Across commerce, entertainment, travel and health-tech, brand leaders shared insights on meaningful customer journeys through apps and retention challenge giving customers a useful reason to return, and delivering on it consistently
The first download is a decision to try. The next visit is a decision that the app deserves another moment of the customer’s life. Between those two decisions lies one of the most important questions for a brand investing in its own app - What value remains once curiosity has passed?
An app gives a business a direct route to its customers, but the customer still decides when that route is worth taking. A compelling campaign can encourage installation. A useful experience gives the customer a reason to return.
Each subsequent visit becomes an opportunity to strengthen the relationship by remembering a preference, removing a repeated step or providing support at the moment it is needed. This makes retention a business question that reaches across product, technology, marketing and service delivery. The app’s performance matters, but so does the purpose it serves. A smooth interface cannot, by itself, establish why someone should open it again. That purpose also varies sharply across categories. A grocery customer may value completing an order in a few minutes. A gaming user may want discovery. A traveller needs certainty around a journey. Someone following a treatment programme needs continuity long after the purchase.
The leadership challenge is to recognise these differences and build around them. More time spent, more notifications sent and more frequent visits are meaningful only when they reflect something the customer values. The perspectives of Handpickd, Primebook, flutrr, dubdub, Fresh Bus and Traya offer a lens on this challenge. Across their accounts, one idea stands out: the app becomes more valuable when it carries useful knowledge and support from one interaction into the next.
When less time in the app means more value
Some of the strongest evidence of an app’s usefulness may be how quickly the customer can finish using it. For a grocery customer, the objective is usually to complete an order that meets a specific need. Having to repeat quantities, rediscover products or navigate extra steps adds effort to a familiar task. Remembering those choices allows the app to become easier to use with experience. Nitin Gupta, Co-Founder & CTO, Handpickd, emphasises, “An app earns a permanent place on your phone when it stops being something you browse and becomes something you rely on. At Handpickd, we see that in shorter sessions and more frequent orders: customers can pick exactly what they want. Ultimately, novelty may drive a download, but trust, predictability and an experience that gets better with every interaction are what drive habit." His observation about shorter sessions alongside more frequent orders is particularly relevant to leaders deciding how to measure engagement. A reduction in time spent can indicate that a task has become simpler. The useful question is whether customers are completing what they came to do and choosing the app again when the need returns. In this context, habit grows around dependable utility. The app earns a place in the routine by making a recurring decision easier.
Reliability earns its place in a routine
An app can also become valuable because it supports a recurring activity with fewer interruptions. In that context, retention rests on whether the product continues to perform when the customer needs it. Vipul Jha, Tech Lead (App Developer), Primebook, firmly believes that customers keep coming back to an app when it genuinely makes their everyday experience easier. Prime Browser, which is the most-used app on Primebook, does offer a desktop-class browsing experience with features like Chrome extensions, ad blocking, profiles and screen sharing on meeting platforms. Consistent performance, a frictionless experience and regular improvements are what ultimately keep users coming back, and that’s something we focus on by continuously listening to what our users need.
Jha’s perspective brings the discussion back to performance in everyday use. Extensions, profiles and screen sharing have value because they support activities the user wants to complete. The experience must remain dependable across those activities for the app to retain its usefulness. For leaders, this puts customer feedback in a more strategic role. Listening helps distinguish a feature that looks compelling in a product roadmap from an improvement that resolves a recurring difficulty. The priority becomes strengthening the reasons customers already rely on the app, while addressing the moments that interrupt that reliance.
Personalisation should reduce the customer’s work
Relevance can provide another reason to return. But recognising a customer’s interests is only useful when the experience remains easy to navigate. Sougata De, CTO, flutrr, says, “A download is just the beginning of a relationship. But retaining a user is a continuous process which happens after that. Honestly, most people drop off somewhere between week two and week eight, once the initial excitement fades, and that's where the real work starts. The first few sessions matter more than anything else. If someone opens the app three times and doesn't feel like it was worth it, you've probably lost them for good. What keeps people coming back is this familiar feeling that the app actually knows them. It could be a well-timed suggestion or maybe just a nudge about something they'd genuinely care about. A message that genuinely feels personal gets opened. A generic "we miss you" now gets swiped away. Eventually, so does the app.” The pairing of personalisation and simplicity is therefore important. Relevance should help the customer reach something worthwhile with less effort. It loses its advantage when accessing it requires a long form or additional navigation. His distinction between a meaningful suggestion and a generic reminder also exposes a central question for marketing teams. Every notification makes a claim on the customer’s attention. A useful message justifies that claim through timing and relevance; a reminder to return still needs a reason worth returning for.
