4 Tips For Managing App Store Ratings And Reviews

Oct 6, 2022 7 min read

The success of your app heavily depends on the ratings and reviews in the App Store. The better your app ratings and reviews, the more likely it is to be displayed in the App Store and get downloaded (in the best case).

Apps with several ratings in a short time are listed in the Trending Searches. At the same time, apps with poor ratings in the App Store have a tough time attracting users and generating downloads.

When your app faces lots of competition in the App Store, every tiny aspect can make a difference in driving the attention of potential new users. Ratings and reviews are some of the most crucial factors in app discoverability and user acquisition. Hence, managing them constantly becomes of utmost importance.

So today, we will discuss the top 4 tips you can use to manage your App Store ratings and reviews efficiently. Before that, let's look into why App Store ratings and reviews are essential. Let's start!

Table Of Contents:

You can directly jump to a section of your choice or keep scrolling.

Why App Store Ratings And Reviews Are Important?

Why App Store Ratings And Reviews Are Important Infographic

They Increase the Odds Of Your App Being Found

With high App Store ratings, your ideal users will easily find your app in the App Store's search.

The App Store takes ratings and reviews very seriously. It indexes the keywords and phrases that users use to discover a particular app. Then it utilizes those specific keywords and phrases to catalog and rank that particular app in the App Store.

A TechCrunch report reveals that 47% of iOS mobile users discover apps through the App Store's search. That means approximately half the apps in the App Store are found through search. So, it's right to say that your app ratings and reviews play a critical role in app discovery in the App Store.

They Influence App Downloads

59% of users check app ratings before making a download.

You can have the best-designed app in the world, but you won't make a dime if no one downloads it.

Users are more likely to download apps with hundreds and thousands of positive and good reviews in the App Store. Therefore, you should focus on managing reviews and ratings of your app in the App Store.

With a high rating and good reviews, your app will easily stand out from the competition, making it easy for your audience to find and download.

They Influence Your Users' Decision to Use Your App

Did you know that the average user has almost 80 apps installed on their mobile device but uses less than half of them each month? So, what influences a user's decision to use an app?

One thing that determines whether users will use your app after downloading is your app ratings and reviews. And not just any ratings and reviews, but high ratings and good reviews.

Users browsing through the App Store will check your app and use past user's experiences to decide whether to use your app after downloading it or not.

4 Tips For Managing App Store Ratings And Reviews

Tips For Managing App Store Ratings And Reviews Infographic

Monitor Reviews And Responses Using A Review Management Tool

It's always important to track your actions and monitor their outcomes. And this goes without saying for responding to App Store reviews too.

By setting a filter on App Store Connect, you will only see reviews that were changed after you responded to them.

In case you get lots of reviews, and you cannot handle all of them manually, consider using a review management tool like Statusbrew. It allows you to filter and monitor reviews much more effectively.

Here's how Statusbrew can help you to improve your App Store ratings and reviews:

  • Get back to your customers quickly by getting notified of all reviews.
  • Understand your customer's emotions at a scale using AI-powered sentiment analysis.
  • Auto-assign reviews to specific team members for quick response.
  • Automatically route reviews to a particular inbox/team member.
  • Collaborate with your team members in real-time to handle customer queries quickly.
  • Keep track of customers posting reviews across platforms using inbuilt CRM.
  • Auto-hide spam and troll comments across your social real estate.
  • Mitigate compliance issues using no password sharing and controlled team member access.
  • Get in-depth brand reputation insights.

Book a free demo today and see for yourself?

Try Statusbrew

Respond To Every App Store Review

Every rating and review (unless they are fake reviews) deserves a response.

But negative reviews and comments deserve special attention. Work on the complaints to resolve the customer's problems. They may change the rating at their own accord afterward.

At the same time, every user leaving a positive review or comment deserves a thank you and appreciation. Any review (positive or negative) can pinpoint areas of improvement. So you should be open to taking feedback if you want to improve your App Store ratings and reviews.

