Here’s What Can Happen If You Don’t Offer Mobile App Support
Nowadays, when you don’t have expert app developers creating apps for your business, you’re passing on a great opportunity to expand your company in more ways than one. Simply put, your existing customers are on mobile, with research suggesting that 92% of the users’ time on mobile is spent on apps.
So, without a dedicated app for mobile, you could be missing out on some of these great benefits:
- It can increase brand awareness as you get to interact with consumers through branded communication. This can result in increased trust and loyalty in the long run.
- It’s the perfect channel for personalized marketing campaigns, allowing you to advertise new products, offer discounts and promos, invite users to special events, and much more.
- Mobile apps collect behavioral and transactional data. With such information available, you can better personalize messages, build insights, and improve subsequent campaigns.
The Dangers of Bad App Support
To reap the benefits though, your mobile app must be reliable, and that means incorporating customer support in it, especially since more and more people are becoming dependent on it for their everyday routine and work. Mobile app support must provide users with quick, reliable service; unfortunately, this isn’t the case for many apps today.
According to a survey by Radius Global Market Research and Helpshift, 69% of people report having problems with apps they use. Google, meanwhile, said that 80% of users are more inclined to purchase from mobile apps or sites that quickly respond to inquiries. This means that faulty or frustrating customer support is a bane for your business.
Here are other ways that lousy support can be detrimental to your business:
Complaints go unresolved (opportunity for improvement is wasted)
Reporting app problems start by searching troubleshooting request through the mobile app itself. When there is no email or number indicated, you’d have to open a browser and search. Depending on what you find, you’d contact the helpdesk, but not without staying on hold or not hearing back from them for some time.
Once you get hold of them, helpdesk will then ask for the details of your complaint. And after several back-and-forths, there’s only a 50% chance that your issue will get resolved. Moreover, unfortunately, some other bloke will likely experience your problem.
When app issues fail to come to light due to unfavorable customer support, developers and key personnel won’t work to fix and improve it. It is then essential to put people in your support team who care about the customer enough to bring their concerns to senior officers.
Brand image is harmed (less perceived value)
The internet can be a double-edged sword to organizations. On the one hand, it can build your image; on the other, it can also bring it down. Bad customer support can tarnish the reputation you’ve worked for, and one bad customer service story is all it takes. Customers can quickly write a negative review or vent their frustrations on social media for the whole world to see.
Research has found that 95% of users will tell at least one friend or family member about bad customer experience they had, and 54% will share it with at least five other people. Naturally, perceived value and overall sales can decrease because of this, but it can also negatively impact your brand when it comes to word-of-mouth marketing.
An effective workaround is to have a key company figure to make amends to those affected by the bad customer support in a private discussion. They can also respond publicly to the criticisms, accept responsibility, and assure people that the company is working to solve the issues permanently.
Users write bad app store reviews (less advocacy)
As mentioned, it’s now a lot easier for your consumers to criticize your business when they are inconvenienced by poor app support. Data reveal that 24% of users will leave bad reviews on apps because of it, which is especially damaging because iOS and Android app stores both factor in user ratings when recommending apps during a search.
Naturally, receiving poor marks could mean fewer downloads and users. Fortunately, both app stores also allow developers to respond to negative reviews posted on the platform. Keep in mind the recommendations previously mentioned, and you can hopefully turn the situation around.
Users leave the app (less engagement)
It goes without saying that unsatisfied customers who leave harsh criticisms about your app will also delete it altogether. In the same survey by Radius Global Market Research and Helpshift, 47% of respondents removed apps that don’t provide customer support.
It’s true that once the user deletes the app, your business may not get the chance to correct the issue anymore, or that the complainant likely won’t care about it. Regularly surveying your customers helps prevent app support blunders. Engagement is necessary not only when the problem has been revealed, but also to discover how you can make things better before things go unpleasant.
Users get stuck in conversion funnels (less revenue)
Customer support isn’t just an after-sales service; interactions with prospects and leads can also fall into this. Leads can get turned off with your brand when the first person they interact with provides bad customer support. Naturally, this can lead to fewer customers and less revenue.
An easy remedy to this is to look into automation and use a CRM which stores all the information your support team will ever need. It can also help them respond to users quickly, whether they are already a customer or not, to serve them better.
The experience is just as important as the app itself
There has been much talk about the importance of customer experience today. Unfortunately, some organizations and their development teams are yet to see its importance when it comes to developing mobile apps. An app can only succeed and be up to the challenging technological environment if developers keep the end users in mind.
If you’re legitimately concerned about your users’ experience, you won’t neglect mobile app support when working on your own app.
For more mobile app ideas and inspiration, check out these 9 Examples of Businesses Creating Awesome Mobile Apps!
