0:00:00welcome to under the radar a show about
0:00:01independent iOS app development I'm
0:00:03Marco Arment and I'm David Smith under
0:00:06the radar it's never longer than 30
0:00:07minutes so let's get started so we
0:00:10finally have the ability to respond to
0:00:12reviews in the App Store yeah waiting
0:00:15for this for a while we probably thought
0:00:17it would never come it was announced
0:00:18what about two months ago or something
0:00:20like that now we finally have it the way
0:00:22the implement of this system is actually
0:00:24pretty good you know it's pretty much
0:00:25what you would hope it would be in that
0:00:28when you respond to a review Apple
0:00:31notifies the user with an email and says
0:00:33hey the developer responded with this
0:00:35would you know click here if you'd like
0:00:36to update your review and the person you
0:00:39know so it's actually like it's a it's a
0:00:41pretty nice system all the reviews are
0:00:43in iTunes Connect you can you can you
0:00:44know you can browse all the all the
0:00:46regions and everything so I think they
0:00:49did a pretty good job with it and now
0:00:51it's I think the interesting part to
0:00:53discuss today is now that we have this
0:00:56system as developers what are the best
0:00:59ways we can actually use it you know
0:01:00what should we do what shouldn't we do
0:01:02what are the risks what's what's worth
0:01:04doing and I think there's there's a good
0:01:08approximately 30 minute discussion to be
0:01:09had there or do you think I think so
0:01:11yeah
0:01:12and it's I think I would think I would
0:01:15absolutely agree with that I'm very glad
0:01:16they've done this and I think the way
0:01:18they did it works well that's you know
0:01:22it's early days still but it seems like
0:01:24it wasn't one of these things where you
0:01:26know we finally got what we were asking
0:01:27for but they did it in a way that was
0:01:28awkward or cumbersome or annoying for
0:01:30the most part like the interface and
0:01:32iTunes Connect so if you just as a in
0:01:35case your you kind of find this and you
0:01:37haven't if you go to a particular app
0:01:39you go to the activity tab and then you
0:01:41go to ratings interviews which is an
0:01:43area that has actually always been there
0:01:44or spin it for a very long time but now
0:01:47suddenly there's a reply button at the
0:01:49side of each review as well as a whole
0:01:52lot of really good filters that you can
0:01:54apply to it so you can see all your
0:01:55reviews you can see reviews that you've
0:01:57responded to reviews that you haven't
0:01:59responded to reviews that were changed
0:02:01as a result or after you responded to
0:02:04them which is also really helpful thing
0:02:06so you can get a sense of if it's
0:02:07actually working as well as filtering
0:02:09you know by different versions of the
0:02:11app or different you know
0:02:12how critical they are like if you want
0:02:14to see all your one-star reviews your
0:02:15five-star reviews it's really good solid
0:02:18like it like you would hope interface
0:02:20and I mean the only slight Neagle I have
0:02:22about it which is only really applies to
0:02:24me because I have so many apps is that I
0:02:26have to go through each app individually
0:02:28to check on the new reviews rather than
0:02:31there being a consolidated interface for
0:02:33it but that's just because I'm strange
0:02:34and have dozens of apps but otherwise
0:02:37it's it's a you know overall
0:02:39mechanically is really nice and they
0:02:41show up pretty well in the in the App
0:02:42Store I always kind of wonder how many
0:02:45people actually read the reviews in the
0:02:47App Store versus just looking at the
0:02:49star rating but you know it shows up
0:02:50that it truncates the review you
0:02:53responded to like it always does at
0:02:55about three lines and then below it it
0:02:57just says like develop a response and
0:02:58you know your response shows up right
0:03:01below there and this probably actually
0:03:04were a little pro tip that I thought of
0:03:06when I started doing my reviews response
0:03:08that it makes I think once I thought it
0:03:11was like oh of course that's where I
0:03:13should start
0:03:13because right now you probably have an
0:03:16app with you know if your fin app of any
0:03:18volume you have you know maybe a
0:03:19hundreds of reviews to look at it's like
