Reaction to user feedback in order to increase the average rating

Articles on Habré are not in vain! Already dozens of indie developers realize that work is just beginning after the game is published, but only a few understand how important it is to respond to user feedback ...

I usually try to write live materials using my personal projects as an example, but after three hours I submit a report on “Social communications in a professional environment” and I would like to get some feedback to give the text weight. So welcome to my first article in the Marketing stream! This master is happy to share with you five years of experience; let them in an unusual format and expect the same from you.
')

Introduction

Ninety-seven percent of reviews on the Google Play app store remain unanswered. Would you download an application whose authors ignore their users? In this essay, I will talk about why it is important to respond to reviews and certain types of users that I have encountered.

The article looks at Google Play in the way that my whole experience is connected with this platform. It's a great place where enthusiastic, burning developers face the real world.

Useful tips

For starters, let's take a look at the official recommendations for responses to reviews :

Be correct and do not go to the individual. This is not just a recommendation, politeness really matters. After all, arguing a disappointed client is not the main thing. And you should not burn bridges behind you. Your answer should be friendly, helpful and informative. In addition, it must comply with our rules.
Be concise and welcoming. Users are counting on a sincere and helpful answer, but too long a message can discourage them.
Thank for the feedback. If you answer on the merits or share new relevant information on the topic, it will please the author of a positive review. However, there is no need to publicly thank everyone who left a review. Keep in mind that other customers see the answers.
Be a friend, not a seller. All review authors are already your customers, so no need to offer them discounts or advertise their products. Share company news, give advice, or tell us what the client might have overlooked during the first visit.

And now, let's see what they are trying to tell us with such beautiful words.

The rules of the store is prohibited to offend users. Even if users insult you. The customer is always right.
People find it difficult to read long texts. Most likely, a large number of words will upset them.
At every opportunity, suck up to people. Most like it. The most "cheap" way to enter a person in a good mood. The main thing, do not forget to report along the necessary information.
At least for adequate people who read comm
Perhaps the most useful advice. He recommends not playing “seller”, but just helping * the user.

* Helping is not necessarily “solving the problem”, but also “helping to dive deeper into the app.”
These rules are a good base: they recommend to be calm and consider users to be idiots, this perfectly describes the real situation in the app store reviews.

Interlude

All we need from the user is to improve his rating or keep it at a high level. For this, it is necessary to satisfy him and improve his mood. Among all the emotions that tend to design the consumer, pride is the place of honor. Jeffrey Miller, professor of evolutionary psychology at the University of Mexico, explains this with our biology:

People evolved in small social groups, where image and status were most important - not only for survival, but also for attracting a partner, making impressions on friends and raising children.
Today, we surround ourselves with goods and services in order to impress other people, rather than to enjoy possession of something.

Passive effect

My first words are that a large majority of developers do not respond to reviews. Experienced users know this and thus, even the very fact of the answer improves their mood and opinion about the developer. But it's time to deal with the very text of the answer: we will make up its template.

Greeting

First of all, in a friendly way, say hello, turning on the name “Hello, $ User Name $”. We personalized the answer by contacting the user by name and excluded the official address.

Body

In the body of the answer you should pay attention, as it is not unexpected to the user's problem. I will consider several options.

The first and easiest is a positive statement : “Super”, “Excellent”! The easiest way is to respond with the same statement or even smiles.

Positive statement with a negative assessment . Sometimes users forget to provide a rating, drawing all their attention to the text of the review. It is worth asking them to change the rating to the corresponding text of the review.

Positive statement with criticism . Of course, you should thank the user for the feedback and ask to send a more detailed story to you in the mail.

Known issue . Describe the solution to the problem. (sic!)

Senseless character set . Depends on the assessment: in most cases, it is better to ignore such reviews.

Humor Humor is good. Humor is organic and sarafanka.

A continuous stream of negative . Most often, we are not dealing with a “good guy who is just tired”, but with an inadequate lifestyle for which. The best response (like) is not available to us; The next in the rating is the official response with the requirement to analyze your actions and change the assessment.

Blackmail and extortion . Sometimes users give a low score and require the developer to do something. In such cases, the position “The United States does not negotiate with terrorists” fits perfectly. Inform the user that his actions lead to a directly opposite effect and gently demand a change in the estimate.

Aggression towards other users . Quite interesting cases. Often, users protect the developer in their reviews, throwing mud at idiots that did not appreciate your work. This is very nice, but it is better to recommend the defender just to enjoy the application.

Unrealized offer . For an ideal developer, it is unrealizable requests that deliver a lot of pain. So hard to realize that you can not help a person who trusted you. At such moments, I choose honesty, trying to explain the reasons for the unrealizability of the user's wants.

Blurred sentence . Everyone wants everything and a lot. In such cases, I recommend asking the user to send their wishes in a normally designed form by e-mail. Reviews are not the best place for dialogue.

Threats I have been threatened with blockages many times as “My dad works in Hoechle”. Usually the irony and the monologue of Hamlet do their work.

Complaints about advertising . Offer to buy the app or take the bread in the store without payment.

Positive feedback with negative text . Pretend that it is necessary. Do not answer.

Parting

At the end of the answer is to wish the user all the best; the earliest possible solution to the problem if there is one; wish to return to the product and of course inform you that it was very pleasant to deal with it.

Harsh reality I

Of course, it is not always the correct answer that allows a change in the assessment. Here are some more options why the answer might work:

The user was in a bad mood. The response to the recall shamed him for inadequate evaluation.
At the time of loading the user had problems with the device. Re-accessing the application after the response went smoothly.
The user with impunity was engaged in destructive activity without waiting for a reaction. (a peculiar act of vandalism) Personalized reaction and the likelihood of public condemnation make it necessary to correct the consequences.
The original answer made you forget about the problems.
The user was first answered by the developer. What is the problem? SEMPAY MEETS ME!
The need for communication was satisfied. The need to speak out can be realized in many different ways.
RANDOM FACTOR ^ RANDOM FACTOR

Efficiency also plays an important role. After all, as you know, "road spoon for dinner."

When publishing one of the applications, I responded so vividly to the users that they began in their responses to demand to answer them. This dramatically raised the average rating of the application and the number of reviews per day. But after a while, I lost the opportunity to respond with the same high quality and promptly. A large number of people who did not wait for answers appeared, of course, this brought down the rating. After a while, there was a rotation of visible reviews - new users no longer required answers and the rating returned to normal.

Harsh Reality II

Unfortunately, the response to the feedback needs to be read by the user. Usually, this happens in two situations:

People receive notifications by mail specified at registration and view them (rarely);
Users re-enter the application page (very rarely).

But do not forget that although the author of the review may not see your answer, other users will see it, which may increase your conversion of installations. By the way, it is believed that prompt responses to reviews is one of the items of search engine optimization in the markets.

Thus, you should not try to respond personalized to all reviews, for example, use special programs for answering according to the template presented above; and the strength to spend on more effective ways to increase the average rating: improving the quality of the application.

PS

Of course, this text cannot be considered absolute truth. Many of its parts can be implemented in real actions differently: a lot depends on the audience of the application. (in banking applications, it is worthwhile to follow the formality on the contrary; the article is intended more for entertainment applications and games)

Exposition

Once again, I apologize for the awkward syllable. The material was written based on personal experience of working with 300+ reviews per day. At the moment, this thread digests a simple script that works according to your scheme. Who did not know, Google Play Dev Console has a convenient API, and the network has a large number of bots to automate routine processes.