12 Great Mobile Applications That Every Business Owner Should Consider
OK, I lied. It’s not 12 applications. I’ve listed 60 applications here. But they fall into 12 categories.
It’s all because what was once stationary is now moving. What was once a computer is now a phone. And what was once an application is now an app. This is now reality. Smart business owners know this. And my smartest clients are looking to mobile apps to grow their business, manage their customers and people, and increase their profits. Here are 12 types of mobile applications that doing this for them.
1 - To grow your business you need a mobile website and it needs to be found. These applications will do this:
- Duda – a mobile website builder.
- Yodle – a mobile website builder that combines advertising and search engine optimization.
- AdRoll – when visitors leave your website without buying, this application targets mobile ads at them.
- Zopim – live mobile chat software for visitors that need immediate help.
- ZenDesk – mobile customer service software that integrates with your website.
- Google Maps 360 – an “look inside” experience of your business while on the go.
- YP – powerful and long-time ad service that targets mobile ads to your business.
2 – To grow your business you need these mobile social media applications:
- Google Hangouts – places Internet calls and hosts mobile streaming events.
- Periscope – hosts mobile streaming events for your Twitter followers.
- Charlie – an automatic background checker that delivers real time info about your contacts.
- Socedo – an automated social media workflow application that keeps you mobile.
3 – To grow your business, you need access to metrics, business-centered ideas and peers on the go:
Staples Quick Wins – a brand new powerful app that has a simple dashboard to sync and monitor key metrics like Facebook and Twitter engagement, site traffics, sales and tools such as Google Analytics and QuickBooks to pull in key financial, website and marketing metrics. Based on these metrics, Quick Wins will provide business-specific ideas to grow their business. The app also provides access to a community of small business peers where they can ask questions, exchange ideas and support one another.
4 – To manage your customers you need these mobile customer relationship and project management applications:
- Salesforce – The CRM market leader.
- Microsoft Dynamics CRM – a powerful, Outlook and web based competitor to Salesforce.
- Insightly – An excellent workgroup CRM application with powerful mobile features.
- ZohoCRM – Part of a feature-rich suite of mobile office management applications.
- Basecamp – Well respected project manager for only $29 per month
- Asana – a formidable competitor to Basecamp.
5 – To better manage your retail customers your store must use these mobile technologies on the shop floor:
- Belly – a mobile loyalty program that rewards your customers for visits and purchases.
- Perka – a strong competitor to Belly.
- ShopKeep – enables your employees to ring up sales and check inventory from an iPad.
- Shopify – e-commerce, point of sale and mobile applications for your retail store.
6 – To better serve your customers in the field, you must use these mobile technologies:
- FieldAware – manages workers, assets, workorders, scheduling and reporting from any device.
- KickServ - Manage leads, estimates, your team’s schedule, jobs, invoices and payments.
- Locqus - real-time GPS vehicle and fleet tracking including mobile dispatch and scheduling.
- ServiceMax – An Internet of Things mobile solution enabled for service people, delivery processes, serviceable products and customer promises.
7 – Whether in your store or out in the field, your customers and clients will soon demand that payment be made with their smartphones. And these are the major players:
- Square – popular mobile payment service with a free “reader” for phones and tablets.
- Apple Pay – Apple’s mobile payment service.
- Samsung Pay – Samsung’s mobile payment service.
- Android Pay – Google’s mobile payment service.
- PayPal – online and onsite payment service with an enormous customer base.
8 – If you’re going to manage your people well, you must give them the right office tools.
- Microsoft Office 365 – Both cloud, mobile and desktop with strong sharing tools and all with the familiar interface used by more than 100 million workers worldwide.
- Google Apps – Popular and powerful alternative to Microsoft.
- DocuSign – A mobile document management application that incorporates e-signatures.
- Adobe e-Sign – Adobe’s competitor to DocuSign, recently acquired.
- Envoy – Mobile reception management for visitors at any location in many languages.
9 – If you’re going to manage your people well you must let them communicate from wherever they are using these mobile applications:
- VirtualPBX – A hosted, cloud based phone system with hardware (or you can just use your smartphone).
- Grasshopper – A strong competitor to VirtualPBX.
- FreeConferenceCall – The longtime popular service to host many callers for many hours…at no cost.
- Slack – A fast growing company that provides a cloud database that stores all your mobile communications.
- Glint – Enables and tabulates immediate feedback from your employees, wherever they are.
10 – If you’re going to manage your people well, you want to make sure they’re using these mobile apps when they travel:
- Evernote – A cloud based, collaborative note-taking application.
- Expensify – Scans and builds expense reports immediately from your paper and email receipts.
- Kayak – A popular travel site for getting the best deals on hotels and air.
- Google Maps/Wave – Location based tracking, driving directions and (most importantly) traffic avoidance.
- TripIt – Organizes and simplifies your most complicated itineraries.
- What's App – Lets you send text and make calls from anywhere in the world as long as there’s Wi-Fi.
- Gate Guru – A helpful directory for those longer layovers.
- Yelp – Still the leader in recommending the best places to eat in an unknown city.
- Spotify/Amazon/HBO Go – Stream music, TV and movies
11 - To increase your profits you need to make your accounting mobile with these apps:
- Xero – A hugely popular cloud based accounting app accessible everywhere and anywhere.
- QuickBooks Online – Still the giant in small business accounting with mobile apps for invoicing and payments.
- Bill.com – Scans invoices from any device and immediately gets them into your accounting system with minimal human involvement.
- Receipt Bank – a smaller but excellent competitor to Bill.com.
12 – And finally, to increase your profits, you need the best business intelligence from these mobile apps:
- Domo – A powerful (and potentially expensive) web based reporting application.
- Microsoft Power BI – Microsoft’s flexible and mobile reporting tool.
- Tableau – A fast growing, mobile reporting application with similar features to their competitors above.
- IFTTT – IF This Than That’s recipes will increase your and your employees’ mobile productivity manifold.