Is A Mobile App Vital For Your Business?

Mobile apps are in vogue right now, particularly because they offer certain advantages such as being able to charge for a subscription price, being able to charge for customers to obtain a mobile app, and for other reasons we will get into later in this article. However, there are drawbacks to having a mobile app as well, such as the fact that if the mobile app is designed to monetize your business, you will need to pay a fee to the mobile app carrier (such as Apple with regard to the Apple iOS App Store), and the fact that you will need to pay a developer to create a mobile app (or invest the time to create one yourself). In this article, we will explore whether a mobile app is vital for your business operations.

Take, for example, the case of having a functional mobile app, an app in which customers have more and more of a say (in the form of reviews and user comments). In this case, if your mobile app is to be successful, you must maintain it regularly and also respond to customer demands. Otherwise, your mobile app will flounder and your business might suffer as well.

If your mobile app is successful, however, you might increase your bottom line. Profit can be increased by the addition or use of a mobile app. But it is important to keep in mind that these margins will not necessarily be high to start. It takes considerable time and investment to create a mobile app and maintain it so that it functions well according to your business needs and goals. 

To start, there are different types of mobile apps. Take, for example, the case of a major bank. If your firm is a bank, then you will need to invest resources in different aspects of a mobile app than if your firm is doing some other business operation. A bank will have to invest a great deal of money, time, and effort towards having a secure mobile app, for example, whereas, a different kind of company that does not need to invest quite as much in app security may not need that, yet they may need another type of investment.

To further that point, it depends on which industry within which your business operates. Since most firms need to invest in app security, there is considerable demand for that. But, not everyone needs to be a specialist in everything. So you will see more businesses outsourcing these types of services, such as app security, to other firms. That means that your business will likely have to invest in such services if you seek to create or maintain a successful mobile app to make your business’s image credible, or whatever goal you have for making or maintaining a mobile application.

There are also other types of apps that include apps that actually perform some function. These are apps such as the Microsoft Word app, for example. Of course, all apps perform some function, yet these apps that I am referring to now are apps that can help create something new, such as apps that further creativity. These types of apps require a great deal of programming knowledge to create, as well as professional brand integrity, marketing, and other strategies to help the app succeed. This type of app, of course, will differ significantly from a banking app, whose main function is to help customers bank better. 

For example, in the Journal of Marketing Research, authors Xian Gu and P.K. Kannan, in their 2021 article titled “The Dark Side of Mobile App Adoption: Examining the Impact on Customers’ Multichannel Purchase,” says that mobile apps do not necessarily have a positive impact on sales. In the particular context they were discussing, the market was highly competitive, and thus this impacts the results significantly, because if your business does not have a lot of competition (which is a lucky industry in this day and age), then the results may not apply to you. However, most businesses will face significant competition at some point in their business cycle. So, read on if you want to know more about how a mobile app could help your business or potentially take away from your business’s most important assets such as time and money.

In the aforementioned article by Gu and Kannan, the authors state that in many studies, the introduction of a mobile app and its subsequent adoption and use by consumers will increase the overall customer spending on that business’s product or service. However, the authors of that article go on to say that these studies were conducted on apps that have little competition in terms of app adoption in their industry. The authors’ point, then, is that in industries in which mobile app adoption is high, there will be much more competition, and their findings show that in these more competitive spheres, customer spending actually goes down with the adoption of a mobile app. So, as you can see, there is a very fine line between when mobile apps are actually helpful for a business to adopt and when they are patently unhelpful.

So, what are some cases in which the adoption of a mobile app is helpful or even necessary?

First of all, I would not say that a mobile app is always necessary. That should be clear by now, that a mobile app can actually detract from business sales at a certain level. This is what the authors Gu and Kannan are pointing out in their article. However, it is important to conduct market research and extensive due diligence on whether a mobile app would be helpful in your industry. This is because there are contexts in which a mobile app can help, and there are contexts in which a mobile app would not be helpful. But the line is not that distinguished. That is what I hope to hash out in this article.

You might wonder what this has to do with technical interpretation services. In fact, it has a lot to do with technical translation services because oftentimes, those companies are looking to expand their outreach through mobile apps. A technical translation service also has an important advantage that I have not mentioned thus far. It is that the technical translation service can translate their app (or another company’s app) to a different language. In fact, this is a great advantage because it can change the potential customers, i.e., the market to whom a company appeals. This is extremely important because an app that functions in different languages has more potential reach than a monolingual app. Additionally, even if a business is only operating in the United States, creating a mobile app that is multilingual can still be very helpful. This is especially important given the influx of Spanish speakers and speakers of languages other than English in the United States. So, it is not only a global marketplace that can benefit from an app that is translated into multiple languages, but also, domestic companies can improve their marketing efforts through the translation of a mobile app for their business activities.

Here are some things to consider if your company does decide to create a mobile app for its services. One is that the app will cost money to maintain and service continually. Do not expect that the app will be a one-time investment. Apps take continual support and development to grow. Think of it like your business activities in general – they took time to grow – and so will the mobile app.

Two is a potential benefit of a mobile app. It is that push notifications and other types of reminders for a customer are ways to create value. This means that customers will find value in the services or products your business is offering. If there is a high level of engagement, this is good for your business. If the level of engagement is not so high, then it might be time to reevaluate your mobile app plan.

Also Read: Small Business Apps To Grow Your Business

Future Group is a top language services provider that can help your business evaluate the linguistic barriers your company might be facing in the development of a mobile app.

Regardless, in this article, I have discussed the advantages and potential drawbacks to creating a mobile app that assists your services as a business. In conclusion, finding a model that works is important. The app should help your customers do what they are accustomed to doing in a more efficient way. Or, the app can help potential new customers find new things out about your business, and the app can help convert these potential new customers into actual customers. Therefore, it is important to choose the most helpful business strategy (and language strategy) for your company’s needs. Keep in mind that sometimes an app may not be feasible, and that is usually a matter of resources, though it can be for other reasons, too. But do not fret if your business does not yet have a mobile application. You can succeed either with or without one. It just depends on what your goals are as a business.