Mobile apps are not just a nice-to-have for millennials; they have become indispensable.
That's one of the biggest findings from a global report by Oracle titled "Millennials and mobility: how businesses can tap into the app generation". For this research, Oracle partnered with Opinium Research to survey young people between the ages of 18 to 34 working at global organisations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Asia Pacific (APAC) and North America.
According to the research, 55% of millennials say a poor mobile app experience would make them less likely to use a company's products or services.
Thus, Oracle believes businesses need to rethink how they develop apps to make sure it is theirs - and not their competitors' - that proves most engaging for young people.
For all businesses, even those that already offer customers a smartphone or tablet app, this should no longer be treated as merely an afterthought or nice-to-have, says Oracle.
It also emerged from the report that 39% of millennials would also be less likely to recommend a company's products or services to others following a poor app experience, and 27% admit it would even give them a negative view of that organisation's products or services altogether.
"An engaging and personalised user experience has become the new weapon in the battle to attract and retain millennial customers," says Suhas Uliyar, VP mobile strategy and product management at Oracle.
"Businesses that cannot add value for customers with a more convenient, functional, and relevant mobile experience have little chance of coming out on top."
He notes the end-game for organisations is to make mobility a natural part of their company culture; to integrate it into the fabric of their organisational DNA, and to make it a central focus when developing products and services for the mobile generation.
The report also shows that millennials are turned off by unsolicited communications in the form of push-notifications that are not relevant to their individual needs, but are happy to receive support in the form of value-added communications from businesses.
Some 73% "like" the ability to purchase a company's product or service using a mobile app. Likewise, 71% like the ability to manage billing for services, and 65% like being able to flag issues or complaints to a business via a mobile app.
More than half (56%) would prefer not to receive push-notifications. The same percentage rarely acts on the push-notifications they do receive, even though 50% admit these are personalised to them.
"The ability to manage bills or flag service issues to a company via a mobile app implies an agreed-upon relationship between a customer and brand or service provider," Uliyar points out.
"The story is completely different in the case of push-notifications. Organisations will need to provide app-based services that deftly tread the line between helpfulness and overbearingness if they want to tap into young peoples' affinity for using mobile and tablet apps without alienating them."
In addition, while millennials around the world have each downloaded between 20-25 mobile apps on average, 40% of those in APAC have paid for as many as five of these, compared with roughly 25% of those in EMEA and North America.
For millennials in APAC, mobile apps are not just "nice-to-haves", they are necessary resources in their day-to-day lives. Young people in this region are constantly on the look-out for new innovative apps and, encouragingly for businesses, are willing to pay for applications that deliver a valuable experience.
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