0:03:21which one should I start looking at for
0:03:23responses and I'd the first thing I did
0:03:25is just opened the App Store go over to
0:03:28the reviews tab and see which are the
0:03:29first ones to show up in that list
0:03:31exactly because that is by far the most
0:03:35likely reviews that anyone is ever going
0:03:36to read you know it's very unlikely that
0:03:39people are going to be paging through
0:03:41all the way to the bottom of that list
0:03:43like maybe but that remembers especially
0:03:45that number one review below your star
0:03:48rating make sure that there's a good
0:03:51response to that because often that
0:03:52Ravech can often also be slightly
0:03:55critical because I think the sorting of
0:03:58that list is not chronological I think
0:04:00it's it's most helpful yeah but it's
0:04:03kind of vague like I don't I don't think
0:04:04that's purely based on like the number
0:04:06of like up votes and down votes and like
0:04:07the-- was this helpful thing I don't
0:04:09think it's only that I think there's
0:04:10other factors it's hard to tell but if
0:04:13you leave the sorting in iTunes Connect
0:04:15at the default that it loads up with
0:04:17it's that sorting so and you can always
0:04:19you know go on your phone and look at
0:04:20the app sort of to just verify that
0:04:22that's still the way it's sorted but
0:04:24yeah that because like I feel like you
0:04:26have to
0:04:26decide as you know as a way to spend
0:04:30your time and as a way to to take the
0:04:32risks which we'll talk about of this
0:04:33system you have to decide like are you
0:04:35mostly doing it to address that
0:04:38particular reviewer and to talk to them
0:04:41directly or are you mostly doing it to
0:04:44show other people who are reading the
0:04:46reviews you know your point of view on
0:04:49it or to correct falsehoods or to appear
0:04:52to be caring about your customers or
0:04:54things like that so if you're mostly
0:04:55responding to reviews like to the public
0:04:58basically in that in that latter way
0:05:00rather than to the individual reviewers
0:05:02then it makes sense to really only spend
0:05:05your time addressing a few of the top
0:05:08ones in each region because again as you
0:05:10said like they're they're probably most
0:05:12people are not going to be paging
0:05:14through you know 200 reviews of an app
0:05:16like that's you know if you're lucky
0:05:17enough to have that many it it's it's
0:05:20gonna be the top handful at most and
0:05:23after that it's severely diminishing
0:05:25returns so it doesn't make sense to
0:05:28spend a ton of time responding to every
0:05:31single review from you know the last
0:05:33four years or whatever because most
0:05:36people are never gonna see that yeah and
0:05:38I think - it's my the perspective that I
0:05:40take with these things is that these are
0:05:43marketing statements first and foremost
0:05:45they can be helpful to the person that
0:05:49I'm responding to but because this is a
0:05:52public facing this is text that is
0:05:56public facing that is on least on the
0:05:58app store page for my app which is like
0:06:01where I put all of my other marketing
0:06:02copy like it is important that I that
0:06:04these are written in such a way that
0:06:06they are you know useful and helpful to
0:06:10anybody who's trying to think about if
0:06:12they want to download my app and so
0:06:14which essentially becomes marketing and
0:06:16you can still you know write them to the
0:06:18person you just not like this has to be
0:06:20some kind of stilted a PR speak type of
0:06:23response but it's in the back of your
0:06:26mind when you're writing these reviews
0:06:27it's you know how would I write this I'm
0:06:30less writing this to this one person and
0:06:33then I am to the hopefully hundreds or
0:06:36thousands of people who might read this
0:06:37when they're browsing the city of the
0:06:39app
0:06:40because the strange thing with reviews
0:06:41is they're very like point in time you
0:06:44know someone the Kino came you know it's
0:06:47a say that you have the classic kind of
0:06:49like the one star it's like I hated this
0:06:52app it was always useless I deleted it
0:06:55right away and they leave that as a
0:06:56review well that user is unlikely to
0:06:59come back they've deleted the app like
0:07:01you're kind of done with them you can
0:07:04still usefully write a response to that