Overall, the responsiveness of your brand communicates care. Customers want to feel heard. And hence they appreciate it when their problems are solved quickly. So, listen to your audience through reviews and ratings and make them feel their opinions count.

Bonus Content: How To Outsmart Fake Negative Reviews On Google My Business

Track Your App Store Ratings

If you track your ratings, you can see which updates improved your app ratings and which impacted them negatively. Tracking rating lets you pinpoint exactly what new features your users best respond. As a result, you will be able to reproduce the positive effects more quickly in the future to improve your app usage.

Optimize Your Response Process

As your customer base grows, so will the number of ratings and reviews your app gets. The more reviews and feedback you get, the more often you will see similar kinds of questions and complaints arising.

To reduce the time and work it takes to answer, you should set up a response kit. Draft sample responses for the most common kinds of customer complaints that you receive over and over again and use them to compose your future responses.

Here's a list of the most common topics you should have a template for:

  • When refunds are late
  • When you are not able to offer an instant solution
  • Complaints about poor customer service
  • When a customer asks for offers or discounts after the sale has ended
  • When the customer's needs are not accurately defined
  • Repeated complaints from the same customer
  • Responding with an update after the issue has been resolved
  • Thanking a customer for positive feedback
  • For product quality issues
  • For technical issues
  • When you are not able to assist through App Store
  • When customers complaints about pricing being too high
  • When a customer asks you to violate the company's rules
  • When customers compare you with your competitors
  • For impatient customers
  • Inquiry for internship or jobs
  • Ending the matter gracefully
  • When you receive follow-up requests
  • When a customer has made a double payment
  • When you don't offer their preferred mode of payment
  • Transferring the issue to the concerned department
  • When you need a customer to make an additional payment to activate additional features
  • Conveying the discontinuation of a feature in your app
  • When you can't resolve the issue at all
  • When you want to direct customers to your FAQ section
  • When customers share their suggestions

Want the exact scripts for these use cases? Check out our blog on 30 social media customer service scripts for businesses [Quick reply templates].

Manage Your App Store Reviews And Boost Ratings!

Ratings and reviews are essential to the success of your app in the App Store. They greatly influence users' decision-making to download and use your app. Bad average ratings can disqualify your app from several users. Therefore you must try to convert as many bad reviews as possible into positive ratings.

But taking negative feedback as a source of information is even more important. Use criticism wisely to make your app a better product. Monitoring feedback constantly and actively is becoming a must for the success of apps. If monitoring reviews manually is insurmountable, you can use online reputation management tools for automatic replies.

Statusbrew is one such reputation management tool that allows you to track, analyze, and manage your ratings and reviews not just from App Store and Google Play Store but also from other review sites like Google My Business, Trip Advisor, TrustRadius, Yelp, and more from a single dashboard.

Statusbrew allows you to reply to reviews with pre-made reply templates to make the reply process easier and more efficient. You can save time and build a strong brand voice using reply templates.

Sign up for a free demo with Statusbrew today to learn how we can help! ?

Try Statusbrew

Statusbrew is an all-in-one social media management tool that supports Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and even Google My Business.

FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

Here are some commonly asked questions on managing App Store ratings and reviews:

Can you reset the App Store ratings?

Yes, you can reset App Store ratings when you release a new version of your app.

How do you find ratings on the App Store?

Your app's summary rating is displayed on your product page and in search results. It is also specific to each territory (a geographical location in which the App Store is available) on the App Store.

What are the best App Store Optimization (ASO) tools to manage reviews?

Statusbrew is one of the top ASO tools for managing reviews. Statusbrew allows you to manage both positive and negative reviews along with your team members. It even provides in-depth brand reputation insights that help you understand where exactly you need improvements.

Rushali Das

Rushali is a content writer at Statusbrew. She is fond of writing content that compels people to slow down and look more closely to discover the unknown stories.

Explore the Statusbrew range of social media tools

Cancel anytime!