Going mobile a must for many firms

ON THE GO: Citizens Financial Group’s Steven Wooters shows off the bank’s mobile-banking app on his iPhone. /
ON THE GO: Citizens Financial Group’s Steven Wooters shows off the bank’s mobile-banking app on his iPhone. /

“If you’re not in the mobile space in some way, you’re doing your customers a disservice,” said T.J. Sondermann, manager of business development at BatchBlue, which launched its Batchbook mobile app in late October and is approaching 5,000 installs presently.
BatchBlue, a startup with a small-business contact relationship-management service as its flagship product, joins a handful of Rhode Island entities that have debuted mobile apps in the past seven months, aiming to keep up with the growing trend.
“It’s a great way [for businesses] to create a direct channel from their customer to them,” said Joel Evans, vice president of application development for Boston-based, mobile-development startup Mobiquity.
“[The business] now has a piece of real estate on their customer’s device, which is something that they would have traditionally paid a fortune for,” said Evans.
Angling for some “prime real estate” in their clients’ lives are: Amica Insurance, Citizens Financial Group and even the Internal Revenue Service, whose app – which allows taxpayers to check on their refund status – has been downloaded by more than 250,000 people.
BatchBlue said it’s difficult to measure the return on investment for its iPhone mobile app but it’s a definite “value add” when customers are trying to choose between its Customer Relationship Management software and a competitor’s.
“We’ve added this additional layer of functionality to take it on the road with you to be able to work wherever you are,” Sondermann said. “[The return on investment for that] is a little bit harder to measure.”
One of Batchbook’s star app features is the ability to take a photo with your smartphone camera and add all of that person’s contact information to the system – a useful tool at large conferences where you may be adding hundreds of contacts to your database, he said.
Amica noted that it’s not necessarily an innovator with its mobile app, but once it decided to make the investment, the company covered its bases, launching the iPhone app in November and its Android and Blackberry apps in January.
Amica customers can file claims, contact roadside assistance, browse recommended repair shops, check their claim status and, if they do get in an accident, access an “accident checklist.”
The carrier noted that while it has been recognized for its telephone and face-to-face customer service, it wanted to have the option available for the demographic that prefers to communicate electronically. “We’re renowned for our customer service … as time evolved we realized that we have to evolve with those times. We have to recognize the importance that technology now plays in customer service,” said Vince Burks, Amica assistant vice president of corporate communications.
Burks went on to note that if he were involved in an accident, he would prefer to have the reassurance of speaking directly to a representative but that “it’s a changing demographic.
“We’re just trying to respond to different needs and not think there is one specific way to have a customer-service experience,” he said.
What should your business keep in mind when deciding whether to spend the time and money on developing a mobile app?
“Customers are already willing to give up their location but if they give [it] up, they want to be offered something,” explained Evans, whose former employer, mobile-app developer Cronk Software, has developed apps for the Flickers: Rhode Island International Film Festival, the Oregon Lottery and for VegEZ: Interactive Vegetarian Cookbook.
“Nowadays, corporations need to make sure that their mobile presence is spot on or … they risk losing customers. Customers expect [good apps] and why shouldn’t they?” he said. Evans said the investment in creating a mobile app can range from $5,000 to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“If you’re a large company, to do it the right way, you’re going to want to integrate with your back-end systems, you’ve got security concerns, you’ve got a certain look and feel that you 100 percent need to portray to protect your brand,” he said. Most companies’ biggest mistake is missing the most obvious features in their apps; for example, a store locator.
“Put yourself in their shoes,” he said. “[Customers want you to] start thinking for me and start giving me those options when I’m mobile.”
And plan on constantly updating, changing and revamping your mobile app.
“Before you even release your first app you should be thinking about how to improve it. Because if you didn’t hit it with 1.0, you’re going to hit it with 1.1,” Evans said, noting that the most successful apps are those that are extensions of a previously existing business model. Subscribing to that philosophy is Citizens Financial Group, which launched a commercial- banking app in late October, following an earlier release of a retail-banking app.
“This is the first step in a long journey,” said Steve Wooters, head of market delivery for global-transaction services within Citizen Financial Group. “Mobile is not going away. This is going to be something that continues to enable our clients to work better and more efficiently. The more efficiently they can manage their money, the more jobs they can create.”
Wooters, who worked on the accessMOBILE commercial app, said Citizens considers it a “lifetime focus for us now.”
Currently, Citizens’ corporate customers can approve pending transactions through the mobile app, which can save critical time on transactions, Wooters said. The bank plans to add the ability to initiate transactions within the next quarter.
“Today’s office is changing; today’s business is changing … where people need to be out and about more often. Clients are thrilled [with the app],” he said. Citizens said it took between three to four months to develop the iPhone app and market research that showed customers wanted an app that was easy, simple and clean. It plans to launch Android and Blackberry apps “shortly.”
Citizens, like Amica, declined to disclose how much the investment was, as well as the number of downloads, but did say that they’ve estimated that upward of 20 percent of their client base that has an iPhone uses the mobile app.
Depending on your client base, focusing your resources on iPhone and Android apps may be a good idea, Evans noted.
“Blackberry depends more on your target market. [Between iPhone and Android], they’re not on the same playing field yet but you can’t exclude Android,” he said, noting: “even if you decide not to do an Android app, spend money making sure there is a mobile-friendly version of your website.”
How pressing is investing in a mobile app?
“In five years, everyone will need to have a mobile presence – not necessarily a mobile app – [but] a mobile-friendly representation of their business,” Evans said, while reiterating that a mobile presence is about adding value – so forget about a mobile version of your “about us” page. •

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