1. Engaging Mobile Customers for Better Ratings and
Reviews on Mobile Apps
Mobile Application developers want great ratings in the app store because they are
interpreted as an indicator of quality. Data from a report titled Examining the Relationship
between Reviews and Sales by researchers form NYU and the Georgia Institute of Technology
suggests that this is of particular value for things that are difficult for mobile consumers to
evaluate prior to purchase, such as books, movies, and apps. The higher the rating of a
mobile application, the more likely you are to pique the interest of potential customers.

2. It is natural then to ask, “How can we get better ratings for our custom mobile application?”
and, “How do we get better reviews?” But those are the wrong questions. Instead, the
questions you should ask are:
How do we create a great experience so people will love our iphone mobile app?
How can we engage with our customers, so the ones who love our android mobile
application or blackberry application will write a review?
It’s not about you: it’s about the customers
The ratings and reviews in the app store are not for you, the iphone app developer. They are
for your customers. Ratings and reviews can help you identify what customers like or dislike
about your iphone application, but their primary purpose is to act as guideposts saying, “This
will make your life better,” or warning, “Danger, thar be dragons.”

3. An e-mail to all your customers asking them to rate your iphone app, android app, blackberry
app, windows mobile app or code in your app to ask for a rating after a certain numbers of
uses are both legitimate techniques for soliciting feedback, but they put the focus on
you, the developer, not on the customer. As we like to say, “If you’re trying to get ratings just
to get more ratings, you’re doing it wrong.” Nothing about these techniques makes life better
for your customers. The key to better reviews is to identify the customers who love your
app, and encouraging them to talk about it. And one way to do that is to engage with your
customers.
Listening and acting
Customers today have a different set of expectations. Simply being able to fill out a “Contact
Us” form and have your question disappear into the ether is not enough. In these days of
instant downloads, 24-hour service hotlines, customers expect to be heard when they speak
up. You need to provide an easy way for customers to give feedback, you need to listen, and
you need to respond.

4. Listening is important because your custom mobile app might make sense to you, but it
doesn’t always make sense to your customers. In a recent blog post, Seth Godin suggests
that the biggest customer question is, “Why isn’t this as important to you as it is to me?”
Find out what your customers expect, what is confusing, and identify what you can work
on. Listening sends two powerful messages. First, you are telling your customers that you
care enough about their opinion to give them the tools to express it in a quick and easy
manner. Second, you are telling your customers that you trust them enough to give you
real and honest feedback on your application.
Responding is also important. For positive comments, taking the time to say “Thank you,”
tells your customers that there are real people behind the app. Negative feedback
provides an opportunity to make your product better. Acknowledge the user’s
frustration, diffuse the tension, apologize, and if feasible, make it right. Fix that bug. Show
that you care about creating a great experience for all of your customers. Give them
reasons to stick around, to trust you, to understand why your app works the way that it
does.

5. Get more reviews
A quick search of the app developer discussion boards will show that the ratio of app
downloads to app reviews varies greatly, with the numbers ranging from one in one
hundred to one in five hundred. When you listen to feedback and respond, good things
can happen: more feedback, better ratings, more honest input, and a significant number of
customer relationships that are spawned through simple conversation. And you will know
which users are engaged with your app.
Research at George Washington University and University of Texas Austin suggests that
the number of reviews also matter. More reviews encourage more sales. There might be
many users out there who love your app, who aren’t necessarily thinking, “I need to go
write a review.” So ask them to.
In the end, you will have better ratings and more positive reviews. What is more important,
though, is that you have created a connection with your customers. By asking for
feedback, by listening, by responding, and by encouraging them to rate your app, you will
have relationships with engaged customers who love your product and who want to talk
about it.

6. Located in Toronto, Palo Alto, and New York City, Xtreme Labs is a leading mobile product
development company that deals in iphone app development, android application
development, blackberry applications development, custom application development, ios
app development, ipad application development, windows mobile development and mobile
application development. They have a proven track record of success in delivering
innovative solutions across hundreds of global products. As experts in mobile agile
development, Xtreme Labs works with the world's leading companies to plan and execute
their mobile strategy.
For more information visit http://www.xtremelabs.com