Entrepreneur: Smartphone Apps – A Small Business Growth Engine In The Palm of Your Hand
Creating your own custom iPhone or BlackBerry app – at surprisingly little cost – can be a great marketing ploy, help improve customer service and even generate new revenue.
“Between documenting expenses and processing credit cards from just about anywhere in the U.S., smartphone applications have changed the way many small businesses operate. Now, more firms are turning to these apps to enhance the way customers interact with their products and services–and even boost their bottom lines.
‘People nowadays want everything to be at their fingertips, and if companies are not finding ways to provide these tools [they] will soon see drop-off from their customers,’ says Jennifer Shaheen, a small business technology consultant in White Plains, N.Y. Providing an app also offers a tremendous marketing opportunity, she says. Securing a placeholder in customers’ smartphones can help keep a company on the brain, which is especially important in this rocky economy, Shaheen says.”