How Can Mobile Apps maximize your Business Productivity.
Not so long ago, running a successful business merely required a handful of skilled employees who understood the business, service or product, and perhaps a loyal customer base. In today’s tech-centric times, business success means staying on top of the latest trends in the tech world and using them to remain competitive.Entrepreneurs are increasingly embracing mobile apps as a crucial tool for streamlining business-consumer relations. Thanks primarily to the ubiquity of portable smart devices, the use of apps among business owners has grown tremendously over the last several years, positively impacting sales, the output of employees, and customer satisfaction. In fact, according to a recent report by Salesforce, most successful businesses give credit to mobile apps for their growth, agility, and productivity. The report also states that small businesses that adapt the use of mobile apps stand to increase their productivity by up to 140 percent in the next two years.
So, if you’re yet to make mobile apps a part of your business, now’s as good a time as any to start laying the groundwork. Below are five convincing ways in which mobile-based applications can help you maximize your business productivity.
1. Communication
Smartphones and tablets have transformed communication in all aspects of daily life, including business. Mobile apps enable the efficient and fast passing of information among employees, company divisions, branches, and partner businesses. Time sensitive information like security briefs, scheduling changes and news updates need to be consistently relayed to ensure the smooth flow of activities, and there’s no better tool for the job than a company internal app.An internal app can help your brand maintain professionalism and organization throughout your business. iBuildApp, for instance, has a handful of brand new internal corporate app templates for business organizations to utilize. All of these templates are easy to implement, and the customization options are all the same for when you need to brand the app or make it a little different from the template. The “Company News” template, for example, can work wonders for you especially when it comes to revolutionizing your internal communication. This company app news section is similar to a website blog. The only difference is that none of this news is published for the public. Therefore, if you would like to share press releases or mentions of your company in the news, all of your employees can open the app and take a look at what the publications have to say. You can also decide to create your own content if that’s more suitable.
Additionally, applications can facilitate collaboration and accountability among remote workers by offering real-time project-sharing platforms and location-specific features. Geolocation apps such as Glympse, for instance, can be used to identify an employee’s location and monitor their movement automatically. Trello or Asana, on the other hand, are excellent utilities for work sharing and task management.
Of course, these benefits can be incorporated into a single app, thereby eliminating the need for multiple apps that are needlessly inefficient and redundant. With a quality application, you can cater better to the needs of your employees and keep everyone working cohesively.
2. Financial Management
The significance of mobile apps in managing the financial sector is becoming more apparent with each new financial year, largely fueled by the ever-growing need for high accuracy levels with zero or minimal tolerance for errors. The latest crop of financial applications is fast with almost nil error margins, which means that business managers can spend less time on repetitive numerical processes and more on developing strategies for growth and profitability. Some of these apps, such as Intuit QuickBooks, used majorly by small businesses allow users to manage payrolls, pay bills, track income sales and expenses, create invoices and forms among other activities. Larger companies, on the other hand, are popular with cloud-based financial applications such as Intacct.Nevertheless, if you find it challenging to get an app that perfectly meets your financial management needs, you could always look up a proper business app developer to partner with and produce the custom app that would be tailored specifically for your company.
3. Marketing
In recent times, the most successful businesses are those that have put serious resources into building unique apps, that get their products and services as close to their customer base as possible. One of the most significant advantages of mobile apps in the marketing scope is that all the information that the company needs to pass to its customers such as promotions and exclusive sales is available right on their fingertips. There is a higher chance that customers will buy your product if they’re able to access information about it and interact with it on a mobile application platform.Developers are continuously refining business apps to establish direct, feature-packed marketing channels, with which entrepreneurs can better engage with their customers. The possibility of creating push notifications, for instance, can keep your brand consistently visible by delivering timely personalized updates about new products and services. And with chat bots, you can establish 24-hour reliable and responsive communication with your clients and gather crucial after-sales feedback that you could use to refine your marketing strategy.
If you want to maximize sales, improve the provision of services and boost customer acquisition, you cannot afford to ignore the benefits that mobile apps bring to the table.
4. Time-Saving
The foundation of a successful business is the ability to utilize and manage its time effectively. Proper time management enables you to accomplish more in a short time. Time is Money, as the saying goes, and in business, it can be the defining factor between consistent growth and skyrocketing profits, and poor performance and premature failure.Companies that are using mobile apps to manage operations are saving more person-hours which translate to saving more money. Monotonous activities such as customer research, administrative work, and repetitive paperwork have been allocated to specific mobile applications that can effectively complete the tasks while the employees get more time from their day to focus on higher value work. The “Supplies Request” app template from iBuildApp, for instance, is a good example especially when it comes to automating repetitive tasks and as a result, saving time. This “Supplies Request” template streamlines the process of getting more supplies and ensures that everyone in your organization has all the tools and gadgets they need to get their jobs done.
Apps can also save your business significant travel time and expenses by making it possible to communicate with your regional and international clients via internet-based utilities like Email, and even attend meetings with teleconferencing tools like Skype. If you must travel, an app can help you to plan the shortest path to a destination, and also avoid unforeseen delays by enabling you to book a flight and hotel room before you leave the office. The Waze app, in addition, gives its users information about routes using real-time reporting of traffic jams and accidents, empowering them to choose the fastest and most reliable means of transportation.
5. Cost-effective training
If employee development is one of your business values, an enterprise training app can be a much more efficient tool for training than traditional styles, which demand both time and money. Rather than inviting costly tutors to your premises during valuable business hours, you can use an app that delivers pre-recorded instruction videos and study materials straight to your employees’ smartphones, which they can access at their free time.Some companies have gone as far as incorporating gaming experiences and rewarding employees that perform highly, making learning and development relaxed, fun and efficient.
Give mobile business apps a chance, and start reaping the benefits of smooth communication, effective financial management, proper branding and marketing, better time-saving, a more efficient workforce, and most importantly, being always on top of customer needs and requirements. And with platforms like iBuildApp, it is even cheaper when making an app for your business. The platform guides you through the app-making process without making you spend thousands of dollars for custom designs. All you have to do is grab a mobile app template and get started.
