The Business Case for Rigorous Mobile App Testing

It’s been 15 years since the phrase “There’s an app for that” became a ubiquitous part of the English lexicon. Today, there are roughly 8.9 million apps available worldwide, with an average of 250 million downloads happening each and every day. If that statistic isn’t startling enough, consider the implications when your app isn’t optimized or performs poorly:

• Mobile users are five times more likely to abandon your site if it isn't optimized for phones
• 52% of users said that a bad mobile experience made them less likely to engage with a company
• 83% of users say a seamless experience across all devices is somewhat or very important
  Source

While these numbers alone should spur your enthusiasm for a robust mobile testing plan, at the heart of the matter is the fact that improving your quality processes will ultimately help you to drive user acquisition, retention, and revenue.

The High Cost of Poor Quality

Bugs in the code, app crashes, and spotty performance are more than just frustrating events that happen to users: they have a ripple effect to them that can cause serious and lasting damage to not only your product, but your brand as a whole. Consider how each of the following can impact your app:
Negative Reviews and Ratings: Especially on the internet, users are quick to dole out negativity when it comes to their experiences. Scathing one-star reviews paint a picture for other potential users that your product isn’t worth them investing their time or energy into it.

• Churn and Retention Loss: With so many apps on the market, the message is clear: if your product won’t perform, there’s always another one waiting in the wings. Even if your customer hasn’t uninstalled, the idea that they could be comparing your experience to a competitor’s means you aren’t doing enough to retain them.
• Revenue Loss: Loss of retention is always going to equal a loss in revenue. Whether that’s from in-app purchases, advertising, or just a drop in interaction with your product, lost revenue is a very real consideration.
• Brand Reputation: Unless you’re the kind of software juggernaut who can suffer the slings and arrows of multiple failed products with little repercussion, a failed app tarnishes the image and reputation of your brand.

Cutting corners on quality has real consequences for your company, and almost all of them lead back to what they ultimately cost you: loss of status, loss of money, and loss of customers. When a bad update hit the Nest home security system in late 2015/early 2016 and, quite literally, froze people out of their homes, it became a death knell for the brand, who saw sales drop significantly and ultimately sold to Google. 

Proper Testing Drives User Acquisition

The average app loses 77% of its daily active users within the first three days of use; within 90 days, that number jumps up to 95%.

Even for the most popular apps in the world, user retention sits as just above 50% when you look 90 days out from install. So what are the major players getting right that the rest of us are getting so wrong? They’re testing. They’re testing a lot. From UI usability to API integrations and accessibility, the key players in the space are constantly testing to make sure that their products meet the exacting standards of the team and brand.

A seamless onboarding process sets the stage for a great user experience. Thorough testing in these initial stages helps to ensure that your users can easily navigate the app, understand its core features, and complete key actions and activities with as little friction as possible. This experience should be the same for every user, regardless of what device they’re accessing the app with. Slow load times, unresponsive elements, and app crashes are surefire ways to lose users, but properly testing before pushing a release can be the difference between a three-day user and a customer for life.

Retaining Users with a Robust Testing Plan

In a world filled with unending access to instant gratification, keeping your users engaged and interested is a key component to your retention strategy, as is building and keeping their trust. Between pushing new updates and features, integrating user feedback, and staying on top of security updates, there is a lot that goes into the retention piece of the puzzle.

To stay relevant and competitive, you need to constantly develop new ideas and features, as well as improve on the ones you’ve already released. Regression testing is absolutely essential to ensuring your new updates don’t introduce new bugs or break the existing functionality. Nobody wants a mobile CrowdStrike-like situation on their hands, right? There’s no amount of testing (yet…we’re working on it) that can bring your bug rate to 0%, so when your users report issues with their usage of your app, prioritize those requests and show that their input is valuable to your team. Fostering loyalty and trust is paramount to retention.

The Bottom Line: Mobile App Testing Generates Revenue

Outside of acquisition and retention, there are multiple ways that instituting a proper testing plan for your mobile apps can boost your bottom line. A seamless user experience leads to increased engagement, which can in-turn boost in-app purchases, subscription renewals, and other revenue-generating activities that are accessible via your app. And a happy user is a good user. A happy user leaves great reviews and lets others know how easy and enjoyable your app is to use.

Internally, when your team is spending less time fixing bugs (and catching them earlier in the process), you’re not only reducing development costs, you’re also shortening the timeline for new products and features to make it to market. The confidence that comes with pushing bug-free releases can’t be understated either, both for your development team and for your end users. 

At mabl, we know the benefits of mobile app testing extend far beyond clean code. The link between rigorous testing, satisfied users, and the success of the business is strong; prioritizing testing your app is a strategic investment with long-term benefits. If you’re looking for a testing platform that makes automation and scaling easy, schedule a demo with our team today.