Categories
Android Auto App Everywhere Apple CarPlay Connected Car Mobile Web Push Notifications

How Apps Can Boost Auto Dealer Revenue

Buying a vehicle is a high-risk investment that used to include a large amount of on-foot research, visiting dealerships, consulting with sales reps even before the difficult and complex  purchase experience. But what if all the necessary information needed to purchase a car was in one spot … right in your hand? 74% of American adults own a smartphone so the best way to improve the auto dealer experience is through mobile apps.
 
APP USERS SPEND MORE
A study by DME Automotive showed that vehicle buyers who use a branded app were 73% more likely to buy from the dealership. But it doesn’t stop there … even after making a purchase, research shows that 25% more service appointments were booked compared to shoppers without an app. We can also see that these app users are spending more money than non-app users when purchasing a vehicle — 7% more according to a study commissioned by cars.com
 
EMPOWER MOBILE USER CUSTOMERS WITH KNOWLEDGE
Did you know that, auto buyers who use mobile are 72% more likely to repeat visits to the dealership?  Customers use apps to seek out competitive inventory, pricing, dealer information and payment options.
Mobile apps have changed the way dealerships are exceeding the expectations of car buyers who do online research before coming into the dealerships. But, according to a study by Google and Ipsos, 90% of smartphone users are not absolutely certain of which specific brand they want to buy when they begin looking for information online.
Although, the basic principles of buying/selling a car have not changed, mobile users have access to learn more about inventory, prices, reviews, etc. before going into the dealerships. This can help save customers time and money by being more prepared a knowledgeable when it comes to purchasing a car.
 
IMPROVING SALES THROUGH FOLLOW-UPS
Following up with your customers after the day of the sale is just as important as the actual sale. Mobile apps allow you to keep your customers engaged at every stage of the purchase process.
Doing follow-up during the decision-making process can improve the chances that the customer will return to the dealership. And follow-ups after the sale have been proven to increase customer loyalty and can increase referrals.
 
BOOST REVENUE THROUGH SERVICING
The service department generates the dealership’s highest profit margins. Dealership-branded mobile apps allow dealerships to bring customers back again and again. Also, customers who use the dealership mobile apps are 25% more likely to make service appointments over customers who do not download the dealer’s app.
According to study results for DMEautomotive, car owners are spending more money on servicing their vehicles than ever before. Dealers without an app are missing out on a huge opportunity to generate more revenue through the service department.
Here are some examples of what dealer-branded apps can enable customers to:

  • View service hours
  • Book service appointments in minutes
  • Pay repair orders
  • Consult with dealer staff on services through chat functionality
  • Save phone call, text, and email history
  • Update service profiles with every visit.

 
Overall, mobile offers your dealership a chance to engage with your customers and turn them into brand loyalists who will always refer your business to others. If you are interested in us, the apps we’ve built, or a product of your own, contact us at sales@jacapps.com or (248) 353-9030

Categories
App Everywhere Awards B2B Apps Connected Car Mobile Apps Mobile Web Podcasting Push Notifications Radio Wearables

Recap of Small Talk with Mark Lee Interviewing our President Paul Jacobs

Recently, our very own Paul Jacobs was on Small Talk with Mark Lee. Small Talk comes from the Lee Group, MI LLC – Integrated Marketing Solutions. Lee helps companies develop branding and re-branding strategies to produce positive relationships with consumers, which bring measurable results. Lee was interested in jācapps and had the chance to see what our mobile app development company is all about.
After hearing the background about our company, Lee had a few questions about us. Let’s take a look at some of the key takeaways from the interview:
 

What is the biggest hesitation for a business when creating an app?

Paul responded that, “a lot of businesses have lack of knowledge about what mobile apps truly are. Our approach is to explain to our clients that you aren’t buying a piece of software – you are buying a mobile solution. It is important to find out what exactly the client needs, what problem they are having and work with them to create a solution. This is where you build trust with the clients and work with them as a consultant.”


Why does a business need an app?

Jacobs expands on the idea about smartphones are within everyone’s reach. “It is right in their purse or right in their pockets – everyone is carrying one. Therefore, the opportunity to be able to communicate to your consumers or business to business is huge.
Another key reason a business needs an app has to do with push messaging. If your user opts in to push messaging it allows the company to efficiently push messages out to those users. These messages can include sales, something that is new that your users need to check out, reminders, and so much more. Push notifications enhance two-way communication and is a powerful business tool.”


What criteria do I need to use to select a mobile app development company?

Paul says, “It is important that your company work with a developer who has full end-to-end for design, testing, new development ideas, etc. Someone who really understands everything, including getting the app into the app store.
You also want to consider the type of developers within that company. You want your developers to be flexible, treat you like a partner and not a client, and you want to be provided with case studies to see what their previous results have been.”


