Using A Mobile App for Customer Marketing

A customer-focused mobile app is a digital-age marketing tool that builds more than your brand – when done right, it can increase customer efficiencies, as well as your own. Customer-specific apps improve customer satisfaction, loyalty, and retention, with the potential to effortlessly increase sales. If you haven’t considered using a mobile app for customer marketing, you should. In 2020, 3.5 billion mobile-device users are expected to generate $189 billion in mobile app revenue.

Why Build a Customer App if You Have a Sales App?

A mobile app used by your sales force is about customer engagement that most-definitely helps the customer but is mainly used by your sales team to increase marketing and selling activities.

Customer-facing apps, on the other hand, are designed specifically for use by your customers to simplify work functions and communicate. 

From the customers’ perspective, anything that makes their lives easier wins. They want apps that provide instant information and eliminate wasted time. Great apps also nurture, create engagement and satisfaction, and generate tons of data for them and you. No other marketing tool can create as strong of a presence while fulfilling customers’ needs and your company’s goals all at once.

What if customers could use your mobile app to instantly check product inventory or see which equipment needs maintenance, then in an instant, send a purchase order via the app? What if those same customers could see their order being processed in real-time, eliminating phone calls or emails to check on the status? A customer app can do all of this and more.

Begin the App Design Process with a Solid Plan

When developing an app, a solid design and rollout plan is a must. This mobile app development plan should consider the customers’ needs first. Solve problems they don’t know they have and guide users swiftly and effortlessly through the app, without any help from you. A superior user experience builds loyalty and helps simplify doing business with your company. 

Ready to begin? Start by answering these three main questions. 

1. What do customers need and what do they need more of?
2. How do they gain better access to what they need?
3. They now have access to what they need – how easy is it?

#1 – What do Customers Need & What do They Need More of?

What will make their jobs faster, easier, and improve performance? Do they need:

• Greater insight into their own needs? 
• Better access to what they need? 
• Faster, more accurate communication? 
• Ordering capabilities with the touch of a button?
• Quicker delivery?
• Inventory at-a-glance? 
• Custom data reports?

#2 – How do Customers Gain Better Access to What They Need?

You’ve addressed what customers need. Now, how do they fulfill those needs? By giving them better access and providing data that wasn’t available before. Data access should be easy with more data faster for improved decision making. Remember, this app represents your brand and acts as a useful tool for your customers, so keep the visuals and navigation appealing and functional (it is tempting to make it very techy with lots of graphics – don’t). Busy people who are trying to get their work done respond best to simplicity. Which leads to #3.

#3 – Customers Now Have Access to What They Need – How Easy Is It?

For a successful app that naturally makes customers love your brand, give them an overall excellent user interface and user experience (UI/UX). A responsive design, speed, accuracy, and a clearly defined map are imperative. Since your customer-focused mobile app is meant to inspire engagement, offer what feels like a personalized experience that’s speedy, friendly, and intuitive with easy navigation. If your app’s UI/UX remains satisfying over time, you’ll build a loyal following that keeps your competition at bay.

A customer-focused mobile app is functional customer marketing that can improve business process automation and production, lower costs, inspire trust, and encourage referrals while streamlining your own internal processes and revenue objectives.

The Bottom Line … Give Customers What They Need in an Easy-to-Use Mobile App

No matter what industry you’re in – engineering, architecture, education, finance, manufacturing, logistics, distribution, technology, medical – customer-focused mobile apps are the best form of interactive marketing you can implement.

If you’re interested in learning more, we love to brainstorm and help smart people make smart decisions about ways to help customers. Making really cool ideas come to life is what we do! Feel free to reach out and let us know how we can help. 877.377.SWIP