{"id":18246,"date":"2022-01-03T10:02:26","date_gmt":"2022-01-03T09:02:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.smartrace.de\/das-frustrierende-an-1-sterne-bewertungen-im-apple-app-store\/"},"modified":"2022-01-03T10:12:25","modified_gmt":"2022-01-03T09:12:25","slug":"das-frustrierende-an-1-sterne-bewertungen-im-apple-app-store","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smartrace.de\/en\/das-frustrierende-an-1-sterne-bewertungen-im-apple-app-store\/","title":{"rendered":"The frustrating thing about 1-star ratings in the Apple App Store"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Bad reviews are a thorn in the side of any halfway dedicated app vendor for a variety of reasons. Not only are they bad for the image of the app (and the developer), but they also cause a lot of frustration. Often, users don’t rate 1-star for objective reasons, but out of pure annoyance and frustration. In many cases, the problem would be quickly resolved – if you as a developer had a halfway meaningful way to communicate with users. But that is where the problem lies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the way: Bad ratings are an opportunity<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

First of all, you should always check whether the criticism of the user, who has rated with one or two stars, is justified. It helps to remain objective and put yourself in the user’s position. What is the user criticizing? Does his criticism indicate a fundamental problem with the app? Does the usability of the app need to be improved in order to better meet the needs of non-savvy users? Is the interface too complicated? Criticism is always an opportunity to address areas for improvement and to develop further. That’s why you should never just shoot back, but patiently read, understand, and react.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rating system on Google Play<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Google has long since found a solid and user-friendly solution with regard to app reviews. Users submit a rating (called a “review” if it contains text) and the developer is immediately (and I really mean immediately, which is usually within a few seconds) informed by mail (if configured). The mail contains all the info the developer needs to respond. If the developer responds to the review, the user in turn immediately (see above) receives a mail (and\/or a push notification) informing him about it. This is often a quick and easy way to get in touch and get issues out of the way. This has worked very well for SmartRace in the past, the vast majority of frustration ratings could be clarified in personal contact and quite a few users did not just delete the rating afterwards, but changed it to 4 or 5 stars. The situation is different with Apple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rating system in the Apple App Store<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

For a long time, developers could not respond to user reviews at all. During this time, the motto was simply: ignore all reviews, you can’t do anything about it anyway. Since 2017, however, you can respond. And that looks like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n