How Mobile Apps Can Help SMEs during This Coronavirus Pandemic

Pratik Rupareliya
Intuz
Published in
10 min readJun 3, 2020

The sudden Covid-19 attack to the world has shattered every human being and even every industry with its deadly effects. WHO has declared Covid-19 as a pandemic and hence it is creating disasters across the world. Every industry is getting affected due to coronavirus Outbreak. People are not moving outside and staying at home because of the Coronavirus threat. Governments from all over the world have lockdown cities and suggested social distancing for preventing this deadly disease. This situation has surely affected small and medium businesses all around the globe.

Let’s see the major problems SMEs facing during the Coronavirus Pandemic –

  • No brand visibility

Brand recognition is an important aspect when you are running a business. No matter you have a small or medium business, the vital thing to focus on is staying in the consumer’s mind. In such a tough time of Covid-19, it is a little difficult to come into the eyes of your targeted customers. Everybody has stopped going outside and hence every business is suffering badly and facing economic downgrade. If you still want to shine on the online marketplace with your potential brand, then you need to develop an app for your business. Even if people are staying at home, they can access your business just with their fingertips on mobile and you can reach more and more customers likewise. So Mobile app development solution will help in enhancing your brand visibility.

  • Lack of communication with clients

It has been always said that “Customer is King” and you should never forget this point. While running any business, it is important to have proper communication with your valuable clients. Doing this, you will not only gain user trust but will also get full ideas on what other changes your client wants to have in your services. Understanding their requirement will help you to have them with you for a longer time. The current Coronavirus situation is getting worst day by day and because of which it is becoming a little difficult to keep in touch with the clients. In such a tough time, building an app can solve your all problems. Having a solid mobile presence will increase the chances of better communication with your potential clients.

  • No sales and revenue

During the lockdown condition, businesses are affecting badly and nobody knows till when this Coronavirus will stay with us. To increase the sales and revenue of your business, undoubtedly you must opt for native app development. If your business supports an app, then there are so many things that you can serve your clients online. You can offer your clients a great Onboarding experience and if you are having something important to announce regarding your business then you can use push notification for notifying your client.

  • Hurdles in reaching the customers

It is always difficult to reach the customers unless you have a mobile app supporting your business. No matter you have a reputed business but it will always lack behind if you are not having a mobile app for it. Opt for Android and/or iOS mobile app development and solve all the hurdles that you are facing in reaching your potential customers.

Here is the list of different types of hurdles companies face to reach customers

• Difficulty in identifying a new range of customers

• Maintaining a consistent customer experience

• Tracking performance metrics accurately

• Security for maintaining the privacy

• Mapping customer journey

  • Identifying customers across different channels

Importance of Building Mobile App for Businesses

With the advancement of technology trends all around the globe, we cannot imagine our survival without evolving technological trends. Smartphones are booming everywhere. No matter you have a small or medium business, creating a mobile app has become a must thing. Today, most of the people use smartphones only so having your solid presence on mobile is possible when you have an app to represent your business on it. Mobile apps are becoming a great way of revenue generation.

Points that will justify the importance of mobile application solution for business

• Boost visibility of your business

• Cultivate customer loyalty towards your brand

• Enhanced brand recognition

• Best marketing channel

• Boost profits

• Better customer service

• Improve customer engagement

• Stand out from the competition

  • Be visible to your customers all the time

I have a website why I need Mobile App?

“As per a survey conducted by experts, on an average a person spends its 3 hours on mobile devices. There are higher chances to tap the opportunity from the market as people love to spend time by offering them an intuitive mobile application.”

If you are having a website and not an app then you must immediately opt for developing a mobile app. A feature-loaded and engaging mobile is capable of performing different actions much faster as compared to a mobile website. Usually, mobile apps store their data locally on the mobile devices itself whereas websites make use of web servers for storing their data. Applications save huge time by storing their preferences and then making their use for taking proactive actions on the behalf of users. There are a bundle of reasons to use a mobile app even if you have a website to represent your business.

Read More about Agile App Development Methodology from this end-to-end Guide

How the Mobile Apps Development can help SMEs during COVID-19

1. Build Trust and brand identity

In such a difficult time across the globe, people are staying inside their houses only and fearing to step out. Building a reputation or gaining the trust of clients towards your business is the most important thing right now. If you will not make them feel important and valuable, they will never trust you or your business. Currently, your main motive should lie in building trust in the eyes of your customers. You can build trust and brand identity by having an app that will provide numerous ways to stay connected with your customers and showing them the best set of services that your business provides.

Below are some points that will help in building trust and brand identity

• You must have app store reviews

• Responding to the feedbacks and emails is a must task

• Never forget to ask for necessary permissions

• Don’t force customers for filling a registration form

  • Don’t get involved in mobile advertising

2. Stay connected with your audiences 24*7

Having a mobile app to represent your business will boost the chances of staying connected with your audience and that too 24*7. In the current Covid-19 situation, it has become very difficult for business owners to run their business efficiently. People are not stepping outside their houses and staying at their home only within the four walls of their house.

