Applications, especially mobile applications have become very important in day to day life to people. Ratings and reviews have become the lifeblood of today’s app world. They give social proof and are responsible for creating the first impression on a customer when they encounter an app in the app store. They also reflect the type of customer experience you offer to the users.
According to a survey , 77% of respondents revealed that they read at least one review before downloading a free application, and that number increased to 80% before downloading a paid app. 55% of respondents agreed that a one-star or two-star app store rating of an app of a well-known brand negatively impacts their view towards that brand as a whole. On the other hand, 71% of respondents said a four-star or five-star app store rating of a well-known brand positively impacts their view of the brand as a whole.
These figures clearly show that app ratings and reviews aren’t just vanity metrics, they have a real impact on conversion rates and brand reputation.
But getting ratings and reviews is not an easy job unless you have an unhappy user on your hands.
While 76% of apps are rated four stars and above in the App Store and Google Play store, the majority of these ratings didn’t just happen because users felt like sharing their input. More likely, there was some behind-the-scenes legwork that went into collecting this positive feedback. And you’ll require to learn it if you want to boost app store optimization.
Why ratings and reviews matter?
Hopping from two-stars to three-stars in the app stores can increase your conversion by up to 306%. Bouncing from three-stars to four-stars still has a dramatic impact, increasing conversion by up to 92 percent.
90% of consumers consider star ratings to be a crucial part of their evaluation of a new app. 79% of consumers check ratings and reviews prior downloading an app from the app store, 53% check ratings and reviews before updating an app, and 55% check ratings and reviews before making an in-app transaction. These pieces have become so influential that it’s now more important than ever for app publishers to make them a priority. Martech
To help your apps get more and better app reviews, here we have listed 3 things you can do:
Use Review Plugin
Ask for reviews. The fastest and easiest way to get an app review from someone is to ask them to do it within your app. There are a numerous turn-key plugins available for iOS and Android that make it extremely simple to prompt the user to review your app.
There are plugins that take about a couple of minutes to drop into your app, and it will prompt users to review your app after they have used it a certain number of times or after a set time period. If the user taps on the “Rate” button, they are redirected to the app store where they can leave their review.
Make it easy to review
Gone are the days when users had to review apps through a long process of going down to an app, create an account in the app store, and write a review.
Rather, you can request a review inside the application itself. Users would then be able to tap the number of stars inside a pop-up, making it far easier. In addition, they can be prompted to leave a detailed review, so individuals who want to take app ratings to the next step can do so.
Time to Prompt
Review prompts are a great way to remind users to leave a review, but it’s also essential to time the prompts accurately within the user experience.
Many apps make the mistake of asking for reviews upon the user launching the application. Unfortunately, this degrades the user experience, and users are less likely to leave a review in such a case because the app is interrupting the normal user flow.
A better way to request for the review is to wait until the user has accomplished something within your app or completed with his/her intended task.
Prompting for a review when users are feeling good about the application makes it a win-win situation for both the developer as well as the user.
To obtain better app ratings, we need to put the best customer service experiences under the same scrutiny as we would negative experiences. We need to bring the user interface, mechanics, and other background elements to the surface and proactively nudge people to consider their digital customer experience.
If a customer is asked for feedback at the right time and place and then is also shown that the feedback was taken into consideration and incorporated into the application, you can be assured that it is going to translate into stellar ratings and reviews.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Aashish Yadav
Content Writer, Martech Cube
Aashish is currently a Content writer at Martech Cube. He is an enthusiastic and avid writer. His key region of interests include covering different aspects of technology and mixing them up with layman ideologies to pan out an interesting take. His main area of interests range from medical journals to marketing arena.