Not ‘Appy?

Apps – aren’t you sick of them already?

Last week on the way to the gym I connected my Sony headphones and was forced to download their app. I guessed I could connect via bluetooth, which I subsequently did, and deleted the little parasite from my phone.

I value and use daily: emails, WhatsApp, Google Maps, bus times, LinkedIn, FT and Safari. Weekly, I use Trainline and my camera. A few features are rarely used, but useful occasionally, such as a calculator, torch and alarm clock. Everything else is clutter, draining my battery and distracting me.

At some point, a number of companies have persuaded me to download their app with the promise it will make my life easier. But it’s not easier! The experience is almost always a compromise, and it become very frustrating when the functionality is inferior and I have to repeat actions or go to the website anyway. So I am now going to delete these direct channels that I have inadvertently allowed on to my personal device (that has pride of place in my life).

With this frustration fresh in my mind I thought about all the Housing Associations that proudly offer a customer app that allows them to pay the rent, for example, or maybe report repairs. And I wondered if these apps are well used and loved or if they are as deletable as my Virgin airways app (I have flown once with Virgin in the last ten years). I pay my bills through the bank. In what way is having an app any better? And I know that most associations do not have an end to end repairs ordering service in place, so an app is just another email channel that has to find its way into the association’s system and is in as much danger of getting lost or forgotten as the last email. If your app allows tenants to contact you by phone they could do this by dialling your number once and storing it. If your website is dated and clunky and of no use to tenants, an app won’t help. Instead make sure that your website is live and useful and that it can be accessed by mobile devices.

Even sadder are the vendors who I speak to who feel they have designed the killer app for Housing Associations. Their business plans model how lucrative the social housing market might be if only Associations used their app. The sales meetings and demos can be a bit disappointing for the enthusiastic, clever young founders. Bemused Associations will wonder why they need a special app to do what already exists? If your product is like a Facebook or Whatapp groups – then why wouldn’t an association, or their tenants, set up a Facebook or WhatsApp groups themselves?

To the people out there designing apps so tenants can leave a voicemail in any language, or offering document storage solutions for leaseholders, or keyapps, or energy efficiency calculators or repairs diagnostic tools – please! Housing Associations have two key transactions going on – money in (rents and service charges) and money out (mainly for repairs). They don’t need a plethora of apps that purportedly “make life simpler”. They need robust, reliable basic automated systems plus an excellent, accessible website. That’s it.