0 1 00:00:00,480 --> 00:00:00,830 All right. 1 2 00:00:00,840 --> 00:00:05,290 So we all know that ratings and reviews are really important. 2 3 00:00:05,310 --> 00:00:09,120 If I haven't stressed that enough up to now then I'll stress it again. 3 4 00:00:09,120 --> 00:00:14,970 Your ratings and reviews matter a huge deal not only to the users who see it i.e. they see that you've 4 5 00:00:14,970 --> 00:00:19,240 got lots of five star reviews and are probably assured of the quality of the app, 5 6 00:00:19,260 --> 00:00:25,170 but the other part is that the more ratings you get and the more reviews you get, the more visible you 6 7 00:00:25,170 --> 00:00:26,490 are on the App Store. 7 8 00:00:26,640 --> 00:00:30,860 So the more that you will rank for more competitive keywords for example. 8 9 00:00:31,020 --> 00:00:36,510 But one of the things that a lot of app developers do wrong with ratings is their rating prompt. 9 10 00:00:36,570 --> 00:00:41,430 Now if you've been on the app stores for more than a day then you would have seen a rating prompt like 10 11 00:00:41,430 --> 00:00:42,450 one of these. 11 12 00:00:42,510 --> 00:00:45,120 It says "Please rate my app, rate it 12 13 00:00:45,120 --> 00:00:52,320 now, remind me later, or no thanks. And I want to say that this is a really really poor way of implementing 13 14 00:00:52,590 --> 00:00:53,760 a rating prompt. 14 15 00:00:53,760 --> 00:00:56,810 So it is a good idea to have a rating prompt. 15 16 00:00:56,820 --> 00:01:01,470 People have shown again and again that if you don't remind your users, nobody is- 16 17 00:01:01,470 --> 00:01:08,070 very few people will voluntarily go and rate your app unless they really hate it or they really really 17 18 00:01:08,070 --> 00:01:08,770 love it. 18 19 00:01:08,910 --> 00:01:15,630 And the skew is more towards the hating i.e. if they i.e. if they sort of hate your app they will go 19 20 00:01:15,750 --> 00:01:18,160 and rant about it on the App Store. 20 21 00:01:18,180 --> 00:01:23,190 But if they sort of like your app then that's not enough momentum to get them to take action. 21 22 00:01:23,190 --> 00:01:28,680 So basically what I'm saying is that the user has to be infatuated with your app to rate it or they 22 23 00:01:28,680 --> 00:01:30,410 just have to dislike it slightly. 23 24 00:01:30,450 --> 00:01:34,420 But what you want as the app developer is you want more control over this process. 24 25 00:01:34,440 --> 00:01:40,650 You do want to remind them and it's important remember that please don't implement one of these reminders 25 26 00:01:41,010 --> 00:01:43,230 as soon as they download the app. 26 27 00:01:43,230 --> 00:01:48,750 I've seen it time and time again that I download an app and the first thing I see when I open up the 27 28 00:01:48,750 --> 00:01:54,750 app is one of these prompts. If I have not even interacted with your app then it is a) impossible for me 28 29 00:01:54,750 --> 00:01:55,350 to rate it 29 30 00:01:55,430 --> 00:02:02,060 and b) it will probably send me to delete your app straight away because this is really poor user experience. 30 31 00:02:02,130 --> 00:02:06,810 Now instead the way that you should be doing it is very similar to the way that Ember does it. The question 31 32 00:02:06,840 --> 00:02:13,530 that you should be asking your users is "how do you feel about this app?" and from there you'll channel 32 33 00:02:13,530 --> 00:02:20,520 them down a number of paths. If they feel really happy about your app then you should ask them to rave 33 34 00:02:20,520 --> 00:02:25,300 about you rant about you anywhere they like. So tweet about it, Facebook about it, write a review, 34 35 00:02:25,440 --> 00:02:31,320 contact us, do anything you like. But if they are unhappy then the only person that they should be contacting 35 36 00:02:31,320 --> 00:02:33,120 is you, the developer. 36 37 00:02:33,210 --> 00:02:39,270 Because very often when users are upset or when they really don't like an app, the reason is usually 37 38 00:02:39,270 --> 00:02:40,220 technical. 38 39 00:02:40,230 --> 00:02:44,570 It's usually because something crashed or something broke or something didn't work for their particular 39 40 00:02:44,570 --> 00:02:45,130 phone. 40 41 00:02:45,240 --> 00:02:50,610 And this is a conversation I believe that should take place between the user and the developer in order 41 42 00:02:50,610 --> 00:02:54,420 to resolve what the issues are, in order to make their experience better. 42 43 00:02:54,420 --> 00:03:00,150 So personally I always take these emails really seriously. When I use a tells me that there's an issue 43 44 00:03:00,150 --> 00:03:02,170 that they've encountered with their app, 44 45 00:03:02,190 --> 00:03:06,710 I will tell them that I'm on it straight away and I will try and fix it as soon as I can. 45 46 00:03:06,720 --> 00:03:11,480 And once I have and uploaded the updated version, I will email them to let them know 46 47 00:03:11,480 --> 00:03:15,390 again. This is just a basic way of keeping in touch with your users. 47 48 00:03:15,390 --> 00:03:19,930 Very often you can actually convert an angry mob into diehard fans by doing this. 48 49 00:03:19,950 --> 00:03:26,070 So it's really worth giving users that ability to contact you and to resolve these situations. 49 50 00:03:26,070 --> 00:03:31,260 It's only when that channel doesn't exist do people feel the need to go into the app store and rant 50 51 00:03:31,260 --> 00:03:37,810 about how bad or terrible your app is. Now having that in a public forum, it does nobody any good. 51 52 00:03:37,830 --> 00:03:42,420 It doesn't help you as the app developer, it doesn't motivate you but instead brings you a lot of grief 52 53 00:03:42,510 --> 00:03:44,910 and also reduce credibility on the App Store. 53 54 00:03:44,940 --> 00:03:50,790 So when you're implementing your ratings prompt, consider asking the user about how they feel. 54 55 00:03:50,850 --> 00:03:56,070 And the third option is of course to target the confused users, the ones who didn't really get how the 55 56 00:03:56,070 --> 00:04:01,170 app works in which case you can take them back to the onboarding or getting started guide. Or they can 56 57 00:04:01,170 --> 00:04:03,740 just contact you with their particular queries. 57 58 00:04:03,930 --> 00:04:09,680 So always be available for your users and try to differentiate the happy users from the unhappy users.