These days, people approach many brands and products via mobile first, well before heading to the shop or completing a purchase online via a desktop. Some people even look online while they are in a store for an online promotion or to see if the size they want is available, before asking the shop staff.
As a matter of fact, the app market is growing rapidly. The revenues from app stores nearly doubled since 2014, approaching 80 billion dollars and the trend doesn’t seem to be stopping. A comScore report states that the number of mobile users surpassed the number of desktop users in 2015, and every day there are more people with at least one smart device in their pockets. Right now, 80% of internet users own a mobile device and they spend as much time on mobile as they do on desktop PCs.
A smooth and reliable mobile experience is what you are aiming for--and it can only be achieved through app quality.
Quality is the key to user retention
83% of mobile users think that a seamless brand experience across the devices is very important. Every user interaction with your brand or product needs to be the best quality possible, including your app and your (mobile) website.
Quality is your ultimate goal. It’s more important than the number of features your app has or how fast you release updates. Any app should be tested thoroughly, early, and often during its development. Updates should provide new features to increase revenues, not only to fix bugs.
Good quality comes with many benefits, including user retention and higher revenues, which can be achieved with positive reviews in app stores. Word of mouth is still a powerful tool even in the digital era. 58% of users will read reviews before downloading an app.
Positive reviews and a higher star rating can boost your downloads, leading to better revenues.A change from a three to a four-star rating will increase downloads by 92%!
If increasing revenues and ROI is what you are after, the focus should be on retaining users, not acquiring new ones. The average retention rate after 90 days is only 20%, and acquiring new users is 6-7 times more expensive than keeping existing customers happy and engaged.
Ways to increase an app’s quality
There are a number of ways you can increase your app’s quality. One of the simplest ways is to listen to your users. People are more inclined to leave negative reviews than positive ones. The best way to tackle that potential “problem” is to engage with those users who are not happy.If a user cares enough to write a review, you should care enough to understand where their issue lies and try to solve it. Engage with them, email them and try to win a positive review in the end!
Make sure to test your apps before releasing them into an app store - you will not regret it. You want your app as smooth and perfect as it can be. The hype will die out after a while, but the good and bad reviews will stay. The same is true when updates are being released - features need to work properly and the app needs to work on at least all of the top devices on your target market. Don’t be scared of testing. The goal is to find bugs, so don’t despair if there is a lot of fixing and rewriting to be done. It is better that your QA department finds them than your users.
