How To Avoid Bad Mobile App Reviews In The App Stores

August 17, 2014

Every app developer or app entrepreneur wants to avoid bad reviews of their apps in the app stores. A user may give your app a bad review, leave, and forget about your app. But this bad review will damage your app’s reputation for the lifetime of your app, doing its part to discourage new people from downloading your app. So any bad review you can avoid will translate directly to you getting more downloads, and generating more revenue from the maximum potential downloads.

Of course, it isn’t possible to avoid 100% of the bad reviews that may come your way, but you can avoid a very large portion of the potential 1-star and 2-star reviews that you may potentially get by following a few simple strategies.

The first and most obvious strategy is simply to make sure that you have a good app. I realize that this goes without saying, but mobile app users tend to be especially finicky. They expect even free apps to function perfectly. If your app isn’t useful, or if it crashes too frequently for their liking, they may give your app a bad review. So put a lot of focus on ensuring that your app satisfies your customers above and beyond their expectations.

I tell entrepreneurs to make sure that their app is as good as it can possibly be, without crashes and with good usability. But it is easier said than done. Many apps that are made by new app entrepreneurs whom I coach in my coaching practice aren’t as good as users need. First-time entrepreneurs especially need to have this point emphasized many times. Product quality is one of your most important marketing tools. If it is good, people will recommend your app to friends, and leave good reviews. But if they don’t like the app, they won’t recommend it to friends, and leave bad reviews, which will discourage future potential users from downloading your app.

Once you are certain that your users love your app, and that all the major bugs are fixed, you can focus on other tactics that will help you decrease your bad reviews. The first such tactic, since you will never fix all the bugs in your app, is to add your tech support email address to the description of your app. I like to leave it as the last line in my app’s description in the GooglePlay and Apple App Store. Some of the people who experience technical problems with your app will see your tech support email address as they try to leave a bad review in the app store, and email you for help instead of simply giving your app a bad review and disappearing.

Another strategy to make sure that you minimize your bad reviews is to ask for reviews in parts of your app that are less prone to bugs and where you are certain that your users will be happy with your app. In the case of my business plan app, for example, I added content articles which are tutorials for how to write a business plan. These articles are helpful, and are not prone to bugs since it is just content and not a tool where bugs can creep in. Conversely, I deliberately did not place any calls to action for users to add reviews of the app in the actual business planning part of the app because if the users disliked the usability, or the server was down, they may leave bad reviews. I just didn’t risk asking for reviews there.

Another strategy to minimize bad reviews may be one that you find surprising. Whenever you or your business interact with anyone online, make sure you come across as positive and non-controversial. You never know who you might anger online. And if you get into an argument with the wrong person, and they decide to slander your work, your app will pay the price.

Another strategy to minimize bad reviews is to not put too many ads on your app, and to upsell anything in a non-pushy way as much as possible. If your users take offense at your ads or overly ambitious promotion of anything else, they may leave a bad review in the app store. This point goes hand in hand with making sure that your app is not overpriced for the perceived value that the user thinks they are getting. If they think they paid too much, they may leave a bad review.

Mobile App Marketing Book And Course

This tutorial is just one section of my mobile app marketing book. Check it out on Amazon. It is available on the Kindle which means that you can read it on the Kindle app of any smart phone. Or take my mobile app business course on Udemy.

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