You will definitely start to notice this thing that, negative reviews and ratings hurt your app more than the positive ones benefit you, when you start focusing on your app reviews. Hence, preventing the negative reviews is as important as getting more positive reviews.

App developers get worried about the fact that getting bad app reviews would destroy their reputation. Though this is absolutely true without any second opinion, but you must have heard of the phrase ‘Precaution is better than cure.’ Considering the fact, preventing the bad reviews is better than addressing them afterwards, and it can be achieved in a number of ways, which is going to be shared with you, so just stay tuned.

Ways to Prevent Negative App Reviews

If you are looking to  combat bad app reviews and  increase positive reviews simultaneously, the below mentioned are some basic things to keep in mind, which can really boost your efforts.

1. Understanding And Setting Correct User Expectations

With experience you will realize that, if you set the right upfront expectations, your users will surely give you some leniency and freedom even in few cases of bad service. Most of the professional app development companies consider this fact while developing any application for their clients.

Taking an example, if you are a cab services provider, you can face lots of negative reviews due to late arrivals of drivers during traffic or rain. You tried to work things out, but that didn’t work. Finally, your implemented this scenario in your app where your inform your users that there might be delays because of peak traffic hours or rain, prior to the booking.

Already knowing this, if users still opt for your service, they are giving your enough leverage, just because they need and trust your service. This simple trick can make your trusted users to not rate and review you negatively, and results in better user satisfaction.

Few things that can help:

• Push notifications;
• In-app messages;
• Proper feature descriptions;
• Catchy and defining images and videos on the app stores.

2. Address Reviews Instantly

The annoyed users feel relieved if their feedback is taken seriously and some action has been taken on it. Respond to the negative reviews, assuring the users that you are concerned, and ensuring that some action is taken on it, works like magic to retain the users.

It is difficult for this to work, if you respond to the review after a day or two. The user had already deleted and forgotten your app by that time. There should be a dedicated person for this job who keeps track of these negative reviews.

Alternatively, you can set alerts through iTunes’ or Google (News - Alert) Play’s developer console, or you go for a third-party service to send you the email alerts regarding negative reviews and low ratings. You can then address the users’ concern through email or replying back on the app stores. You will see that many users change their ratings and reviews after seeing instant action taken from your side.

Few things that can help:

• Alerts through Google Play and iTunes developer console;
• Third party services like AppBot;
• Address users with a formal apology;
• Try not to be defensive and accept mistakes;
• Notify users when issue is resolved.

3. Continuous App Testing

You might be having great developers and testers in your team, but there always are a few bugs that come out only when you app is launched for mass use. So, make your family, friends, peers or people from different teams in the organization, to test the new updated app and features before it goes live.

Along with that, Google allows you invite and build your testing community among your users and enable you to release a beta version of your app update, for your testing community to test it before the big launch.

Launched the Beta version of your app among your testing community helps you out with genuine feedback, and user adaptability. There are helpful people among your users who will provide you with authentic feedback and every one of it counts.

This staggered release to a smaller segment helps you to find out issues and bugs that your developers and testing team couldn’t and lets you fix them before releasing the app for everyone. Also make the users who gave negative reviews to be the part of your testing community. This can make them feel that you care.

Few things that can help:

• Incentivize your beta testers if they find out some major bug;
• Update the users that their testing results have been noted and worked upon;
• Make the process smooth;
• Keep communicating to your testers.

4. Mobile App Review Sites

Whenever users download any app, they usually check the average rating and read existing user reviews, and gives them the same importance as a friend’s opinion. This largely influences the users’ downloading decision. Also imagine, if this is the case of free applications, what would be with the paid apps.

The best mobile app review sites provides the solution to this problem. You can partner with some of the best app review sites, and ask them to review your app and communicate that to your desired audience. The idea of partnering with the app review sites is not to make you buy mobile app reviews, but to utilize this promotional service to reach your users.

The best app review sites help you in improving your store search rankings, app store optimization, more downloads, positive reviews, and cater to the negative ones. Along with this, you also need to make sure that your app is worth your users time, else nothing will work and you will end up with lower rating and more negative reviews

Few things that can help:

• Targeting some of the best app review sites;
• Making your app worth reviewing, as the famous review sites don’t publish reviews for every other app;
• Buy mobile app reviews according to your budget;
• Make them understand whatever you want to communicate to your audience.

5. Provide Users An Easy Way To Approach You

Users usually go to the app store and leave their comments there when they are frustrated with your service, want to release their frustration, make their voice heard, unable to find an easy way to reach you with their issues. Even though, they have to take the additional steps to go to the play store to write a review, but they still do it. There’s some strong reason behind that frustration.

If you provide them a convenient way to reach you, and release their frustration within the app and give them a timely response, they need not go to the app store. This is where in-app support comes into play.

If your users are able to communicate their issues within the app, in a convenient way and even get responded, this gets reflected with reduced number of negative reviews in the app store. If you have hired an app development company to get your app developed, communicate this concern with them and ask for in-app support feature.

Few things that can help:

• Implementation of third party SDKs in the app like, Helpshift;
• Using open source solutions like, Helpstack;
• Customer call and email support;
• Communication of resolved issues;
• Incentivize the frustrated users.

Conclusion

Ultimately, negative reviews largely impact your app’s search discovery and ASO in the app store. But if you create an app which solves some of your users’ problems, and keep users happy, you can easily avoid the negative reviews and get more positive reviews, which makes you one step ahead of your rivals.

The preventative measures we have discussed above, help you move forward in a positive and progressive direction, but this list is not exhaustive. There are multiple other ways to tackle negative reviews, but keeping the basic things in mind is a decent start to flip those negative reviews into positive ones.