By Mark Smith
Britain is now a smartphone society, according to regulator Ofcom’s latest communications report, with over a third (36%) of internet users seeing their smartphone as the most important device for getting online, compared to 29% who still use their laptop.
With the explosion of smartphone use has come the rise of the app industry – 70% of adults in the UK say they use apps. With this appetite for apps, are small businesses missing a trick if they don’t have one?
One firm that has seen its business grow through an app is Reform Studios, a boutique fitness studio with two locations in Belfast. The business was founded in August last year by Yvette Rumney and Neal McGaffin. They quickly decided an app was the way forward.
“It was an exciting and enjoyable process seeing it come to fruition,” says Rumney. The app allows Reform Studio’s customers to book, cancel and reschedule classes at any time.
Has it been worth the time and money invested? Rumney thinks so. “It allows us to collect data, see the classes that are popular and ones that need to be marketed. It also allows us to compile waiting lists for classes that are fully booked,” she says. It’s proved a hit with customers – 90% of bookings are through the app with most of the remaining 10% being made through Reform’s website or over the phone.
Like Minders is a London-based babysitting and childcare agency, founded in 2010. At the end of 2014 it launched what it claims was the UK’s first babysitting app for parents to book childcare slots.
Like Minders director Georgie Jones says over 70% of bookings are made through the app. “This makes life easier for our clients, but it also saves us time as a business taking bookings that would have otherwise needed to be done on the phone.”
Since it launched, Like Minders has seen a 30% increase in its overall number of bookings, and Jones says revenue has grown similarly. “In the year since we launched the app, the cost has more than been made up for by the efficiency it gives us.”
Alex Fenton, a lecturer in digital business at the University of Salford, says firms should consider their options before investing in an app. “Quite often, companies ask for an app, but, actually, there may be other solutions that are cheaper and faster to develop and maintain.”
“If the company is trying to use the capabilities of the smartphone, such as the camera, microphone, GPS, accelerometer [the gadget within a smartphone that can detect a change in orientation and tell the screen to rotate], push alerts and make something designed for the device, then a native app [one you download from an app store] would be the way forward.”
He gives the example of using a bespoke, native app for push alerts – simple messages that flash up on a smartphone screen, like text messages. A business might send out push alerts to customers when they are planning a sale.
“If the app does not require these things, then a hybrid option or a website that is responsive to mobile phones and other devices may be a better option,” Fenton adds.
The number of small businesses with a dedicated app is still fairly low – only 22% have one, according to a 2015 report by the Federation of Small Businesses.
An app is not a vital addition to all businesses. Ross Menghini, business development manager at mobile app developer Apadmi, says, however, that it is a problem when companies have no mobile offering – not even having a mobile-responsive website, for example. “Businesses will need to ensure they are reacting to [the shift towards mobile] as users are no longer putting up with poor mobile experiences.”
He says that the mobile option a small business settles on should be based on thorough customer and market research and should take into consideration the nature of their product or service, as well as their budget.
Apps: the three basic forms
Native: Built for a specific platform or device, downloaded from an app store and stored on the mobile device itself. These apps are designed and coded to work on a particular device, an Android phone or iPhone, for example.
Web: Essentially a mobile-optimised web page that looks like an app. Web-based apps are considered to be slower than native apps.
Hybrid: A combination of both native and web app. They can work like native apps but have some web-based functionality and can be easier to develop. The native aspect means the app can tap into some of the functions of a mobile device.