0:07:06where you might show interest in terms
0:07:08of saying I'm so sorry you had a bad
0:07:10experience if you have any problem if
0:07:12you have specific concerns or complaints
0:07:13you know by all means email me here's my
0:07:16support address or something like that
0:07:18which is a marketing message that I'm
0:07:21engaged I'm interested I care about my
0:07:23users even if this one person had a bad
0:07:25experience which can be useful or
0:07:27someone who you know I wish it did X it
0:07:30doesn't one star and you can respond to
0:07:32the person say hey actually it does or
0:07:34that's great that's a great suggestion
0:07:35we'll see if we can work that into a
0:07:37future update maybe but whatever that is
0:07:39you're writing these with the
0:07:41expectation of you know someone is
0:07:43opening the App Store they're going to
0:07:45reviews they're reading these reviews
0:07:46especially if they're reading a negative
0:07:48review it's having a slight counterpoint
0:07:51that's right below it something that
0:07:52they can at least see a response to so
0:07:55it doesn't just stand there on its own
0:07:57as as a negative message in deciding
0:08:01which ones to respond to I've seen a lot
0:08:04of developers talk about you know on
0:08:06Twitter or on different podcasts I've
0:08:08seen a lot of people mention like the
0:08:09idea of well I don't want to like set
0:08:11the wrong expectations of my customers
0:08:13or like train people to expect certain
0:08:15things will always get responses or
0:08:17won't always get responses or whatever
0:08:19else or you know one thing you think
0:08:20about is like if you respond to every
0:08:23review that might create an incentive
0:08:25for people to one-star review you to
0:08:27just get it get your attention
0:08:28and because they know you're listening I
0:08:30think this these are all wonderful
0:08:32concepts but I think in reality this is
0:08:35out of our control because the reality
0:08:37is whatever standards that people will
0:08:40expect whatever whether people will will
0:08:43expect reviews or will expect responses
0:08:45to their reviews or not whether they
0:08:47will you know think that that reviewing
0:08:50your app or especially one star on your
0:08:52app will get your attention
0:08:54that will be decided globally like among
0:08:57the entire app store and just the people
0:09:00using it like their thoughts and you
0:09:02know the kind of norms and culture that
0:09:04comes around that whatever you do with
0:09:07your individual app is not going to
0:09:08affect that at all like it like whatever
0:09:10people will come to expect with whether
0:09:13they get responses or not and whether
0:09:14it's worth one starring and yelling at
0:09:16people or not that that's out of our
0:09:18hands that's being decided it's already
0:09:20been decided like it's that that battle
0:09:23is over people already we're using
0:09:25reviews you know angry one-star reviews
0:09:27to try to get our attention they already
0:09:29do the thing right they hold the star
0:09:30hostage and can leave it if you're lucky
0:09:32if they only hold one star hostage like
0:09:34you know that's that's out of our hands
0:09:37and so whether whether or not you
0:09:39respond to your reviews or how many of
0:09:42your reviews you respond to has nothing
0:09:45to do with what your customers expect
0:09:46from you and you are not setting their
0:09:49expectations or setting their incentives
0:09:50the entire app store is so you you
0:09:53should probably just go along with what
0:09:55people will expect to happen regardless
0:09:58of what that is yeah and I think too
0:10:00it's also important to keep in mind how
0:10:04small a proportion of your user base you
0:10:08were talking about here yeah like it is
0:10:11easy I think we can this is a part of
0:10:13why when I say like I think this is
0:10:15first and foremost a marketing thing and
0:10:17why I was really hopeful that one day we
0:10:19would be able to respond to reviews is a
0:10:21very small percentage of your users can
0:10:24have a disproportionate impact on your
0:10:28appearance in the app store you know in
0:10:31terms of I I have actually looked at
0:10:34what the numbers are but I imagine it's
0:10:35you know at least hundreds if not
0:10:38thousands to one for people who actually
0:10:41leave a review in the App Store and
0:10:42amongst those the vast majority leave
