Ask One of the Chefs My mom can cook. Bold, I know. Her unconventional culinary training was refined standing next to her country-cookin’ mother in a little kitchen in Central California. This was a time long ago when it was okay to cook with salt, bacon grease, and shortening (in the same dish!). And then mom married dad–a health nut–who ended up working in the heart unit of a hospital. Goodbye, Crisco. Even with some progressive-for-its-time health considerations, mom’s ability to cook an amazing meal never waivered. She always said, “Don’t overthink it. When you put good in, you get good out.” As I began to cook, I wore that mantra on my sleeve. What I didn’t realize was how much practice and patience I would need to achieve the right balance of ingredients to get “the good” out of a meal. Businesses of any size who question the ROI of a mobile app can follow mom’s advice; don’t overthink it and put good in. If you partner with the right technology experts, like Bitwise Industries, you’ll get good out. Slice, Dice, & Chop When working to maximize the value of your mobile app, the first ingredient that needs to be defined is the “return.” It is different for every situation. Of course, seeking a mobile app solution can be based on increased earnings and profit. However, the real value of a mobile app might not lead with a profit-driven exterior. Oftentimes, it’s the creation of a tool that alleviates a pain point for customers, clients, or staff. Maybe the app’s focus is generating sales leads, promoting customer satisfaction, or providing a great new customer engagement experience. Uncovering that attention-drawing key feature is the crux behind any good mobile app. And let’s not overlook the term mobile. It’s a lot more than Candy Crush nowadays. Thriving organizations leverage every facet of a mobile device because people actively use them on average for five hours a day. We’re talking about emails, texts, chats, SMS, social sites, videos, and everything else I can’t think of quick enough. Those hours looking down at our phones are moments of total engagement in short bursts. Wouldn’t you like to hold your customers’ undivided attention to provide them with a positive experience opportunity, more information about your brand, or unique insights or offerings? Bitwise Industries helps our clients do just that; garner valuable consumer engagement across multiple mobile opportunities. Let’s look at a few of our highlights. Eat Your Vegetables (and Fruits) Since 1982, Sinclair has pioneered the labeling process found on fruits and vegetables across 45 countries around the world. Their groundbreaking system complies with all requirements of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Union (EU). Sinclair realized a two-fold problem: growers needed to keep up with the increasing demand for food data and transparency, while consumers found themselves with an overwhelming number of options in the stores and little-to-no produce information available beyond the price per pound on the display stand. Sinclair worked with Bitwise Industries to develop a smartphone app (iOS and Android) that allowed growers to upload the necessary content about their products–extending their brand and reach–while consumers could easily scan the label on an item to reveal the variety, size, ID number, and country of origin of that individual piece of fruit or vegetable. This app connects farmers and consumers in a new and engaging way while further differentiating Sinclair in their marketplace with a value-added new marketing channel. What’s in the Mix? Listing Alert is an app that is revolutionizing the real estate industry for brokerages. Prior to this exciting launch, brokerages would gather their sales teams in a conference room to look at a large white board to review the upcoming and current listings. Agents would jot down their notes, take a picture of the board and get on to their day. If a change was made, or a new listing was added to the board, they might miss out on that opportunity. This inefficient marketing tactic was hampering sales efforts and slowing the overall sales cycle down considerably. Bitwise created a custom, mobile SaaS app that instantly notified all of the agents in the brokerage of any new pre-listings. It put the white board in the palm of their hand, updated the status of each listing in real time, included all of the listing details, and allowed agents to sit with potential buyers to match their wants and needs to exclusive listings held within the brokerage. This app is compliant with all national standards, gives brokers a new digital tool to keep their agents completely informed, allows them to spend more time in the field, and gives sellers the opportunity to sell their homes much faster–potentially before their home even hits the MLS. A Pinch of This and a Dash of That Right now 46% of Americans have at least one tattoo. However, the tattoo industry has not seen too many advances on the technology side; until TatStat. The old-school process of booking appointments, interviewing clients, and collecting payments took away from the artist’s ability to focus on their art. And subtracting client time in the chair for management duties kept money out of the artist’s pocket. The TatStat co-founders realized the tattoo world would benefit greatly from an upstart application focused on automating the steps that were cumbersome and time consuming. Bitwise helped TatStat create a mobile app that was for tattoo artists, by tattoo artists. This forward-thinking app allows artists to book appointments, collect payments, tie-in social media posts, and send appointment reminders by using a simple dashboard on theTatStat platform. Additionally, clients can conveniently schedule video consultations to save an extra trip to the studio. The automated features of this app frees up more time for the artist to “work” while minimizing miscommunication, maximizing the overall experience for artist and client, and increases incoming revenue overall. Order Up! According to Statista, more than 10% of all retail sales transactions in the US will happen through mobile commerce by 2025. That is up 7% from 2018. Whatever your mobile app needs are, there are professionals who can customize the perfect solution that balances user value with business requirements. This is not just-add-water box pilaf. When you are trying to captivate brand loyalty, drive user experiences, or generate more revenue, you need an expert who knows their way around the kitchen. They will help you prioritize necessary features through an actionable plan that will outline the development process, uncover any marketing considerations, and detail the maintenance required to maximize your definition of ROI. Don’t overthink it. Good in is good out. Let Us Help Technology Consulting is the Software Development-as-a-Service division of Bitwise Industries that specializes in custom software development, managed services, staff augmentation, and Salesforce implementation. Our technology professionals have deep experience applying cutting-edge technology solutions to help entities of all sizes navigate the technology landscape to find solutions to optimize their operations. If you’re interested in uncovering the tech possibilities available to your organization or want to find more ways to increase your ROI with technology, click this link to schedule some time with one of our experts. This post was written by Jeff Rickels, Technical Writer for Bitwise Industries. When he’s not writing, he’s wondering about all of the great writers who work so diligently to edit their own work. It’s one of the hardest things to