The results of a new study commissioned by CA Technologies reveal that mobile and desktop applications have become the new battleground for brand loyalty. Software is the most potent factor fueling global competition, while consumers are becoming more discerning about their expectations from an application. The study shows that consumers in India no longer view applications as nice-to-have novelties but as a primary way to interact with brands and an integral component of brand loyalty.
The study – Software: the New Battleground for Brand Loyalty – surveyed 6,770 consumers and 809 business decision makers in 18 countries. Each group surveyed indicated assumptions about how various characteristics of applications impacted user experience, and how well different industries delivered on those characteristics. The top three characteristics as identified by the Indian consumers that have the biggest impact on consumer experience are:
Easy to use features – 72.4 percent of consumers ranked ‘easy to use features’ and applications that ‘perform tasks with little difficulty’ as the most important factors contributing to brand loyalty
The Assurance of Security – Of the users who had a fair or poor experience, 23 percent said that they would leave a brand forever because of issues with security
Social Media – 37 percent of respondents said recommendations by social media about an application plays a key role in the consumer’s decision to follow the brand
There is a disconnect in perception, the study revealed, between business decision makers and consumers on how well industries are able to provide application technologies. Businesses generally have a better perception of the quality of application delivery than consumers: for example, a difference of 15.4 percent for public and municipal services and 14.8% for government agencies.
Commenting on this, Sunil Manglore, managing director of India, CA Technologies, said, “It is critical and about time that businesses understand what consumers want from applications. The decision makers need to pay attention to the “app gap”—the divide between their own goals for application development and what the consumer demands. This divide demonstrates how industries have yet to fully leverage the application economy and the pressing need to bridge the gap.”
The study also highlighted how applications have become a crucial meeting point between consumers and organizations. According to the survey, 47.2 percent of Indian consumers are using applications to pay taxes. The opportunities presented by the application economy are most apparent with 44.8 percent are most likely to use applications to renew passports, 47.2 percent of consumers would be willing to pay taxes through applications and 44.5 percent said they would prefer using applications to renew their driver license.
“Businesses need to shift the way they approach application development as it is no longer enough to release apps with basic functionality and limited features. Applications have to fire up instantly and quickly to present options for solving consumers’ problems and work intuitively throughout the entire experience”, added Manglore.
Comments
Post a Comment