Most of your customers and staff already carry a smartphone. That alone is not a reason to build an app. An app is worth it when it lets someone do a task faster than a website, a phone call or a paper form, and when they do that task often enough to keep the app installed.
This piece looks at where apps have changed how businesses work, the internal apps that often make a better first project, and what to plan before you build.
Sectors where apps changed the work
Some sectors moved to mobile early because their customers have frequent, time-sensitive tasks.
Healthcare
Patients book appointments, pay for consultations and follow up with doctors from an app, including through virtual consultations. Inside a hospital, apps give doctors and staff quicker access to the records they need and better communication with the administration.
Banking and finance
Banking apps let customers check balances, transfer money, manage cards and pay through secure gateways. For many customers, the app is now the main way they deal with their bank.
Real estate
Developers and brokers list projects and units with details and photos, and buyers browse them on the go and plan site visits. After a booking, an app can keep the buyer updated on payments and construction progress.
Travel and tourism
Travellers plan itineraries, make bookings, navigate by GPS, track trips in real time and pay without cash, all from a phone. Customer satisfaction drives repeat business in travel, so the app experience matters.
Retail
Shoppers browse catalogues and order from an app, or order online and collect in the store. Retailers use apps to reach customers beyond their own neighbourhood and to bring them back with offers.
Often the better first app: one for your own team
For many manufacturers, distributors and service firms, the first app should not be for customers at all. It should be for the people who currently report by phone call and WhatsApp message. The app types we build include:
- Field sales apps for orders and customer visits
- Distributor and dealer management apps
- Delivery and logistics tracking
- Attendance for field and site staff
- Inventory apps for warehouse teams
- Service booking and technician dispatch
Internal apps have a clear user, a clear task and a result you can check, such as orders reaching the office the same day. They also connect to systems you already run, like your ERP or accounts. Where staff work with limited mobile signal, the app can be built to work offline and sync when it reconnects.
What a customer app can do for you
When a customer app is the right call, it gives you a few things a website cannot:
- A place on the customer’s home screen, where they see your name each time they use their phone
- A direct channel for notifications about orders, offers and reminders
- Shortcuts to the tasks customers repeat: booking, reordering, tracking, paying
- An easy way for customers to send feedback or message you
- Accounts, loyalty rewards and order history in one place
Each of these needs a reason for the customer to come back. An app that only repeats your website will be uninstalled.
Questions to answer before you build
- Who will use the app, and what one task must it do well?
- Would a mobile-friendly web application do the same job?
- Do you need Android, iOS, or both?
- Which existing systems must it read from or write to?
- Does it need to work offline?
- Who will look after it once it is live?
Native or cross-platform
Native apps are built separately for each platform, in Kotlin or Java for Android and Swift for iOS. Cross-platform frameworks such as Flutter and React Native let one codebase run on both. Cross-platform usually saves time and budget when you need both stores. Native makes sense when the app leans heavily on device features or platform-specific behaviour.
Apps need looking after
Android and iOS release new versions every year, and store rules change. Plan for compatibility updates, bug fixes and small feature changes after launch, whether through your own team or an annual maintenance contract with the developer.
What we have shipped ourselves
30Days Technologies publishes its own apps: EZHRM for HR and payroll and EZCRM for sales teams, on Google Play and the App Store; BharatBills for GST billing, on Google Play; and EZNEXT and EZNEXT Admin for schools, on both stores. The EZNEXT app for parents and students has more than 10K installs on Google Play. The same team builds apps for clients.
