The Importance of Mobile Alert App

We know the growing importance of a mobile alert app because we live in the digital age where roughly everyone is already connected with their electronic devices. People turn to their cellphones when they want to check messages, e-mails, weather update, news, photos, videos or even time. Some people also already refer to their mobile devices to track their finance as there are mobile banking applications that let customers be updated anywhere anytime.

Everything we receive in our phones are personal so we all pay attention to it. There is the general fear of being out of the loop or missing a message. There is the persistent desire to see a personalized message in social media, SMS, or e-mail. This is the very desire that businesses can utilize for creating mobile push alerts.

However, why do we even need a mobile alert app in the first place? Below are some of the main reasons mobile alert system is important in today’s business models:

1. Several statistics have come out indicating the shift of usage from desktop to mobile. This is a clear implication that if you are not able to reach your target customers through mobile support (search, display or application), chances are you will miss out on opportunities compared to competitors. Since mobile devices are almost always connected to the Internet, these are generally the devices used to search items, news or events in the Internet. As such, there is a big potential in using push alerts to mobile applications.
2. During holiday season, your office operations may stop but unfortunately, customer issues don’t simultaneously stop to celebrate. A mobile alert system is the arsenal of companies to keep their businesses running despite offices being closed after 5pm or during holidays. It is what the IT support team uses regardless of time and location. It is powerful to support business functions as it operates round the clock. Messages will still be delivered to target users even though they are away from their computers. It may also be set on a predefined date and time as well as a recurrence feature where it can be displayed repetitively.
3. Particularly in businesses that operate all over the world, a mobile alert app reduces costs in sending an extra manpower to address troubleshooting issues as they arise. It is also an ideal solution to effectively communicate information from headquarters and collaborate teams when decisions need to be made.
4. Mobile alert applications are the best partners of sales people in making sure all operations are flowing smoothly for product deliveries. Any time-sensitive lags may result to failure to deliver products on time, or failure to respond to emergency situations. For some, never miss an e-mail; never miss a sales opportunity.
5. Mobile applications increase your visibility and accessibility for people on-the-go. It reinforces exposure across mobile devices and builds repeat business with consumers. For customers, they have easy access to your products or services with a simple one-touch access to your inventory. As such, effective alert apps will allow consumers to be notified of your product updates, special events, and monthly balance. You can generate automatic reminders of the customer’s appointment or servicing date, or you can set your applications to send messages automatically when they are in the near proximity of your business.
6. Mobile alert apps lower the advertising costs of a business and increase sales return. It sustains exposure to customers thus reinforcing customer loyalty and brand recall.

>> Learn more on how to choose an internal communications app for your company <<

Now, how do we go about creating value for the users via mobile alert app? How do we make it relevant, timely and personalized? Some background applications that push notifications drain batteries, thus people resort to turning off the push alerts and instead refresh the application as needed, disable the functionality and setting or worse, delete the application from the phone altogether. When an application does not interrupt a user often, it is usually kept around. With this, a high-level important message may go unnoticed before a meeting; a scheduled activity may be missed in calendar; and so on.

However, it doesn’t need to be this way. We can raise the level of engagement of users to the applications through the following:

• Color coordination for applications that give information, headlines, emergencies, reminders and personal messages. People have a tendency to raise their alertness levels on alerts in red. It usually signifies something that should be immediately attended to. Green alerts usually correspond to personalized messages received on phones. Orange alerts can be connected to applications related to fitness or health.
• Make applications personalized by sending notifications relevant to them. For extreme weather conditions, you can generate weather warnings or reiterate services for locations affected. This will show that your business is not purely for generating income from partners but it also reflects the human value of the business.