Our app’s ratings on Google Play Store improved after we abandoned canned responses and provided personalized, empathetic responses to each review. We also enhanced our feedback system, enabling users to send bug reports and suggestions easily.
Success on the Google Play Store or any other App Store is more than just having a great product. It combines a well-tested app and an amazing support team, and ultimately, about providing the best possible user experience.
Let’s journey back to March 2022, when the world gradually returned to normal after an immensely challenging pandemic. As more companies resumed their operations, the demand for MoveInSync increased correspondingly.
What Happened?
We experienced pre-Covid demand for our app and had to quickly re-scale our infrastructure to meet it. Our best minds were on the job, but we still experienced technical glitches that caused our app’s rating to drop from 4.6 to 4.3.
We identified a bug in our production servers that hindered a particular section of users’ access to our application. Imagine how frustrating it is when Instagram is down, and you can’t endlessly look at cute dog and cat videos. Our users had a similar feeling, or maybe it was worse because they couldn’t use our app to commute or book their desks!
Our developers immediately began working on a fix, but the damage was done by then. Reviews had already started pouring in, and our rating was tumbling down. Time was of the essence, and a fix had to be delivered as soon as possible.
In a few hours, a new update was released, and the problem was resolved. We also sent an apology email to every user who was affected by the outage, notifying them of the update.
One might think that a decrease of 0.3 is a small number, but in the world of ratings and reviews, it can make or break a business. The saying “the bigger you are, the harder you fall” holds true here. We calculated how many 5-star ratings and reviews we needed to regain our position as the world’s highest-rated commute and space management app, and realized it was an uphill task. We had to ensure that we delivered an experience of the highest order with no further setbacks.
Our road to recovery began with our Product Managers stepping up and taking the onus of ensuring that they truly understood what our users went through. They consistently helped get the app back on track by asking the right questions: “Why were we getting bad ratings and reviews? What is the root cause? How do we ensure this never happens again? How do we improve the ratings in a timely manner?”
Apart from our tech teams striving to be their best, we decided to double down our efforts to ensure our response times, tone, and manner of replying to users were spot on. We wanted every user to know that we were truly there for them and that every response to our users represented our company. Our team learned and improved daily, striving to provide the best support to our users.
So what did we do? We adopted the following steps, and saw immediate results.
Timing is Everything!
We live in a world that never stops. Instant replies to queries are a must. Users tend to write emotionally; responding to them as soon as possible is crucial.
At times of distress, it can be comforting to know that your cry for help has been heard and help is on the way!
Users Want to Talk to Humans, Not Robots!
The Google Play Store allows you to reply using canned responses. While this may save you time, its not the best experience for the user. As humans, its natural to interact with someone real and not receive a drab, robotic reply.
We decided to say no to canned responses! We devised custom, tailor-made responses for every review until we could create standardized answers that would always stay fresh! We saw that users were okay if a fix to a bug took a little more time; sometimes, all they wanted was to be heard and receive a humane reply!
In fact, we were able to change the mind of several users who had initially rated us with 1. After really listening to them and understanding their perspective, we got their problems solved and they happily changed the rating to 5.
Welcome Feedback with an Open Heart!
Its not just enough to solve problems. Its also important to hear what they have to say and offer. User empathy only happens when you stay in tune with the audience. Sometimes they can be a source of new ideas that can get your developers buzzing with motivation to build something new and refreshing, and take the app to new heights ?.
We at MoveInSync decided to innovate and enhance our email feedback system. Users could now easily send an email where they could choose to report a bug or send us a suggestion. This division of emails allowed us to categorize support requests and helped in resolving the urgent issues quickly. We’ve also got a ton of helpful feedback for new features that are already in the pipeline!
Ratings are First Earned and Then Maintained!
This is our playbook as we reach 4.6 on the Google Play Store. We were at 4.6 stars on the Google Play Store. The sudden drop to 4.3 only made us realize that even if we get applauded for our app and efforts, these are not one-time jobs. To stay at the top, we need to maintain it.
Now, with a playbook ready, it will be easier to concentrate our efforts where it matters the most. Here’s to hoping for a great 2023 ahead!
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