• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, August 16, 2017

Despite their popularity, apps could use a lot of improvement. Nearly seven in 10 mobile users report having problems with apps, while almost three in 10 run into issues on at least a weekly basis.

That’s according to a new report conducted by Radius Global Market Research on behalf of customer service platform Helpshift. No surprise, the company found that apps with poor customer support are more at risk of being deleted or ignored.

Nearly half of app users say they just delete apps they find frustrating and fail to provide any customer support.

By contrast, nearly nine in 10 consumers say they would recommend an app if they were proactively contacted inside an app by a customer support agent when experiencing problems. Consumers say they hate having to exit an app to seek help over email, Radius Global finds. 

Rather, consumers want to communicate with customer service agents the way they communicate in their daily lives, via messaging.

Also of note, nearly six in 10 U.S. consumers who use mobile apps prefer messaging to email. They feel it is a more “trustworthy” form of communication.

All told, about eight in 10 U.S. consumers currently use mobile apps. Some 66% do so to check social media; 44% to read the news; another 44% to play games; 23% use apps to order food; and 22% relay on apps for work-related tasks.

For its findings, Radius Global surveyed 2,170 adults in June.