New research says poor app quality turns off 55% of customers

Before now, service delivery was purely a function of the physical features of an organization; companies focused on marketing technique, customer service, branding strategies among others. But with a large percentage of business transactions now being done online, businesses desiring to succeed must make their apps as friendly as they want the organization to be perceived.


tech-App-worldNew research from Oracle reveals that nearly 55% of people say a poor mobile app experience would make them less likely to use a company’s products or services.  The study ‘Millennials and mobility: how businesses can tap into the app generation’ focused on individuals who reached adulthood at the turn of the 21st century.

Oracle submitted that 39% of millennials would also be less likely to recommend a company’s products or services to others following a poor app experience, and 27% admit it would even give them a negative view of that organization’s products or services altogether.

These findings make it clear that if companies cannot provide current and prospective customers with engaging mobile app experience that also accurately reflects the values of their brand, they risk alienating the millennial generation and seeing their competition pull ahead with a more convincing mobile offering.

Vice President, Mobile Strategy and Product Management at Oracle, Suhas Uliyar, said: “An engaging and personalized user experience has become the new weapon in the battle to attract and retain millennial customers.

Businesses that cannot add value for customers with a more convenient, functional, and relevant mobile experience have little chance of coming out on top.” Another notable finding in the report is that millennials are turned off by unsolicited communications in the form of push-notifications that aren’t relevant to their individual needs, but are happy to receive support in the form of value-added communications from businesses.

About fifty-six percent of people would prefer not to receive push-notifications, similarly, the same percentage rarely act on the push-notifications they do receive, even though nearly fifty percent admit these are personalized to them. Seventy-three percent like the ability to purchase a company’s product or service using a mobile app. Likewise, Seventy one percent   like the ability to manage billing for services, and Sixty five percent like being able to flag issues or complaints to a business via a mobile app.

To this point, Uliyar added: “The ability to manage bills or flag service issues to a company via a mobile app implies an agreed-upon relationship between a customer and brand or service provider. The story is completely different in the case of push-notifications. Organizations will need to provide app-based services that deftly tread the line between helpfulness and being overbearing if they want to tap into young peoples’ affinity for using mobile and tablet apps without alienating them.”
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By Laju Iren