Consumers force tight app limits
Two-thirds of Australian consumers will abandon a brand’s app if it takes more than six seconds to load, a new study has found.
A survey by US-based software company CA Technologies of more than 325 consumers and business decision makers showed more than half of the respondents demanded a load time shorter than three seconds for a positive user experience.
CA Technologies Australia and New Zealand managing director Hope Powers warned consumers no longer viewed applications as “nice-to-have novelties” but as tools that had a huge impact on customer loyalty.
Businesses failing to deliver a positive app experience risked losing up to a quarter of their customer base, the study showed. More than half of the respondents said the top driver for buying and using an app was “performing tasks with little difficulty”.
General manager of Perth-based app specialist agency Adapptor Richard Giles said consumers now expected companies to offer useful and simple services at the touch of a button via smartphone apps and were “more inclined to leave when it is not available straight away”.
“(For example) I’ve just switched to NAB because of a new home loan, but their app experience is far inferior to BankWest’s, and so I’m considering switching as soon as I can,” he said.
“A bank’s app now accounts for close to 100 per cent of the interactions I do with them, so why wouldn’t they consider it their most important asset?”
The survey found 55 per cent of consumers were using banking apps, while 45 per cent were using apps to shop.
Mr Giles said when it came to load times, quicker was better.
“In most cases we use a mobile device when we only have a short window of time, and we need bite-size access to something,” he said.
“It’s a snack of info or functionality that we should be able to access anywhere and anytime, quickly and easily.
“It’s like checking the time, or even the weather — I should be able to glance at an app to get an update. Imagine having to call a 1800 number just to check the time.”
Mr Giles, whose company has made apps for clients including HBF, iiNet and the State Government, said most companies should be investigating how they could better serve their customers through devices such as smartphones and wearable technology or risk being “disrupted by the next Uber or Netflix”.
