Mobile Retention Mistakes To Avoid

A common narrative here at Eazi-Apps centres on the need for every business, regardless of size or turnover, to deploy a mobile application and leverage the endless possibilities that mobile brings to businesses. Our previous blogs have highlighted how businesses can benefit from a mobile app in terms of increased brand exposure, a boost in footfall and revenue as well as encouraging customer loyalty. Once of the biggest selling points of a mobile app in our opinion is the way in which businesses can reward loyal customers with unique, engaging loyalty programs that foster repeat visits and purchases.

With the average smartphone owner using on average 26 apps per month according to recent research conducted by Nielsen, it is imperative that mobile consultants and businesses do everything possible to keep their mobile application at the front of their customers mind. With the average home screen of an iPhone or Android user becoming increasingly competitive, standing out from the crowd and offering a unique customer experience has never been as important. By tailoring the user experience to the needs, wants and aspirations of the customer, any business can utilise mobile apps to increase retention rates amongst customers.

The focus of today’s blog is to highlight mobile retention mistakes to avoid that will lead to increased engagement levels within the app and boost overall retention. Customer retention is vitally important to businesses of all sizes as it is often more cost effective to retain existing customers than continually find new customers for products or services. A great retention strategy is one which rewards the customer and entices them back multiple times. However, there are many ways in which retention strategies can go wrong and some of the mistakes to avoid are highlighted below.

One of the biggest retention mistakes to avoid is loading a mobile application with content that is solely focused on customers finding out more about the brand rather than performing an action. Sure, it is important to build brand awareness and inform customers about the latest developments or products/services being offered but it is important to be appreciative of why customers are using a mobile app. The majority of customers download a mobile app to complete a task such as order products/services, make a booking or redeem an offer. Clouding the task at hand with multiple options without excelling at one or two tasks is something that should be avoided.

Following on from the point above, having too many features within the app often confuses and overwhelms mobile app users. A great strategy to avoid decision fatigue is for the mobile app to have features which place a heavy emphasis on completing tasks rather than presenting the application in a similar fashion to a mobile website with static content.

Some of our previous blogs have highlighted how push messages can be used by businesses in engaging and innovative ways to connect with customers. With the introduction of point based and geo-specific push notifications, businesses can further localise their messages and provide relevant content to mobile app users. However, one of the biggest contributors to users uninstalling a mobile app centres on the incorrect usage of push messages. For example, flooding users with constant marketing messages which are not timely or relevant to the needs of the audience is a sure fire way to alienate the audience and decrease the install base of any mobile app.

The very nature of technology means that occasionally things may go wrong. However, frequent mobile app crashes or instability is not something which is tolerated by the average mobile app user. Recent research by TechCrunch revealed that only 16% of mobile app users will try an app more than twice if it crashes. Therefore, it is important for mobile app owners and developers to test the stability of the mobile app, checking features, the interface as well as the experience across different devices and platforms to ensure a consistent experience.

There are many benefits of displaying adverts such as banner ads within a mobile app as it creates an additional revenue stream for the business owner or mobile app owner. However, adverts within mobile applications often disrupt the user experience and lead to frustration. As a result, it is best to avoid placing too many adverts within the mobile app as it can lead to disengagement and ultimately app installs.

One of the best ways to boost retention rates for any mobile application is continually strive to improve, innovate and update the app. Examples of popular mobile apps that update continually include Facebook, Pinterest and WhatsApp, that are known to update their apps up to 10 times more frequently than the average mobile app in the App Store or Google Play. The reason why many mobile app owners choose to update their apps is to keep the user experience fresh and to react to feedback from end users which increases the retention rate overall.

As we have explored throughout this blog, there are a number of mobile retention mistakes to avoid that can ultimately increase retention rates amongst customers and end users. To find out how you can help businesses of all sizes deploy a mobile app and avoid many of the common retention mistakes highlighted in this blog, contact the Eazi-Apps team today.