What is the process of creating an app?

Our process consists of four steps; discover, design, develop and deploy.
Discover – this is where your app takes shape. We draw inspiration from our conversations with you to brainstorm ideas and discuss the requirements needed for development.
Design – once a concept has been approved, we combine skills and strategy to make sure your apps look great and are easy to use. Our progress will be presented to you in the form of a specification document.
Develop – after you’ve approved the specification document, our in-house development team gets to work. This phase culminates with rigorous QA testing.
Deploy – we submit your apps to their respective stores! But we don’t stop there. We keep a lookout for issues and help you navigate new devices and OS versions as they become available.


What is the timeframe for app development?

The timeframe will differ from app to app but the average is from 10-12 weeks from beginning to end. Six to eight weeks of this time is for development. Additionally, our clients are able to download this app before the app goes live so they can tweak and test it before it is published. However, even when the app is finished it can still be adjusted.


Looking to 2019 and the next 5 years – what is the next big idea?

Jacobs explained that the next big idea is voice activated apps. “Right now you have to touch your screens for everything, but soon you will be able to talk to your phone. For example without hitting the app you can just say ‘play stream’ and your music will play.
Another thing that we have here at jācapps is called App Everywhere. Apps are not just on your phones, they are on connected cars, smart TVs, smart speakers, tablets, wearables – and soon there will be more apps created for these devices. Overall, apps are moving beyond just the mobile phone.”
To hear more of the interview with Mark Lee and Paul Jacobs – Listen to the interview here.
jācapps custom apps can support these efforts and so much more. If you are interested in creating a mobile presence to support your business, contact us at sales@jacapps.com or 248-353-9030

Categories
B2B Apps Mobile Apps

Applications for Better Health

Mobile technologies make many aspects of our lives easier – that‘s why we love our devices. Healthcare is no exception and year after year more hospitals, fitness clubs, senior homes, etc. continue to adopt technologies to become more effective and efficient. Healthcare apps have massive potential to improve a patient’s overall wellness, reduce hospital readmissions and enable a patient to manage chronic conditions.
Here are some other ways health and wellness apps can be used:

  1. Track sleep schedules
  2. Meditation and mindfulness
  3. Diet and nutrition
  4. Mental health tracking and concerns
  5. Recipes
  6. Smoking cessation
  7. Sports and fitness activity tracking
  8. Weight loss coaching
  9. Pharmacy and drug info
  10. Stress reduction and relaxation

Health and wellness apps give users more control over their own health. Here are four important benefits of using health and wellness apps:
Easily keep track of your progress
Having the access to your personal health and fitness data, mobile apps allow you to stay on track and see where you are in your progress.
Maintain a healthy lifestyle on the go 
If you live a busy life and struggle with living a healthy lifestyle, mobile apps can change your world! Having access to fitness, diet, and nutrition tips on the move will allow you to live an easier, healthier, and happy life.
Stress relief and calming techniques
If you suffer from anxiety, depression, stress, etc. mobile apps can help you. In the middle of a bad day, you have access to meditation, stress reduction and relaxation apps that can help calm you down or change your mood in just minutes.
Medical condition tracking and advice 
Mobile apps can connect with your family doctor, hospitals, and your pharmacy. This allows patients to engage more in their everyday health and get help quickly.
Maintaining a healthy lifestyle can be a big challenge for individuals and keeping track of your progress can be an even bigger challenge. Mobile will take away these challenges and allow you to live your happiest and healthiest life yet!
If you are interested in learning more about jācapps, the apps we build, or a product of your own, contact us at sales@jacapps.com or (248) 353-9030

Categories
Android Auto App Everywhere Apple CarPlay B2B Apps Mobile Apps Mobile UX Mobile Web Podcasting Push Notifications Radio Wearables

How Radio Stations Are Killing It with Engagement

Customer engagement is one of the most important indicators when evaluating the success of a mobile app.
So, what exactly are radio stations doing today who are already killing it with user engagement?! KSGN 89.7 Family Friendly Radio, Go Media Radio, and The House FM use some unique features that are taking engagement to another level. Here are some of the ways these radio stations are both keeping and gaining users: 
 

Live Streaming

This one’s obvious, but SO powerful. Live streaming allows listeners to listen to their favorite radio stations whenever and wherever they are! Listeners love the portability of mobile apps.
 

Event Calendars

Calendars that list local events and festivals are a huge hit for station listeners. It encourages involvement in your app and allows listeners to access both local events and important tune in dates for artist interviews, live podcasts, and more!
 

Contests

Having a place on your app that involves contests also drives consumer engagement!  This allows customers to become better aware of different contests, and it provides a direct link to your station’s website for instructions to enter the contest or when to listen to the radio for certain winning opportunities!
Radio Apps

Latest News

Being on the go and staying up to date on the latest news can be challenging for a lot of listeners. They may want to know the latest local news, or news about album releases, celebrity updates, upcoming concerts, etc. Your app can allow your users to access information whenever and wherever they are!
 