Every visit should build on the last
Personalisation becomes more meaningful when an app uses interactions to improve what comes next. The opportunity is to make the relationship cumulative: each session helps the product understand the user better. Supan Shah, Chief Product & Technology Officer, dubdub, says, “Most apps don't lose users on day one because the product is bad. They lose them because the second and third visits feel exactly like the first. At dubdub, we are making sure that every session feels a little more personal than the last. Our feed is built on the same relevance and ranking principles that power search and ads at scale, except instead of predicting what you'll click, we predict what you'll want to play. Good technology should disappear into the experience. Speed, smooth transitions and instant feedback matter as much as any recommendation model, because the moment a user has to wait or figure out where to tap, you've given them a reason to leave.”
Shah describes a relationship in which the app can become more relevant through use. Answers, guesses and skips contribute to what the user encounters next, making each session an opportunity to improve the following one.The interface matters just as much as the intelligence behind it. A recommendation only delivers value when the customer can act on it easily. Speed and clear interactions allow the benefit of the system to reach the user.
The experience extends beyond the screen
For services delivered in the physical world, an app’s credibility also depends on what happens after the digital interaction.A booking can be simple, yet the customer’s confidence rests on the journey that follows. Travel updates, support and the experience on the ground become part of how the app itself is judged. Sudhakar Reddy Chirra, Founder & CEO, Fresh Bus, said, “A download earns space on a customer’s phone; making their next journey easier earns a reason to stay. For an intercity travel app, that value comes from answering practical questions quickly: Which routes are available? Can I find a seat for my preferred departure? How easily can I book, track and manage my journey? The approach is to build the app around these everyday travel needs. From seamless digital bookings and real-time bus tracking to timely travel updates, every touchpoint should help customers plan their journeys with greater clarity and convenience. Safety is equally important, particularly for women travelling between cities”
Features such as reserved pink seats, a 24x7 women’s helpline and access to clean, hygienic restroom stops reflect the importance of making passengers feel more secure and comfortable throughout their journey. Value extends beyond the booking itself. Thoughtful benefits for return travellers, rewards for continued engagement and the assurance of support when journeys do not go as planned can make the overall experience more dependable. Customers may travel occasionally or frequently, but each time they return, the experience should feel familiar, clear and consistent.
“Repeat engagement follows when an app delivers on its promise, makes everyday travel simpler and reinforces trust at every stage of the journey. The aim is to become the app customers instinctively open when they are planning their next intercity trip,” added Sudhakar Reddy Chirra.
For business leaders, the implication is organisational. A digital team can improve the interface, but the credibility of the experience also depends on the people and operations delivering the journey. The customer carries the memory of the whole service into the next booking.
After the purchase, the relationship can deepen
For businesses built around an ongoing customer journey, an app can become the place where the service continues. Omkar Shindekar, Business Head at Traya, says,” A customer downloads our app to start treatment. But the reason they keep coming back has nothing to do with buying. Today, when a customer opens our app, they are not shopping. They are managing their health. They schedule calls with their hair coach. They upload scalp photos to track progress month on month. They log daily health habits and earn rewards for staying consistent. They connect with a community of thousands going through the same journey. The app handles purchases. But what keeps customers coming back is everything else. It is where their treatment actually runs. That is what drives retention: the app being useful, not just transactional."
What does the customer need after buying, and how well does the business support it? An app can become the place where that continuing relationship is delivered. The distinction has implications for investment. Resources devoted to post-purchase usefulness can strengthen the service customers have already chosen, giving them reasons to engage that arise from their own goals.
For leadership teams, the most useful test is what improves because a customer has used the app before. Does the next interaction require less effort? Does it reflect something the customer has already shared? Is relevant help easier to find? Does the app connect the digital experience with the service the brand must deliver? The answers reveal whether the product is building a relationship with memory, continuity and practical value.A download gives a brand access to a customer’s phone. A useful return visit gives it something more consequential: evidence that the customer sees a place for the brand in their routine. The lasting achievement is to make that choice easier to justify with every interaction.
Disclaimer: All data points and statistics are attributed to published research studies and verified market research. All quotes are either sourced directly or attributed to public statements.
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