This transactional relationship has exposed a major weakness in their business model.  Smart owners will immediately invest in requiring each customer to register for their email database and begin collecting information on them.  And not just demographic data, but preferences, shopping patterns, etc. 
3. Invest In A Mobile App – While it’s obvious I would recommend this, how many businesses wish their app was on the home screen of all of their customers’ smartphones right now, empowering them to connect and shop while they are sitting around their homes right now?  Imagine having push messaging capability, communicating with customers about specials, new services, and discount programs.  Even businesses that didn’t have an eCommerce engine prior to COVID-19 could get one started now and build it up over time.

Like it or not, small and medium businesses compete every day with Amazon, Wal-Mart and Target.  And while those companies can invest millions in their digital strategies, developing a digital relationships with customers doesn’t need to cost a fortune. 

But the cost of not having a digital relationship with customers could.

We are here to help you make it through these troubling times.

Wishing all of you, your families, and your colleagues good health during these challenging times.

Paul Jacobs

Bob Kernen has served as COO of jacapps, our mobile app company, for more than six years now.  And during that time, the company has grown into radio’s leading mobile app developer.
 Bob was the first person I thought of when I watched Iowa Caucus coverage Monday night. And in today’s post, he puts this debacle in Iowa into perspective – what it means to politics, and more importantly, what it means to radio. – FJ

I turned on the news late Monday night to see the results of the Iowa Democratic Caucus. After a minute or two it became obvious that the results weren’t in. After flashbacks to the election of November 2000 dissipated, I heard that the problem was with (gulp) a mobile application.
As someone who runs a mobile app company I had two immediate reactions: First, that visceral wave of nausea when the technology you’ve worked hard on fails, and second, thank goodness it wasn’t one of our apps!
Running a company of this type is complex.  It’s not just about writing code.  Great mobile apps require a strategic purpose, time and thought, quality control, graphic design, attention to the user experience, training, testing, and lot of debugging.
As we know, there are two app platforms – iOS for iPhone and iPads, and Android for virtually everything else.  Problem is, there are hundreds of different phone brands and models that run Google’s Android software.
You never want an app to go down, and you certainly don’t want to have problems like these when a) the app is only going to be used one time, and b) that one time is on national television and a presidential election is at stake.
Most of us view mobile apps as those cute little icons on our iPhones and Androids that we touch with a finger and cool stuff happens.  And when working properly, the consumer doesn’t notice just how complex this software is.
Over the past eleven years, jacapps has developed close to 1,300 mobile apps for radio stations and many other industries.  We’ve built simple streaming apps and amazingly complex apps with powerful platforms behind them that perform multiple tasks, while managing huge quantities of information. While we sympathize with the developer of the failed app used in the Iowa Caucuses, we also understand how a debacle of this magnitude can happen.

Based on the information provided so far, here’s our take on Iowa app’s face-plant, and how a disaster like this can be avoided:
1. Don’t rush it. The news is reporting this app was rushed to market in 60 days. While we appreciate that speed is important for many of our clients, it’s hard to conceive that a project this complex could be reliably done in eight weeks. It’s not surprising that there were issues.
2. Test it in the field. There have been numerous reports that in rural areas of Iowa, the app couldn’t cleanly connect to the Internet. Poor cellular coverage? What a shocker! It’s one thing to test an app in the lab (or even in a populous area) where there’s always excellent high speed Internet, but it was no secret this app was going to be used in fire stations in Pella and elementary schools in Waterloo. Simply sending someone out in the field (literally!) or provisioning the app to test in one of these places would have identified the problem quickly.
3. Test it on humans. There are also stories of how precinct captains and volunteers at local caucuses couldn’t figure out how to use the app (and in some cases, couldn’t even download it). Once again, the developer could have brought in five people from the street, handed them a phone with the app on it, and had them work through it.  And in a couple of hours, the developer would have a better understanding of how to make it more user-friendly. The people who built the app should never be the ones to test it.  These are called usability tests, and they’re effective.
4. It requires training. Most of the people reading this post know their way around a smartphone or tablet.  You’ve been downloading apps for years, and you know the in’s and out’s of how to manage mobile tools.  But many of the key spokespeople at Iowa precincts presented themselves very differently.  Some are self-described Luddites.  Other simply weren’t interested in new systems.  The developer and the Iowa Democratic Party needed education sessions so that all 1,700 precinct captains knew what they were doing.  Under the best of circumstances, that’s a heavy lift.
5. Apps are complex. People typically believe everything actually happens on your phone – that’s where the code and “stuff” resides. In fact, more complex apps are connected to a platform on a remote server that contains all of the data that flows into the app, registration information, etc.  The app used in Iowa could have failed in many different places – the app itself, the cloud-based platform, the connectivity, and more.
6. Do you even need an app? Smart brands do, of course. But for this type of “one and done” function, wouldn’t it have been simpler to create a special email box, and have them all send their results using an encrypted format that (hopefully) everyone knows how to use.
7. Don’t try this at home. Complex apps aren’t cheap, but too often people like to cut corners and either develop them “in-house” or hire a firm that has minimal experience with mobile do the job.  In every case where we’ve seen this occur, failure happens.