On Demand Content (podcasts)

Most podcast listening is done on users’ mobile devices. So be sure that your on-demand content is there, so listeners can hear the morning show they missed, or better yet, original content created by your station staff.
 

Open Mic

Your relationship with your listeners doesn’t have to be a one-way street. Using this feature, they can easily send audio, video and photos back to you. Take requests through your app, or better manage listener call-ins. For the user it’s just a couple of easy taps. For you, it’s a way to bring your listeners into your programming.
 

Push Notifications

Having push notifications prohibits your users from missing out on the biggest announcements. These push notifications remind your users about upcoming events, podcasts, music releases, or contests, without even opening the app.

All of these features allow radio stations to rock engagement strategies. These features allow users to have the opportunity to do more than just listen to music. It allows them to be a part of the radio station. Encouraging your users to be me more involved than just listening to music will drive your app usage through the roof!
jācapps custom apps can support these efforts and much more. If you are interested in exploring a mobile strategy to support your business, contact us at sales@jacapps.com or 248-353-9030.

Categories
B2B Apps Mobile Apps Push Notifications

3 Push Notifications Tactics Increase F&B Loyalty

Push notifications are core to the mobile app experience. Most mobile users have their phone on them at all times, and the ability to get their attention in a meaningful way can make or break your app. A report from Kahuna, a mobile engagement analytics startup, explains why consumers so often turn off push notifications, and how to combat the dreaded opt-out. Read more to see why food and beverage, above other industries, can specifically benefit from this feature.

According to their data, only 39 percent of social media app users opt in to push notifications in at least one category. One industry that seems to fare better is the food and beverage business with 60 percent of users opting in.

A few strategies can help push that opt-in rate up when you’re creating push notifications:

  1. Make a good first impression: Educate your users on your app’s benefits and note how push notifications will enhance their user experience.
  2. Know when: Timing is everything when it comes to scheduling push notifications. Statistically, the best time to send push notifications is between 11am and 1pm, between 2pm and 6pm, and from 8pm to 9pm.
  3. Maintain the customer relationship: Once users have opted in to push notifications, keep the content relevant, personalized and targeted. Sloppy notifications practices can quickly drive users away from your app completely.

When it comes to the food and beverage industry, half of smartphone owners regularly use restaurant loyalty rewards apps. And, according to survey conducted by the National Restaurant Association, building customer loyalty and increasing customer retention through app-based rewards programs is a successful strategy.

Restaurants can ensure continued use of their loyalty app through regular push notifications reminding customers how close they are to earning the next free item or reaching the next tier of the rewards program. These interactions again personalize the experience and encourage repeat app usage.

So, what are the top types of push notification should you use in order to create customer loyalty?

  1. Location triggered messages

“Our closest restaurant is only 500ft away, open the app and receive a special discount coupon!”

  1. Gifting messages

“Congratulations! You have been with us for three months already, and as a thank you, we’d like to give you a 20% discount on any item from our bestseller list!”

  1. Transactional messages

Based on an activity directly related to customer behavior– such as past purchases, reward level advancement, expiring coupons, etc.

Getting your push notifications strategy right requires planning, good copywriting and testing. Do it right, and you will see increased user retention rates, reduced customer churn.

If you are interested in learning more about jācapps, the apps we’ve built, or a product of your own, contact us at sales@jacapps.com or (248) 353-9030

Categories
B2B Apps Mobile Apps Push Notifications

3 Push Notifications Tactics Increase F&B Loyalty

Push notifications are core to the mobile app experience. Most mobile users have their phone on them at all times, and the ability to get their attention in a meaningful way can make or break your app. A report from Kahuna, a mobile engagement analytics startup, explains why consumers so often turn off push notifications, and how to combat the dreaded opt-out. Read more to see why food and beverage, above other industries, can specifically benefit from this feature.
According to their data, only 39 percent of social media app users opt in to push notifications in at least one category. One industry that seems to fare better is the food and beverage business with 60 percent of users opting in.
A few strategies can help push that opt-in rate up when you’re creating push notifications:

  1. Make a good first impression: Educate your users on your app’s benefits and note how push notifications will enhance their user experience.
  2. Know when: Timing is everything when it comes to scheduling push notifications. Statistically, the best time to send push notifications is between 11am and 1pm, between 2pm and 6pm, and from 8pm to 9pm.
  3. Maintain the customer relationship: Once users have opted in to push notifications, keep the content relevant, personalized and targeted. Sloppy notifications practices can quickly drive users away from your app completely.