If you are having an app for your business then you can do many things to stay in touch with your audience.

• Provide access to critical information

• You can get customer feedback by running surveys

• Enhance customer engagement by using the live chat option

• Get benefits from proximity and contextual marketing

• You can offer a new way to engage with the brand content

• Give rewards to customers for boosting your brand loyalty

• Always think out-of-the-box to reach success

  • Go for promoting your app on your website

3. Improve business accessibility

Mobile apps are easily accessible by your customers. During the Coronavirus Outbreak, people are not buying any new services and staying away to try any new thing. In such a time, you must try focusing on improving your business accessibility. This will not only give you more and more customers but will help your business to get huge profits. Also, you can walk a mile ahead from your close competitors. You must provide an easy interaction medium between your business and your client.

Here are some points to perform for improving your business accessibility

• Make a good first impression of your mobile app in front of your targeted audience

• Be available for your customers 24*7 by providing a live chat or chatbot support for instant communication

• Offer different discounts and rewards for customers as per your business module

• Always be open for feedback and suggestion from your clients and try to work on them immediately

  • Keep your customer service accessible and open for customers all the time

4. Serve more value to your customers

Covid-19 has shattered the whole marketplace and nobody is sure that when it will disappear. In such a time, customers are not trusting any of the brands and become very choosy. If you want to run your business properly, then you must serve more value to your customers. This way, they will not only trust your brand but will love to take services from your business. Using your mobile app, it is possible to serve value to your customers. You can collect different rewards using your mobile app from your potential customers. Likewise, you can perform several different things just to serve your clients with more value, respect and love.

Below are some points that will help in adding more value to your customers

• Opt for building a strong and trustworthy brand

• Connect with a better range of customers

  • Enhance profits and rewards for the specific range of customers

5. Get the Orders Online

Due to the threat of Covid-19, more and more people are adopting online shopping mediums.

It has been obsessed that 49% of consumers shop using smartphones across the globe.

If your product is not on the mobile app, then you might be far behind the race of competition. You must develop a mobile application and put your products or services online for sale. In this way, you can grab user attention and will be able to gain profit in your business.

• Get your products online introducing safety measures

• Adopt social distancing and all the measures to avoid Covid-19 spread

• Keep your mobile app easy to use as per the client’s shopping perspective

  • Bring the audiences to your online shop via social media advertising

6. Boost Profits

It has been estimated in a survey that, customer satisfaction decides the ratio of profit for any business. If the customer is having the best buying experience, then he might come again and again to buy the same set of services and will recommend your services in his circle. Coronavirus outbreak has panic in every person and loses their confidence in buying different services from different companies. Having a mobile app for your business will add huge confidence in the eyes of customers, this will boost profits for your business.

• Provide loyalty benefits to your customer base

• Provide festive discount sales

• Give them points on every purchase

Learn More about Mobile App Marketing from this detailed Guide

7. Direct Marketing channel

There is no doubt in saying that mobile has become an essential part of human lives. During this Covid-19 situation, people are spending their lot of time on mobile phones. This is the time when you can gain user attention by developing a mobile app for your business. You can perform various marketing strategies if you are having a mobile app. With the help of push notifications, you can provide important information to your customer base. Also, you can offer various in-app offers and discounts for your special customer base. This way, you can gain user attention and will add different ways to gain profit with the help of a mobile app.

Statista claims that mobile devices generate approximately 50% of global website traffic. The mobile app market will take a growth of 385% by 2021.

  • Run push notifications for keeping your customers updated with the latest information about your business
  • Offer discounts and offers as per the current market scenario
  • Provide in-app offers in your mobile app

8. Stand out from the competition

In such a competitive world, you can always stand out by creating a mobile application for representing your business. Currently, the situation is worst because of the Covid-19 spread across the world. During this critical time, you must stay active and focus to keep your customer engaged and satisfied with your business and services. You must have a mobile app if you want to stand out from the competition in the world. A mobile application having a wonderful user experience has most of the chances to stand out from the completion and get success in keeping people engaged.

The future of m-commerce is bright as by 2021 it has been predicted that online sales will be dominated by mobile, driving 54% in sales.

Here is the list of mobile apps that holds an awesome user experience

  • Pocket
  • Flipboard
  • Eye in sky
  • Snapseed
  • Trello
  • Slack
  • YouTube
  • Pinterest

Wrap-up

Intuz is saving the best-in-class mobile app development solutions for all types of clientele. Our mobile app development services are affordable and best-fit for all types of industries. We have the most creative and skilled app developers with us who are always ready to serve you with the top-class services. Whether it’s Android app development or iOS app development or Native app development or Hybrid app development or Custom app development, hire our mobile app developers and we guarantee to deliver satisfactory services on the given deadline.

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Pratik Rupareliya
Intuz
Editor for

Techno-commercial leader heading Intuz as head of Strategy.