We have entered a world of ubiquitous mobility, and there’s an app for everything. But a study from CA Technologies finds that businesses are overestimating what consumers want and need in an app experience. Turns out, the formula for success is really simple: it needs to load quickly, it needs to work well, and – most important – it needs to be secure.
The data shows that security is the most critical feature in applications for consumers—69% of those polled put it at the top of their list. Moreover, 20% of consumers reported that a poor security experience would cause them to leave a brand temporarily—and a further 10%—forever.
In other words, businesses that fail to deliver a positive application experience risk losing as much as a quarter of their customer base.
“Consumers no longer view applications as nice-to-have novelties. They now have a huge impact on customer loyalty,” said Andi Mann, vice president of strategic solutions at CA Technologies, in a statement. “As businesses navigate a new, always-connected reality that produces vast amounts of ambient data, they must react by delivering a personalized, secure and engaging application experience.”
There is a disconnect, the study revealed, between how well businesses' decision makers think industries are able to provide application technologies, and how well consumers believe the same industries are actually delivering. Specifically, businesses think application delivery is largely better than consumers do: a difference of 15% in financial services, and 14% each in information and technology, and government administration.
The study also highlighted how applications have become a crucial meeting point between consumers and organizations. According to the survey, 49% of consumers are using applications to bank and 48% use applications to shop; and more than half of respondents say they’d be willing to use applications to perform tasks like paying taxes, managing healthcare or even voting in elections.
In all, about 50% of consumers worldwide have used apps in the past six months to complete banking transactions, engage in social media, shop, research a purchase or watch a video.
“In order to tap into the growth potential of the application economy, businesses and governments must make software more than just a part of their business – it must become their business,” said Mann. “And to do this, they have to let their customers lead: listen to them, understand their needs, and apply the same rigor and predictive analysis to application development and deployment as they would to determine the best location for a retail store.”