When it comes to the food and beverage industry, half of smartphone owners regularly use restaurant loyalty rewards apps. And, according to survey conducted by the National Restaurant Association, building customer loyalty and increasing customer retention through app-based rewards programs is a successful strategy.
Restaurants can ensure continued use of their loyalty app through regular push notifications reminding customers how close they are to earning the next free item or reaching the next tier of the rewards program. These interactions again personalize the experience and encourage repeat app usage.
So, what are the top types of push notification should you use in order to create customer loyalty?

  1. Location triggered messages

“Our closest restaurant is only 500ft away, open the app and receive a special discount coupon!”

  1. Gifting messages

“Congratulations! You have been with us for three months already, and as a thank you, we’d like to give you a 20% discount on any item from our bestseller list!”

  1. Transactional messages

Based on an activity directly related to customer behavior– such as past purchases, reward level advancement, expiring coupons, etc.
Getting your push notifications strategy right requires planning, good copywriting and testing. Do it right, and you will see increased user retention rates, reduced customer churn.
If you are interested in learning more about jācapps, the apps we’ve built, or a product of your own, contact us at sales@jacapps.com or (248) 353-9030

Categories
Alexa Amazon Echo App Everywhere Awards Connected Car Mobile Apps Push Notifications Radio

4 Ways to Engage Your Listeners with Mobile

Your audience is on mobile more than they’re on any other device! And with proper promotion on air, and online, there is no reason you can’t move a significant portion of your audience to use your station’s apps! Here are 4 important ways to engage your listeners on mobile.

Upstream

Our “open mic” feature allows listeners to use the microphone in their mobile device to interact directly with your station. Users can create a message with just a tap, and send it to your station personnel with another tap, creating immediate engagement with the audience. We’ve seen stations use Open Mic to take requests, or call in to talk shows.
The user can also send photos or videos. One of our clients uses Upstream to boost contest involvement. The station wanted their listener to send in a certain picture in order to win a prize and upstream made this so easy.

Push Notifications

We all get push messages on our phones all day, whether it be news alerts, sports scores or traffic updates. By sending your audience a push message, you can tell them what’s on your station, give them the inside scoop on station events and even pass along breaking news.
Instead of waiting for users to open the app, use push notifications to entice the user to open and use the app. Those messages might include popular app content, event reminders and promotions.

Social Media

One of the biggest benefits of integrating your social media presence into the app is that your listeners can post directly in the app! Let your users check out your morning show’s latest post, or picture, without ever leaving the app. You can display your social feeds separately – Twitter and Facebook – or with feeds from the station and a variety of hosts all pulled together in one social timeline.

Guides

The V4 app from jācapps has the ability to provide users a local directory to businesses or attractions. The guide contains a collection of locations, provided by your station, and can display that collection as an easy to scan list, or it can map those locations, providing one tap turn-by-turn directions. If you have a rock station, maybe you provide your listeners a local bar guide. An AC station could provide a directory of family-friendly activities. These guides are a great way to create another revenue stream for your station.
If you are interested in the apps we’ve built or a product of your own, contact us at sales@jacapps.com or (248) 353-9030

Categories
Mobile Apps Push Notifications

Are Push Notifications Beneficial to My App?

Many of our clients are looking to increase consumer engagement and loyalty with mobile because of its robust, in-their-pocket connection with consumers. Your best consumers have downloaded your mobile app, but now you want to be able to reach out to them with messages to keep them coming back. Push notifications are a hugely popular way to gain attention and engagement from your consumers. jācapps now offers this capability within our apps at a surprisingly affordable price.

What are push notifications?

Push messages are notifications sent through your application directly to a mobile user’s ”notification tray.” They arrive alongside other important messages from other apps right on the user’s device, without them having to actually open your app. These messages are similar to texts – and have over a 90% open rate. This is why clients in various industries see increased engagement with their app when using push notifications. Why do companies use them?

  • To alert users to news and other timely messages.
  • When sharing deals and promotions.
  • To remind users about important brand messages.
  • And to increase visibility and app usage.

Companies can strengthen their marketing and sales strategy by adding push notifications to their mobile app. With the amount of time consumers spend in mobile apps, and the almost instantaneous delivery of notifications, the possibilities are endless.

The advantages of push notifications include:

  • Wide reach across users

Most of mobile usage is within apps – notifications can reach 9 out of 10 users on average, higher than email and social. Push messages are automatically prioritized with the user’s latest news and updates.

  • Conversion rates

Notifications are converting as high as 40% and are considered a phenomenal marketing tool that can significantly increase sales.

  • Real-time communication

Push notifications offer instant communication with consumers and are great for breaking news alerts, limited-time offers, and event notices when you want to reach your consumers instantly.
 
Now jācapps can include push notifications in applications! For more information on push notifications implementation and pricing contact your sales representative.