Web applications provide a wide range of different opportunities and advantages for businesses. Perhaps the most obvious are the potential for better experiences and enhanced functionality they deliver to users.
Web applications can make life far easier for all involved by streamlining your business processes or your customers’ needs.
Whether the application is serving a need for your own business (or internal team), fulfilling a need, saving time, or improving processes for your customers, the opportunities for web apps to add value and enhance user experience are almost endless.
But let’s delve a little deeper. Let’s go beyond the obvious and examine some of the benefits of using web applications in your business.
Here are five more reasons you should consider a web app:
Achieve a competitive edge
If you’re able to improve the way your customers transact and engage with you by providing more efficient processes or better user experiences, you’ll be providing a tangible advantage over your competitors. Think about the businesses you enjoy dealing with and how their processes help to make your life easier – even for mundane tasks. For example removing the need for paper documents, forms, posting, or being able to self-serve when it suits you.
Digital solutions like web apps allow you to access software from anywhere. It doesn’t matter which device the customer is using. As long as they have a web connection and a device that can access the internet, they can connect with the app and fulfil a function. This can give you a crucial advantage over your competitors who are relying on paper-based or in-person solutions.
Around 73% of customers say that the experience they receive is key to their purchasing decision, while 86% say they are happy to pay more to benefit from this improved experience. We can learn something very important from these statistics — that the experience you deliver to your customers is directly tied to your revenue. Convenience is, of course, a big part of this, which means you need to do all you can to make the experience you offer as convenient, accessible and personal as possible.
Support users across different platforms
The omnichannel experience has been talked about for many years, but it is only in the most recent of these years that we have begun to really get to grips with what this means. To get an idea, we can first look at smartphones. The forecast that smartphone penetration will reach 80% in Australia by 2025 suggests that these mobile devices will become almost unrivalled in the connectivity field. However, desktop browsing still leads the way — thanks largely to its ubiquity in the working environment — and holds a 53% market share as of July 2021.
What this means is that Australian customers are not only engaged with many different devices — they are actively using them, too. And this is before we factor in other aspects, such as operating systems. Between 2019 and 2020, iOS was the most popular mobile operating system, with a market share of just under 53%. However, other OS’s were also seeing significant user figures, including Samsung at just above 20%. Microsoft’s Windows led the field across all devices, with just under 34%.
Basically, we are now looking at a diverse landscape, with customers using mobile, desktop and tablet devices to connect with businesses and utilising a broad range of different operating systems as they do so. With a static app downloaded to a desktop or mobile device, it is difficult to cater to this variety of cross-platform use cases.
A web-based application makes it easy for users to connect with this functionality, no matter how they are accessing the app. In this sense, web apps are no longer a luxury but a necessity.
Don’t be restricted
Web apps introduce an element of freedom to your business. When you deploy a web app, you do not need to worry that your customer may not have enough processing power to get the best from it or that they may be stuck using an outdated version of the software. These concerns are sidestepped with web applications because this kind of app opens within the user’s browser, and all updates and repairs can be administered from a central location.
You won’t find yourself burdened by the fees and costs associated with launching an app into various app directories — such as Google Play or the Apple App Store. These additional expenses will quickly eat into your profits and may make it difficult to calculate return on investment after your web developers build and launch your app.
App stores may also impose restrictions on what kind of content you publish. Using a web app eliminates these external parameters, leaving you free to provide exactly what you want to your customers.
Benefit from enhanced security
By deploying your application in the customer’s web browser, you are able to leverage the security of the browser itself. For example, you can run your application across an HTTPS connection protocol, backed up with Transport Layer Security (TLS). This means the user’s connection is encrypted, keeping all their data safe from those who might use it maliciously.
The importance of privacy cannot be overstated. Your users want to work with businesses that can guarantee privacy and protection, and these secure protocols will immediately show your customers that you are serious about this.
Seeing the HTTPS acronym in the browser window also tells the user that they are indeed working with a genuine business. There are many fake and fraudulent websites, many of which are offering web applications to unsuspecting users. The verification required to launch an HTTPS website provides additional peace of mind and serves as proof of a reliable website.
Provide customer support in real time
Whenever your user has access to an internet-enabled device with a browser, they can access your web application. Your analytics and monitoring solutions will tell you precisely when the app is being accessed, and you can keep track of how many users are utilising the software at any one time.
Of course, this is very useful information for your business. It tells you to what extent users are engaging with what you offer and provides you with insight you can use to further develop your application in the future. However, the benefit goes far beyond this.
The quality and level of customer support you offer are crucial to your success as a business, as this helps you improve your relationships with your customers, increase their full life-cycle revenue and enhance the reputation you have as a business. Web applications allow the provision of direct support in real time, making sure that your business benefits from all of this.
You will be able to draw upon your data to find out when user volume and demand are at their highest and make sure your support team is ready to cover this. You can also deploy monitoring so that support request tickets are picked up immediately, and that support is delivered without delay.
Make web applications key to your digital strategy
Deploying a web application as part of your digital strategy can be enormously beneficial to your business. It can streamline your operations, expand your scope and help you go above and beyond for your customers whenever they need you.