This is complex software that needs to be developed to handle multiple devices (how many hundreds of different Android phones are on the market?), operating systems, erratic WiFI or bad cell service, and other unforeseen events.
It’s one thing to cut a corner or two for an app that’s going to be around for years and can be course-corrected with updates over time.  But for an app that’s going to be used for just one night? You’d better make sure it’s as perfect as possible and pay whatever it takes in order to achieve that.
Every radio broadcaster needs to be part of the Mobile Revolution.  But simply checking off the “app box” by buying a mediocre product often comes with hidden costs – from operational problems to user issues.
Developing great apps is challenging, and we sympathize with the developer of the Iowa Democratic Party’s app, who clearly had a worse day than even the candidates waiting on pins and needles yesterday for the hand-tabulated results of the caucus.  But a lot of this could have been avoided.
When all else fails, try an abacus.  

When you think about having an app made for your company, you might think about an app that your customers can download and use. This can be useful, but you may want to create an app for your employees to use as well. If you’d like to make a more effective app for your employees, try these tips.

1. Work With an App Development Company

There are programs that you can use to create apps yourself, but you may want to avoid this if you don’t have experience. The team from a good app development company can give you ideas for your employee app, and they can help ensure that the app turns out like you want it to. Plus, cost might be more affordable than you think.

2. Ask Your Employees What They Want

Talk to your employees about the fact that you are thinking about creating an employee app. Then, you can ask them for feedback. A surprising number of employees might be excited about the idea and may be happy to provide you with input. Keep your employees’ ideas in mind when you design and create your app.
Additionally, once the app has been released and your employees have been using it for a little while, you may want to ask for their feedback again. After all, the people who use the app the most will probably be the best people to give their opinions about the app. Then, they may be able to tell you about bugs that are present or features that they would like to see added.

3. Keep It Simple

You’ll probably want to keep your employee app relatively simple and easy to use. Employees shouldn’t have to spend tons of time learning how to use the app. Instead, they should be able to download and use it right away without much of a learning curve. Keeping the app simple will also help you keep costs down in most cases.

4. Provide Useful Information

You might have a lot of ideas about things that you can implement in the app, but first and foremost, you will probably want to provide useful information. Employees might like being able to access the app so that they can read the latest company news and memos, for example, so make sure that you keep the app up-to-date with this information.
Additionally, think about the different types of features that your employees could benefit from in their day-to-day lives. Having the option to pull up their schedule, check out the cafeteria lunch menu, or view the events calendar can all make use of the app very helpful. You may want to add some pictures and other content, too, but useful information will probably be what makes your app truly effective.

5. Allow Push Notifications

Your employees might live busy lives both when they are at work and when they aren’t, and it might be easy for them to forget about their employee app. If you want your employees to make use of the app, consider adding a feature for push notifications.
You will probably want to allow the opportunity for your employees to turn off these notifications if they really want to, but allowing notifications can help you make sure that your employees use the app and help them avoid forgetting anything. You can even set up the app so that it will do things like give a push notification reminder prior to an employee’s scheduled shift.
Creating an employee app could be a great idea for your business. Contact us at jācapps today to find out more about our app development services and how they can help your company and your employees.