0:10:46just star ratings rather than words
0:10:49so you're ending up with you know a
0:10:51fraction of a percentage probably of
0:10:53your users that are leaving these
0:10:55leaving these written reviews that get
0:10:57responses and you know the vast majority
0:11:00of my support like my actual customer
0:11:02support is going to come through the
0:11:05support links and things within the apps
0:11:07itself
0:11:07they're not going to be coming through
0:11:09the app store and it's like my goal is
0:11:10in a weird way with the fees it's like
0:11:14they're it's like it's it's damage
0:11:15control in some ways because if someone
0:11:17writes a glowing review five stars this
0:11:19is awesome like there's nothing really
0:11:20for me to do and like at throwing in it
0:11:22like thinks that's awesome like that
0:11:25feels a little weird and like empty if
0:11:28there's a five-star review that has a
0:11:29question in it answering the question
0:11:31maybe make sense you know but mostly
0:11:33what this is it's a tool for me to clear
0:11:35up misunderstandings or clear up issues
0:11:39where you know somebody is just saying
0:11:43something that's untrue or you know like
0:11:45they're missing the point or they didn't
0:11:46find the feature like it's a way for me
0:11:48to communicate not to that person I mean
0:11:50I want to tell that person but like
0:11:52that's one person out of you know out of
0:11:54thousands that I can hopefully help
0:11:56which is you know nice but it's not
0:11:58nearly as impactful as the you know
0:12:01hopefully hundreds or thousands of
0:12:02people who will come to your app store
0:12:04page and you can communicate to them
0:12:05whatever that message is and so don't
0:12:08get too stuck either on like the you
0:12:12know it's like training this individual
0:12:14person like it's such a small proportion
0:12:16of your actual users that it probably
0:12:19matters less there you know and if
0:12:20anything it's like if you want to train
0:12:22your users to get in contact with you
0:12:24and they have problems or wherever that
0:12:25is it's like be responsive to your email
0:12:27I suppose like and make that a place
0:12:30that people can feel like they can vent
0:12:31their you know their unease or problems
0:12:35they have in the app but like yeah don't
0:12:37wouldn't get too wrapped around the axle
0:12:38about like oh it's like it's you know
0:12:40trying to be clever about this it's like
0:12:42no just look at your reviews and see
0:12:44which ones you can add value to in
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0:14:49this show and everything i host on the
0:14:51internet so I think it probably makes
0:14:54sense now to dive into just a little bit
0:14:56of the kind of what are the good 1 good
0:14:58reviews to respond to and we sure you
0:15:01know ones that we should just let be and
0:15:04like the first ones that come to mind on
0:15:05the let it go side of things is being
0:15:09very careful to get sucked into like I
0:15:14don't know like snarkiness or people who
0:15:17are just like there's sometimes you just
0:15:18people just like writing reviews that
0:15:20are mean or angry or aren't really on
0:15:24topic and in general it's like as with
0:15:28most things on the internet like arguing
0:15:29with people on the internet is never
0:15:32really a good idea and so whenever I see
0:15:34these kind of
0:15:35it's probably best to be like you know
0:15:36there's not much that I could gain from
0:15:39diving into this like maybe if it was
0:15:42the number one like if it showed up at
0:15:43the test the top review in the App Store
0:15:45it might be something that would be
0:15:47worthwhile trying to kind of you know at
0:15:49least show an engagement there but you
0:15:52know trying to go back and forth with
0:15:54somebody who clearly is just kind of mad
0:15:57and was using this review as a way to
0:15:59vent that is unlikely to be productive
0:16:04whereas probably good reviews to talk
0:16:06about are ones where there's a clear
0:16:09misunderstanding your question and like
0:16:11as I've been kind of browsing a little
0:16:12bit in these these are the areas that I
0:16:15think are the best opportunities for us
0:16:17that you know it's it when you look at a
0:16:19review and someone is saying you know
0:16:22it's like I mean in some ways it's like
0:16:24the old hostage star situation where
