Technology has always been a vital arsenal for businesses of all sizes to improve productivity. Reportedly, SMEs’ technology investment has dramatically increased by 50% in 2015 compared to the year 2014. In last few years, mobile technology has emerged as the most personal staple of consumers and thus it happens to be the most powerful technology solutions for businesses of all industry verticals.
An investment in mobile technology executed and leveraged right can revolutionize the way your business is carried on. A custom mobile solution, which is built to meet specific and unique needs of your business, can change the way your business processes are executed, the way your staff work and the way your customers experience you as a brand.
Digitizing your business workflows
Digitizing the paper-based processes can increase accuracy and speed-up operations which eventually lead to increased employee productivity. For example, a large number of insurance companies are using a mobile app to get new customer accounts, and communicate with customers on their claims and other ongoing processes. One of the biggest advantages of having an app here is your customers as well as employees can quickly upload time, location, images and other form of data quickly, anywhere and anytime using the app. Thus, mobile app technology will prove vital in engaging with customers and enhancing app retention.
Daily disposal services, a San Diego based waste management company, replaced the traditional paper-based employee logging system with a mobile app and witnesses 4% increase in their data accuracy, reveals a study. Over time, the company evaluated other potential use of a mobile app.
Today, the company is using the app to track their vehicle routes, which enable them to reduce the number of trucks required to render their service to a particular area. The app feature also helped the company to cut down the transport time per truck by almost an hour.
If your employees need to travel to other cities or countries for work as the case in the insurance and healthcare industry, a mobile CRM (Customer Relationship Management) app or a document adding app can provide your employees the flexibility to access work data from anywhere on the go and complete the processes or contracts while in the field.
Enhancing communications
Restaurants, eateries and cafes function quite differently than companies. Most restaurants don’t have own HR department for employee recruitment, training and other management purposes; these tasks are mostly done by a restaurant manager. But, a mobile app lends a new way to restaurant businesses to ease employee On-boarding, on-the-job training and even hiring process.
An app can also help in shift management and attendance management. A manager can send a push notification to all employees for shift assignment, update or any other purpose. An app can be used to notify the staff for new items in the menu or educate them on how to maintain good hygiene.
Moving and delivery businesses are another industry in which effective communication amongst employees is a primary requirement for successful operations and good productivity. Building a business mobile app can enable these businesses communicate more effectively with their workforce. A moving and shipping company can use the app to update workforce of their next job including the time, location and other information, trace their route and make the most of their time.
An app can also be used to benefit your employees with a quick access to all relevant data and helping them in taking a more accurate decision faster. For example, if you are running a customer support center, ensuring your customer support executives get access to all required customer information right on their mobile screen will not only boost their productivity and but also enable them offer superior customer service.
Boston based Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) developed an iPad app to change their ICU and emergency room operations for better. They started using the app to capture and access images, order entry and support documentation.
Implementing the BYOD Trend
A survey by EIU revealed that, companies that adapted to mobile-first environment witness 16% increase in employee productivity; BYOD trend can help businesses improve employee creativity, engagement and loyalty. Mark Coates from Good Technology also supports the fact that allowing workforce access to company data right on their mobile screen can considerably increase business productivity.
A Final Note
Whether it is tracing the accuracy of operations, communicating to employees and customers, creating new sales channel, recruiting workforce or any other business needs you may have, a mobile app can meet it all providing you much more, and at times can transform your business beyond your imagination.
Banking organizations are leveraging mobile app to take customer experience and customer service to the next level, improving organizational productivity at the same time. Many brick-mortar stores now accept mobile payments. The growth of VR, AR and IoT will further empower mobile technology and its role in improving business productivity.
The omnipresence of Smartphones has changed the business landscape dramatically. There are numerous ways a bespoke mobile app can boost productivity of your business. So, are you ready to go mobile?