With how integral apps have become to how people function in their day-to-day lives, creating an app is one of the smartest decisions you can make if you want to connect with your customers on a more personal level. Whether you’re collecting data, taking orders, or making customer service easier, an app can be a great way to further the reach and effectiveness of your business. Here are a few ways that you can ensure that your new small business app will be as effective and easy to develop as possible.
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Define Your Scope:
While this is good advice for any project, it needs to be said here as well: a lack of a clear scope is one of the biggest reasons that projects fail. Defining what exactly you want your app to do is important to make sure you get something up and functioning quickly, and it’s important to keep your goals reasonable. Don’t be fooled by a large number of features the apps of large companies boast. These companies can easily spend tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars on the development and upkeep of these apps, so be sure to keep your expectations in line with the amount of money that you’re planning to invest.
Provide Value To Your Users:
While apps can do a lot to provide you with information and usage data from your users, remember that apps have to provide some kind of functionality to the customer as well. Unless there’s a reason for people to download your app, you’re going to have trouble getting the user data that you originally created the app for. Whether it’s a game, a health tracker, or another purchasing option, your customer needs to get something out of the app or they’ll uninstall it.
Use An App-Builder:
Unless you already have the skills to make the app yourself, you’re going to have to either use a tool or hire a developer, and developers can quickly get expensive. App builders have come a long way in terms of usability and power in the past couple of years, and many of them work similarly to how WordPress works for blogging with little to no code and lots of modularity. The best part is that most of them work excellently when scaled, so you’re not going to run into problems if your business suddenly grows.
Make A Maintenance Plan:
All apps eventually end up needing updates, bug-fixes, and additional features, so it’s important to budget for these updates in advance. Nothing will push away your customers like releasing a buggy app and then not supporting it, so while this can seem like an obvious step it’s an important one. It’s also one that many small businesses forget. Ease of maintenance is another reason to use an app-builder as these services usually include support for the apps that you build using their service. Maintenance is also another reason why hiring a traditional developer can become costly over time.
Creating an app that serves both your business and your customers can seem like a daunting task at first, but thanks to modern technology, you no longer have to be a tech wiz or a Fortune-500 company to create an excellent app. If you are willing to put in the necessary planning, creating an app for your small business can be one of the easiest and most effective strategies for increasing your business’ effectiveness.
About the Author:
Anita Ginsburg is a freelance writer from Denver, CO. She studied at Colorado State University and now enjoys writing about health, business, and family. A mother of two wonderful children, she loves traveling with her family whenever she isn’t writing. She recommends using an app builder like Zudy to build your small business’s app.
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