App’s make the world go round. Don’t believe it?
Then think about this: In big cities like London, you can book and make an entire journey just using apps and without having to interact with another person.
Using the Uber app, you can take a taxi to the railway station, paid for by using a mobile payment system like Apple Pay. Then you can pass through the barriers at the train station using mobile tickets paid for through a train app, before checking into your hotel at the other end using the hotel’s app on your smartwatch or phone.
Mobile applications are worth investing in. Here are some ideas for how apps can change companies’ fortunes.
Apps for Timekeeping
Clocking in was so last year. Apps like Harvest can help your entire team keep track of time and the important tasks they have to do during the day.
Clockify is a similar app that lets employers track the amount of time each employee is spending on a task. This is perfect if a business has a lot of employees that are paid by the hour, particularly those who work remotely. It automatically produces time-sheets for a week’s worth of work and includes a timer mode so employees know exactly how long they are spending on one task.
Business owners might also be interested in these 5 cloud-based apps that help businesses to dispense with paper altogether and save the environment.
Apps for Order and Delivery
These days people want their services instantly. Whether it’s food and drink, groceries, laundry, a taxi, or parcels, people want to be able to find exactly what they want, order it from an app on their phone, and then wait for it come.
Not only do these apps make the entire experience so much better for the consumer, but they can also streamline the whole process for the business. This ensures that whatever service businesses are offering becomes like a production-line, maximizing profit and output.
Here are some of the best business mobile apps that customers rate really well.
McDonald’s
McDonald’s allows you to beat the queues by ordering from their app and paying using Apple Pay or Android Pay, even customizing each meal if you don’t like those pesky gherkins in your cheeseburger. Customers have to check in at the store itself using their smartwatch or smartphone to make sure employees aren’t making meals that are never picked up.
Laundry Apps
Hate doing your laundry? So do lots of people. Not only is it time-consuming, but it also requires owning an expensive washing machine and dryer, both of which can breakdown. This then means you have to hire a plumber and potentially put up with having a kitchen floor that is flooded for a period amount of time.
Previously, the alternative was to get in your car and drive to the nearest laundromat either to do yourself or to drop it off and then pick it up later. This would be even more costly and time-consuming than using your own equipment.
Apps like Laundrapp in the U.K or Cleanly in the U.S now allow consumers to select how many clothes they want to have washed and then schedule a time for someone to pick up their laundry and bring it back. It’s quick, easy, and efficient.
Furthermore, some companies even offer a subscription service for those who want to ditch a washing machine altogether and have a regular weekly laundry pick up.
What makes these apps good from a business perspective is that they allow people who had probably never thought about having laundry done before to consider it, because of its convenience.
It can also provide a new customer base with customers looking for a quick solution when they need a few items washed while traveling, perhaps put off by the expense of doing laundry in a hotel.
Apps for Flying
Getting from A to B has never been easier with apps. Most major airlines now offer mobile check-in via their app and mobile boarding passes. This means customers can skip the queues and head straight to bag drop, security or customs whilst the airlines don’t have to deal with ridiculous long queues that clog up the airport.
Most apps also give information about when the flight is boarding and the gate has opened, meaning customers know exactly when they need to head to the departure lounge. Hopefully, there are fewer customers who are still looking around duty-free before the flight is about to depart.
In the future, perhaps checking in to a flight will also activate a GPS signal, making it almost impossible to miss a flight as airline staff can track where you are in the airport.
Reward Apps
Apps have revolutionized customer reward and loyalty schemes. There’s no need to sign up anymore or to remember a physical card. You can now get a mobile card and add it to your mobile wallet or a dedicated app.
This means customers will not forget their loyalty cards and can see how many points they have at any one time, allowing them to take advantage of any deals on offer that week.
Alternatively, businesses could build their own app, customized to their own business’ needs, by using an App Creator.
Mobile Applications Are Changing the World
Mobile applications are in the process of changing our whole lives. Even simple tasks like closing the curtains or turning the lights on in our lounge can now be achieved from an app on a mobile phone.
But the biggest change mobile apps are bringing is to business. They are changing not just the way people do business – people want things immediately – but they are also bringing a whole new level of automation to the business itself. This means the role of an employee is changing, for better or for worse.
Check out the technology section of our blog to read more about how apps have changed business habits.