0:16:26someone's like oh man so forced our app
0:16:28it'd be five-star if it did X and if it
0:16:30actually does do X like if it's just
0:16:32like oh sorry that was so sorry the UI
0:16:34mid you know didn't help you find the
0:16:36feature if you go to the third tab or
0:16:39you go into settings you can in turn
0:16:40that on that's a great example of a
0:16:43place that you can you know as from a
0:16:45marketing perspective that's useful
0:16:46because if someone was gonna say oh I
0:16:48was I like this app but according to
0:16:50this review it doesn't actually you know
0:16:52do this kind of feature and at O the
0:16:54developer says it does great like that's
0:16:57or even probably more over it would be
0:16:59you know because these do I think
0:17:01they're written reviews stick around
0:17:03beyond multiple versions I think I don't
0:17:07know it's and that could obviously
0:17:10change over time but right now I'm
0:17:11pretty sure I think they don't actually
0:17:13unless they're edited maybe but I'm not
0:17:14positive on that yeah but it's also
0:17:16worth clearing up to if you if someone
0:17:18had a problem that was then fixed in a
0:17:20subsequent release in general just
0:17:22saying that is probably a helpful thing
0:17:25yeah because you know in it is a funny
0:17:29thing because you you just want to find
0:17:30these places where you can have these
0:17:32positive engagements I don't think I
0:17:35mean I don't know what you think about
0:17:36this but like there's a lot of you know
0:17:39I remember people were asking initially
0:17:40or talking about it of should we respond
0:17:42to every review you know should each
0:17:45review have a response below it any geez
0:17:47that's a simple answer no
0:17:49that's really a lot of times those
0:17:51responses are just end up being like
0:17:52thank you or good point like that kind
0:17:56of response I don't think is actually
0:17:58productive that I think it just kind of
0:18:00it's distracting probably I mean maybe
0:18:03I'm wrong maybe people love you know
0:18:05we'd love to see all these little like
0:18:06you know someone says something nice
0:18:08about you and you say thank you
0:18:09like I guess that's polite that's the
0:18:11polite thing to do is to say thank you
0:18:13and someone says something nice about
0:18:14you but it seems counterproductive in a
0:18:18lot of ways I mean the main benefit in a
0:18:20weird way like and this is just the way
0:18:22my mind works I suppose is by doing that
0:18:24you aren't increasing the amount of
0:18:27space on the screen that the positive
0:18:30review took up so it emphasizes it
0:18:34slightly like if someone has a five-star
0:18:37review that's but like I just I one of
0:18:40the one of the issues is that you that
0:18:41we have here is that again what I said
0:18:44earlier like whatever most apps do or
0:18:47the most popular apps do is gonna be
0:18:49what people assume and expect I think
0:18:52one of the big problems is that most
0:18:53apps that most people actually use are
0:18:55made by big companies and the big
0:18:57companies are either going to not
0:18:59respond or they're gonna they're gonna
0:19:01have somebody whose job it is to
0:19:02basically be a can respond similar to
0:19:04like if you if you add mention on
0:19:06Twitter like some big brand like Comcast
0:19:08or whatever then they're gonna have some
0:19:10intern whose job it is to try to placate
0:19:13you with a canned response and we're
0:19:16gonna have that on the App Store reviews
0:19:17too and so if people get used to that
0:19:20anything you say in it just in like a
0:19:23general response to a positive one
0:19:25they're going to assume is not genuine
0:19:28they're going to assume that this is
0:19:29just like a form letter that you say to
0:19:31everybody which it actually might be and
0:19:33I don't think that looks good to people
0:19:35you know people see right through that
0:19:37and and again they're going to be coming
0:19:39to your app with the assumption that
0:19:40this is a can response like one of the
0:19:43one of the reviews that I gave I was
0:19:45trying to placate somebody who once
0:19:47starred me and that review showed up
0:19:49pretty high and they were complaining
0:19:52about you know just some of the some of
0:19:53the design changes I did in 3.0 and I it
0:19:56took me a while I I wrote this response
