It has been proven that almost 79% of users check reviews and ratings before downloading an app, and it is also a fact that users are more likely to leave a review after a bad experience than a positive one. So, positive app reviews will definitely take you to the upper levels in page ranking, but the question is: Will you let the bad reviews damage your brand’s reputation and harm your rankings in the App Stores?

Why are reviews so important?

App reviews really matter for users when they have found their way to your App Store product page because the opinions of others are a crucial social indicator of your app’s good or bad features.

Obtaining positive reviews will increase your app’s discoverability and organic traffic, but first of all you need to increase traffic to your App Store page to acquire users.

How to increase it

App reviews don’t just happen by themselves. Today mobile App Stores are so crowded that having a flawless app is not enough to stand out from the crowd, so you either spend huge amounts of money to increase your app’s visibility or use ASO and ad campaigns to increase organic downloads of your app. You can get more information from our previous article: 7 ways to increase app reviews.

How to get positive reviews for your app

According to Apptentive’s 2016 Brand Reputation Management Survey, consumers are 22% more likely to leave a review after a negative customer experience than a positive one. It is hard to get positive reviews because it demands effort from users but don’t worry, as the following are some useful tips to get good reviews.

1- Make the interruption considered!

Every developer wants their product to get good reviews, but the key point is to have a poker face about it when asking users to leave a review. Sometimes there is no fault in the app itself, but you can get bad reviews because of pushing users too much. So, don’t undermine the process of user experience with your app with annoying pop-ups. Give time to your users to explore your app’s good features first.

2- Try to catch them at their happiest time

A timely prompt is your best chance of getting good feedback, so catch them when they accomplish a task or win a contest in your app. Users are more likely to leave a good review after a good experience in your app.

Use app analytics and user engagement metrics for choosing the right time. Create a checklist of positive practices for users to be accomplished and insert it into app analytics. Arrange a prompt time according to app analytics which gives indicators of your users’ behaviors. When they’ve completed a checklist, is time to prompt them because they are more likely to leave a positive review after they accomplish a task in your app. For gaming apps it should be after a level has been passed, or for a shopping app it can be after a purchase has been made.

For instance, Dan Counsell is the founder of Clear, which is a great to-do list app for iOS. He showed a prompt tactic that they have used in the Clear app; they wait a few weeks until the user checks and clears their task list, then ask for a rating. Clear app has more than 600,000 paid downloads and has an average 4-star rating from 8,000 reviewers.

3- Ask Engaged Users

Before prompting users, you need to gather feedback from your customers to understand them better. Use app analytics tools to track users’ event based interactions to learn their movement patterns, which provide data about your audience. You can build a segment for whom to prompt and target engaged users to leave a review. Your event for engaged users may vary like number of logins, number of specific actions taken, etc. This strategy will also help you to filter out unengaged or unsatisfied users.

You have segmented your users, so the next challenge is to direct unsatisfied ones to more personal space like in-app messaging, email, etc., than the App Store page. In this way, you get both positive reviews from your loyal users and feedback from unsatisfied users with one-to-one communication.

4- Ask Properly

When prompting users to leave a review don’t get right down to it. Instead, ask users’ minds beforehand by using personalized, emotion-based language like “Do you love x app?” or “Do you enjoy x app?” If answer is positive direct them towards the App Store page; if not, tell them to leave feedback.

Starting a conversation with personalized message is 10 times more effective than asking for a simple rating. It definitely steps up your positive reviews by filtering negative reviews.

5- Incentivize reviewers

Offer users free coins or upgrades in exchange for leaving a review. Keep them motivated to give good feedback on your App Store page. It’s not always a precise tactic to get positive reviews, but it definitely increases your overall app reviews. Learn more from our previous article 7 ways to increase app reviews.

Note: Please keep in mind that Apple has been removing apps that give users incentives to review apps.

6- Give care to bad feedbacks, update your app accordingly.

Fixing a bug as quickly as possible to respond to a negative review is the only efficient way to handle the negative in-app experiences causing the negative reviews. If you turned a negative review into a good one, don’t forget to insert it in your app description, because these reviews show that your app is up to date and trustworthy.

Getting negative reviews about your app is not abnormal, but they need to be managed on App Store page considering that app reviews are a crucial factor for users’ download decisions. So, handle the bad feedbacks cleverly and let the positive reviews drive your app to higher rankings.