The app nobody opens

Most small operations that have been going a few years have one app on the phone that nobody opens, and it is their own.

It was a reasonable decision when it was made. The delivery app was taking a share of every ticket that nobody enjoys reading at the end of a month, the owner did the arithmetic on a year of that, and a developer quoted a number that looked small beside it. So the app was built. Menu, cart, saved address, a points screen, a push notification.

The money for the build went out once and it is gone. That part is settled and it is allowed to be.

What is not settled is next month, because the app has become the most expensive item in a marketing budget with no room in it. The table tent carries a code to scan instead of anything worth saying. The receipt asks for a download. There is a discount on the first order in the app, which is a price cut aimed at people who were already customers. The cashier has a line to say. The bag has a sticker on it. Somebody boosts a post about the app.

Meanwhile the customer has an address and a card saved in the delivery app, can watch the driver moving on a map, and is being asked to fill in a form in order to save a commission they will never see.

That is what a sunk thing actually costs. Not the money, which is gone whichever way this goes. The cost is every month of attention spent making an old decision look right, taken from the same small budget that could have been earning the next customer.

Keep it standing for the regulars who genuinely use it. They are worth having and they cost nothing.

The build was paid for once. Arguing with the customer about it is paid for every month.