We are all obsessed with apps. There seems to be an “app for everything” from food and recipes to business and finance. A recent study by Forrester Research suggests that an average smartphone user uses around 24 apps on their cell phones, but they end up spending 80 percent of their in-app time on just 5 apps. After all, there is only about 24 hours in a day and we have to sleep some time! So what about the remaining 19 odd apps that they have downloaded to their cell phone?
Are they crying because they are being left out? No but their developers could be. It is not that difficult to figure this out, some apps are just more useful or necessary than others.
App usage
As a mobile app user, you are most probably spending the majority of your time on apps that complete a basic and necessary task. You are using your phone, message, email, whastapp, and maybe a social media manager app. These are some of the most common apps that are used in your day to day lives. These are the apps that garner the most attention and they are also the ones that are personalized to your needs and tastes.
Another Forrester Research report says that apps that are tailored to users’ taste and use, or apps that are personalized to the users’ and their surroundings increase loyalty by 47 percent against the 32 percent by a good app. There is a salient opportunity here that most individual app developers are missing.
If you are downloading a health related app, it should offer personal insights into your health like heart beats, miles run, time taken and ability to share results with friends and tally scores. An immersive experience like this will make you come back for more. There is a reason why social media is so popular. It provides an engaging and immersive experience giving you a feeling and purpose of something bigger than yourself.
Monetizing data and analytics
Here is a cool example of monetizing app data and analytics to provide better service to your customers. Wine4Me is a wine app that runs on the IBM Watson technology. It helps users choose the best wine depending on their taste, previous experience, preferences, and behavior patterns. It is effectively mixing science and perception to deliver the best possible service to its customers.
There are a lot of health related apps that are successfully using analytics to monetize and make a profit. So the next logical question is that how do you apply this new found knowledge and use it in your business?
- Hamilton Faris, a MetLife representative says that you should not “boil the ocean”. It is important to learn and understand what your customer needs. Treat your customers the exact same way (or better) how you would like to be treated. Start slow and focus on one thing at a time.
- You need to have system to gauge the results of your mobile app. Monitor its performance, compare stats, and take notes. You need to find out where your app is falling short and what you can do to improve upon it.
- Collect data and analyze it extensively to recognize patterns. This will be useful in improving your customer experience. The more you interact with your customers, the more you will understand them and vice versa.
There is a lot of data being collected, but sadly developers are still not using it to its full potential. Mobile apps are the future of data analytics and customer service industry. There is a terrific need to spread awareness about it.