New research from Oracle reveals that nearly 55 per cent of millennials (born between the 1980s and the early 2000s) are less likely to use a company’s products and services if they have a poor experience of that company’s mobile app. Thirty-nine per cent would be less likely to recommend the company to others while 27 per cent would view the organisation negatively.

“These findings make it clear that if companies cannot provide current and prospective customers with an engaging mobile app experience that also accurately reflects the values of their brand, they risk alienating the millennial generation and seeing their competition pull ahead with a more convincing mobile offering,” warns the study, titled ‘Millennials and mobility: how businesses can tap into the app generation’.

Suhas Uliyar, VP mobile strategy and product management at Oracle, believes an engaging and personalised user experience has become the “new weapon in the battle to attract and retain millennial customers,” adding that businesses that cannot add value for customers with a more “convenient, functional, and relevant mobile experience” have “little chance of coming out on top.”

The report also shows that millennials are put off by unsolicited communications in the form of push-notifications that aren’t relevant to their individual needs, but are happy to receive support in the form of value-added communications from businesses.

However, more than half – 56 per cent – would prefer not to receive push-notifications and the same percentage rarely act on the push-notifications they do receive, even though nearly 50 per cent admit these are personalised to them.

Seventy-three per cent “like” the ability to purchase a company’s product or service using a mobile app; 71 per cent like the ability to manage billing for services; 65 per cent like being able to flag issues or complaints to a business via a mobile app.

“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,” explains Uliyar.

“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,” he added.

APAC users more willing to pay for apps
A region-specific breakdown of the survey reveals that young people in APAC are “miles ahead” in their app use across the board, most notably so when it comes to apps for work and more “serious” functions.

Nearly three times as many millennials in APAC than in EMEA rate work and security apps as absolute must-haves.

In addition, while millennials around the world have each downloaded between 20-25 mobile apps on average, 40 per cent of those in APAC have paid for as many as five of these, compared with roughly 25 per cent 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.

Smartphone vs tablet
While young people use tablets on a considerable scale, smartphones remain their device of choice for accessing apps.

Sixty-one per cent of millennials have uploaded media content using a smartphone app, while nearly twice as many have done so with a tablet.

When it comes to transferring money to a friend, 48 per cent used a smartphone app to do so, versus 22 per cent that used tablets.

“There clearly remains room for innovation when it comes to tablet apps and companies that answer the call will be well-placed to capitalise on a still maturing market. However, apps for smartphones and tablets should not be developed independently from each other. Many millennials own multiple connected devices, and businesses will need to deliver a consistent, high-quality app experience across all of these if they want to add value for their customers,” commented Uliyar.