Big data has changed the way the world does business. It has also changed how businesses analyze customers, their own internal affairs, and the market at large. This burden of information changed how customers interact with businesses, too, and what level of service they expect. Web applications utilize this wealth of information to give customers the best experience possible. The same data can give businesses the best possible profits. Not all web applications are created equal, however. Not all will perfectly suit your business needs or your customer base. Custom application development gives you the most refined data collection tools. It simultaneously uses big data to improve customer experience. Most importantly, custom applications help you stand out in a growing crowd.
Integrated Data Collection
You might be wondering the best customer information your business needs. For instance, you need more than credit card information and the other data required for shopping cart applications. You also need to know what your customers are looking for. Collecting data is part of today’s business world, and it’s a vital part of custom application development. Building in these functions often boosts vital BI functions down the line. Moreover, they help more immediately with customer service. For example, a customer who sends in a complaint about how complicated or confusing your website is no longer has to remember exactly how they navigated the site in order to be useful. You can very simply track where the customer went, analyze where they lost themselves, and build new ideas based on your results.
Integrated data collection allows you to give customers more options, too. For example, many shopping cart applications come with options for email lists, coupon texts, and other promotions. The system simply takes the information provided for the purchase and asks which, if any, extra services the customer desires. Customers have the option to sign up for free services and add-on purchases as part of their final checkout process. This saves your employees time, limits customer frustration from unwanted emails, and improves overall conversions.
Getting the Right Results to the Right Customer
This point is essentially the opposite of the first. While data collection is important for business intelligence, planning, and customer service, applications have to access big data to provide the right customer experience, too. Defining what data your application needs in order to perform a specific function is vital to a developing a customer-friendly system. To make sure your application balances speed and efficient data practices, developers need to know about your business and your customers.
If your business caters almost exclusively to elderly patrons, for example, you know that they’ll appreciate a simple experience. These customers may lack the online presence that younger generations build up as well. Techniques that use social media to suggest the best products work well for millennials, but not for the vast majority of customers in their 80’s or 90’s.
This ties into the above point again. Using customer information for multiple purposes is a clever application development. However, getting the right additional options to the right customer is more complicated than it sounds. Big data allows applications to consider the customer’s previous behaviors, demographic information, and even third-party details before offering add-on purchase suggestions. The wrong suggestions leave customers feeling like you’re pushing too hard, but the right suggestions feel like a considerate offer.
Standing Out in an Over-Saturated Market
Custom application development allows you to be different. The entire reason big data is such an integral part of today’s business culture is that so many merchants, vendors, corporations, governments, and individuals around the world contribute to it. It grows every day, and it will continue to grow through the foreseeable future. This creates so many web applications and sites that the average customer has to fight to find their ideal product. Even search engines today are hampered by the sheer volume of options available. In order to compete, you can’t just jump in. You have to stand out.
Custom application development builds a unique application from the ground up. Customers can enjoy entirely unique experiences through your application. Paired with original design services, custom application development not only behaves differently, but actually looks different. Together, these services ensure your application hooks browsing visitors and leaves a lasting impression, which is the first step towards repeat business.
Every business is fighting for a place in an ocean of competition, and the tools each uses to stay afloat will make all the difference. Big data is simultaneously the greatest challenge and greatest asset of web apps, and it takes custom work to sway the burden in your favor. Whether you need to stand out, do a better job servicing customers, or simply want to harness the vast pool of available data, custom work has a fitting solution. It takes custom application development to turn big data into your advantage.