Does your Mobile App make the cut: What you need to keep in mind

Recently, one of my teachers, Lindsey Fair, gave a lesson on Mobile Marketing and within that lesson, she mentioned that often times when customers download an app, they often only use it once, and then it’s forgotten about or deleted. But why is that? Well, as Lindsey put it, if the only thing on your app is store hours or locations, people already have an app for that. It’s called the Internet. People want an app to fill a need that your mobile website or Google can't (Not an easy task). And this isn’t even the BIG problem. Research shows that people prefer apps to mobile sites. The number one reason people leave your app is some sort of in-app problem.

Research conducted by Compuware showed over 56% of users stopped using or deleted the app because of some sort of problem in the app itself. What’s more is that most users delete 90% of the apps they download. One small hiccup that causes us even the smallest inconvenience and it’s into the virtual trash with that app and we move on. Gone are the days were people tolerated inconvenience. We want everything five minutes ago. So how can companies make sure their app doesn’t hit the virtual trash heap?

Jatin Sapra, Social Media Executive at TechAhead Software says to keep these 5 things in mind (listed below with my take on each one):

1. Get into the shoes of end-users: You can’t just look at it from the perspective of the developer or business owner. Get in to your consumers head and find out if meets their needs. Are they going get the information they came to the app to get? Does it do what they thought it was going to do?
2. Experience is also very important: As I mentioned above, 56% of people delete an app do to a problem or negative experience. If the app loads to slow (see the cart below for peoples expectations on load time), or crashes or some other negative experience occurs, you wont get a second chance. You need to give the users the best experience possible.
   
   
   
   
   
3. Don’t Overload the App with lot of features: Keep it simple. If you overwhelm the user with to many features, their just going give up. Figure out maybe 2-3 things that are the most important to your consumers and focus on those. You need the right balance. Consumers don't want to much or to little. 
4. Security is very important: More then anything else, a security issue will make a consumer stop using your app and can even make them stop using your brand. When you deal with people’s personal information, whether it’s their name, email, credit card number, make sure your security is airtight or you could have some serious problems. 
5. Test, test and test again: Before you launch it, make sure it works. Test it for as many problems you can think of and than test it again. Test it with a few consumers to see if it works for them. Are they getting what they want? Does it help them? 

So there you have it. When it comes to mobile apps, it needs to be fast and effortless and bug free or else we don’t want it. Thanks for reading and make sure to check back Friday for the latest Social Buzz.