Implementing Application Maintenance in 2021

So, you’ve got a great app to showcase your products and services. All its functionalities are up and running; meaning you can just leave it to do its thing in the background now, right? Wrong. 

What is Application Maintenance?

In today’s constantly evolving whirlwind of technology, a business’s mobile app needs continual updating, adjusting and internal scrutiny to correct the faults and functionality issues that affect user experience. This process of frequent modification and performance improvement is called application maintenance, and it is essential for all forward-focused brands today.

Why is Application Maintenance Important?

Customer experience today is not simply measured by the quality of a product or the speed of a service. A brand’s digital experience is inextricably linked to the value consumers extract from the business, and is therefore integral to success. 

Although your brand’s digital experiences will serve as a centerpiece of customer engagement or employee service for years to come, that is not to say that one successful version of an app will hold for a long period of time. Changes in hardware, operating systems, or customer expectations can affect the experiences that your customers may have with your brand, leading to uninstalls. Your business’s digital experiences need constant oversight, in order to stay relevant, usable, and seamless for your customers. It’s no wonder, then, that enterprises plan to spend about 2.5 times as much on mobile app maintenance as is spent on development, according to analysts at Forrester Research.

How to Implement Application Maintenance?

Implementing regular and thorough application maintenance is key to retaining customers and securing long-term customer loyalty. Estimates by MGI Research show that apps require at least four major updates, stemming from operating system and device updates, over an 18-to 24-month period; for just one operating system platform.

The fluid, digital landscape in which businesses operate today is out of your control, and many factors within it could impact the performance of your digital properties. Brands must bear in mind new hardware releases, OS releases, or SDK updates, as well as changes that occur in libraries of code for objects (such as camera, GPS, or gallery access). External influences can also provoke unanticipated usage patterns or changes in security requirements, leading to subsequent code releases. All of these must be provided for by businesses hoping to succeed in the long term with a mobile app.

Although savvy developers could include some form of sentiment analysis within the digital experience itself, brands can also observe reviews on the App Store or Google Play to help them understand why ratings might be high or low. Importantly, customer experience must be at the forefront of application innovation.

How Can Bottle Rocket Help?

Bottle Rocket is there for your brand throughout your entire product lifecycle, from discovery and development of digital products and services to market launch and beyond. We intimately understand how best a brand can leverage the digital to stay competitive in the market, and offer our clients a dedicated maintenance option within our development package. 

This way, brands can focus on the big picture, as we alleviate the time and effort it takes to keep up with digital properties from in-house product and marketing teams. Because of our rigorous maintenance processes, our clients can address issues that can lead to app or website abandonment and low ratings. With a team of engineers and QA specialists, as well as a project manager, this team will oversee the maintenance of your properties with Bottle Rocket’s unique expertise.

We regularly and thoroughly test your applications against Apple and Google OS beta versions, as well as monitoring how your app performs when major OS releases occur. Our service includes smoke testing for interim releases, carrying out bug fixes, and scheduled SCRUM reviews of all data and potential improvements. Our findings and recommendations are compiled in comprehensive reports, methodically recording your app’s trajectory as it evolves within the digital sphere.

Most importantly, we’re always there with you on your application’s journey. From that lightbulb idea moment, right through to ironing out tiny flaws in your application’s current user experience, Bottle Rocket Studios has the expertise, innovation, and commitment to help your brand succeed in a digital world.