What’s the key differentiator between the apps that succeed and those that fail? The users. They’re the hero of your story. It doesn’t matter how confident or proud you are of the app. Whether or not the app stayed within budget, leverages new technology, or introduces innovative solutions – that’s nearly irrelevant. User perception is the reality behind your app’s success or failure. If our users don’t perceive the app to be useful, it will fail. Focusing on maximizing your users’ ROI is imperative to its success.

It’s easy to talk about maximizing ROI, but where do you start?

Collecting feedback is the key to a successful app

The best way (hands down) to hone in on the needs of your users and how to successfully address them is through feedback. Ask them how the app is working and listen to what they have to say. Feedback is imperative. Without it, you have no true understanding of how the app is performing. If your users have no voice, you might as well not even create the app in the first place. We’ll say it again. Feedback is imperative.

There are two great ways to gather feedback.

1. Get direct feedback from your reps

This is the most direct option. You want to know if your reps are using the app, so you ask them. You want to know if it has the content they need, so you ask them. You want to know if it’s helping them perform better, so again, you ask them.

The problem with this method is that although you ask the important questions, your sales reps may not provide the best answers. Their responses will be skewed by their ability to recall details about how and when they used the app, their mood when you asked for feedback, and the fact that they’re more likely to tell you about the negative aspects than the positive ones. And, of course, they may not respond at all.

2. Leverage technology for useful feedback

The second way to collect feedback, by leveraging technology, takes a little more effort on the front end. But afterward, it’s virtually effortless both for you and for your sales reps.

With the right technology incorporated into your app, your sales reps can provide feedback without even realizing they’re doing it. Your app can collect usage data about who is accessing the app, when that access happens, and where it’s being used. The app can also collect data about the content they find most useful. For example, do your reps seem to prefer written content like white papers and reports? Or do they really tend to enjoy visual information like videos, infographics, and highly interactive courses? Understanding how your users think can lead to amazing improvements for the overall user experience.

How feedback improves the users’ ROI

When you leverage technology to collect feedback, this takes a load off your reps. All your reps have to do is, well, use the app, and technology allows you to document their actions and behaviors. These tools collect user data to provide valuable analytics and metrics. You can use this information to continuously improve your content and release new iterations of the app that serve your reps even better.

Armed with the right information, you can focus on driving ROI for your users. Using the feedback they provide – either consciously or unconsciously – you can deliver the resources and tools they need to be more productive, then you can commit to continuously improving it. Improving ROI isn’t just for your users, either. While it can be difficult to act on user feedback, doing so can drastically improve user loyalty. People like to be heard, and when you take note of feedback, make changes, and implement changes, your users feel cared for.

And this is what will make your app a success.