Customer reviews play a vital role in the marketing of your app. If you ask for reviews and manage them in the right way, your star rating will rise and more new customers will choose to connect.
Along the way, you’ll also benefit from useful insight into how your customers use your app and what they’d like to see in future releases, so that you can prioritize areas for development.
How to get reviews
By now you should have a hard working app card on QuickBooks Apps.com, but the Reviews page could do with more content. The best way to get reviews for your app is simply to ask your customers – but at the right time and in the right way.
Tip: However you ask for a review, the golden rule is to make it a good user experience. Apply the same UX measures as you do in app development: make it easy and intuitive to do.
Ask in the right way
If you phrase the request in the right way, you can direct those who’ve had a positive experience to the review page and those who have an issue back to your website for support or to provide feedback privately.
Ask them:
Is [Name of your App] working well for you?
And give them two options. If they click:
Not really – give them a way to provide feedback and direct them to online support.
Yes – then it’s time to ask: How about a review on Apps.com? Provide Not now and OK options.
This is a win-win method, resulting in a higher number of positive reviews, and more focussed development and support.
Incentivize a response
While you obviously shouldn’t pay for reviews, you can incentivize participation by using a giveaway or sweepstake. Prizes should be given away at random and not be tied to the rating of the review.
How to prevent negative reviews
The best way to prevent negative reviews is to channel customer support away from the Reviews page. So make it as easy as possible for your customer to get the help they need or provide feedback on usability and features.
- Make customer support easy to access
- Set out a clear FAQ
- Link to helpful pages on your main site
- Stay active on the reviews section and answer questions
- Make yourself available via email and social media
DON’T …
- List other companies to utilize
- Use images and links that go to third party sites
- Ask for a review too early
Reviews are screened to weed out spam, fraudulent content and inappropriate posts. You can read more about the process in our Customer Review and Rating Guidelines. We try to publish genuine reviews as quickly as possible, but it can take up to three days.
So, it’s important to respond to questions or issues as quickly as possible. Sometimes these may be buried within an otherwise positive review, as in the example shown here, from a few years back. (The app has moved on considerably since then.) It’s a great example of how to reply, when you can’t solve the issue there and then.
- Use an upbeat tone – lead by thanking the customer for any positive points.
- Be helpful and non-defensive – potential customers are reading, too.
- Focus on improving the customer’s understanding of your app.
- Empathize with their situation – show that you understand their issue.
- Be specific and ask for clarification if necessary.
- Use screenshots or videos to illustrate your answers.
- If you can’t resolve the issue right away: explain why and share any progress.
Don’t just reply to problems
Thanking someone for a good review is also good for business. It shows that you’re listening to all of your customers and encourages others to leave positive feedback, too.
Next steps
- Follow the tips on this page to:
- Check over the customer support you offer
- Invite more reviews for your app
- Get into the habit of checking the review tab on your app card regularly
- Respond to all reviews – show you care about your app and your customers
As a result, your app rating and ranking will rise, and you’ll gain more connected customers.
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