These days, mobile applications become the must have for businesses of varied industry according to Global mobile traffic that represented roughly 60% of internet traffic. However, consumers progressively expect an “Amazon-like experience” online.

There are many small businesses, who have not yet come up with an interesting approach for the mobile app; they need to build a great one. Moreover, the fault dishonesties at least partly with small business owners. As per the Research by Clutch, it has been known that less than a quarter of small businesses have a mobile application, and approximately a third are doubtful to build one.

Mobile Strategies of Field-Tested

Do you know that it is a mistake if you see what mobile applications have done for some small businesses? A Pennsylvania-based consignment store ‘Mommy’s Lil’s Rascals has launched an adopted Total Loyalty Solutions mobile application, allowing customers to access a loyalty card program, special events, and exclusive mobile offers.

Providing more information, the company has been rewarded with 1000 downloads, comprising 223 downloads in the first 24 hours – 350+ redemptions, $12000 in revenue and a repetition of sales while their fall sales event.

Elizabeth Sowers, an owner of Mommy’s Lil’ Rascals, says “For us, what really worked were in-store promotions. She also added, “We set out a challenge to employees on who could get the most apps downloaded in one day. Every time someone came to the register, employees would ask customers to download the app. By doing this, we were able to get quite a few downloads for the app each day.”

She came to know that how important it is to have an application for reaching out to her customers. After some time, she let her all customers aware of Mommy’s Lil’ Rascals application through her social media page and Facebook page. She explains, surely, I would commend businesses to make use of push notifications within their application in order to stay in touch with the customer.

There is one restaurant in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania that named the Caddy Shack supervises the Armitage Golf Course, introducing the application with Total Loyalty Solutions was the answer.

Karen Blazina, a restaurant manager, says “Were in a bit of an unusual situation in that we are a restaurant overlooking a golf course”. He also added, “We are constantly busy — especially when the weather is nice — and the app has really helped customers know about changes to the menu. For example, when we have a seafood bash, we can add the whole program to the app.”

About using an application, he also cultured some essential lessons. “One piece of advice I’d give to business owners launching an app is to definitely open up with a coupon — this gives a true actual response rate. And, make sure to put the time into the app to make it successful and make sure people know about the app.”

About testing their applications, both the companies have learned important lessons. Blazina of the Caddy Shack explains, “When it came to testing the app, we only did testing internally. Our management and staff checked to see if everything was entered correctly and was functioning right.”

It helped a lot, but that was not enough still. There were some bugs and mistakes, which could have been fixed by testing with an outside vendor.

Sowers of Mommy’s Lil’ Rascals checkouts a similar story. “We found some issues with some different network providers — some were a bit slow and it was a time-consuming process or the app would sometimes unexpectedly close out.”

She said that it should have been a lot better in order to test the applications on varied of network providers before launching it. With an increasing number of businesses, who have been launching these mobile applications and testing for errors and bugs, it becomes essential for businesses as small business owners look for outside suppliers to deliver those testing services. As like they require outside accountants to do their taxes or outside vendors in order to look for insurance.

Matthew Cordasco, a CEO and Head of Product at MyCrowd QA, says “Small businesses may not always have the resources to hire a full-scale QA team, that’s where we come in. He also added, “With our platform, businesses can root out their bugs at 50-75 percent of the cost of doing it in-house, boosting both the speed and quality of their testing.”

With increasing demand for smartphone and smartphone apps, it is must have a well-developed and well-tested application that turns into a highly effective marketing strategy, giving results.