0:19:59it took probably 15 minutes to write
0:20:01even though it's like - it's like two
0:20:02sentences
0:20:03that's because you know the famous thing
0:20:04like I forget my letter for being so
0:20:06long I would have written a shorter one
0:20:07but at that time like I started writing
0:20:10a whole bunch of different ways to
0:20:11address this and it took me a good 15
0:20:13minutes to come up with like the two
0:20:15sentences that I actually thought I
0:20:16should say here and it was very much it
0:20:19was like kind of a general statement of
0:20:21like you know I'm sorry this design
0:20:22isn't working for you I try to please
0:20:24many people as I can but you know
0:20:25sometimes that's not possible something
0:20:26like that and the guy edited his review
0:20:28and clearly thought that was a canned
0:20:32form response even though I had never
0:20:34written it to anybody else before it
0:20:35took me 15 minutes to compose those two
0:20:36sentences he just assumed because it
0:20:39kind of sounded like he can't response
0:20:41like I'm you know I'm sorry you know I
0:20:43couldn't couldn't help you here whatever
0:20:44else and he probably assumes that any
0:20:48response that is kind of like that on an
0:20:50after review is just a canned response
0:20:53and there's no thought behind it even
0:20:54though in this case there was tons of
0:20:56thought behind it and so you always you
0:20:59have to take that risk to like again
0:21:00like what what are people going to
0:21:01expect from the entire app store as a
0:21:03whole is going to impact the the
0:21:05assumptions they go into when they when
0:21:08they see your response and I don't think
0:21:10a a cyclic hey thanks for reviewing us
0:21:14like I don't think that is productive I
0:21:17don't think people want that and I think
0:21:19if you did that people would not receive
0:21:22it as well as you might think it might
0:21:23it might seem like overly eager or
0:21:25creepy or just kind of desperate and I I
0:21:29don't think that's a good look
0:21:30yeah and I think that's probably in
0:21:33general like I think this is an area
0:21:35where probably less is more right yeah
0:21:37it's it's it's it's one of these things
0:21:39that I think we could easily get carried
0:21:41away with using and it's like it's time
0:21:44spent that it's it's I think it's a it's
0:21:48a wonderful tool for us and there are
0:21:50areas like especially for those like the
0:21:52top those top reviews having good goodra
0:21:56answers for those like it makes a lot of
0:21:57sense but I think this very easily could
0:21:59become this rabbit hole of if trying to
0:22:02squeeze too much out of this feature is
0:22:05almost certainly going to become a
0:22:07counterproductive it's going to be
0:22:09something that is taking time away from
0:22:11the actual thing that will make your app
0:22:14a five-star app which is making your app
0:22:16that
0:22:17you know the switching you know
0:22:20convincing one person to give you one
0:22:22more star is nice but you know making
0:22:26your app better with a new version that
0:22:28is going to address the problems that
0:22:31people are having like that's a much
0:22:33more robust and sustainable solution
0:22:35rather than getting into lots of little
0:22:38hitches with this and I mean especially
0:22:40it's one of these things that some
0:22:41people like people are writing reviews
0:22:43for very different reasons right like it
0:22:46is something that we don't control and
0:22:49especially because it's not this venue
0:22:51where it's you know this nice threaded
0:22:53conversation like you can say something
0:22:54and then they can say something and they
0:22:57know they're doing it by like updating
0:22:59their review and so you can get these
0:23:00very disjoint kind of situations if you
0:23:03go too far down that road so in general
0:23:05less is more probably and I think the
0:23:08question of how far back to go like I
0:23:11heard was on core intuition because
0:23:14Dana's gelcoat was saying that he was
0:23:15responding to reviews from like years
0:23:17ago that just kind of blows my mind it's
0:23:20like I think in general keeping this
0:23:22fairly current is something that makes
0:23:24sense that you know responding to
0:23:26reviews as they come in makes some some
0:23:30amount of sense and in this initial
0:23:31period
0:23:32you know maybe responding or at least
0:23:34rereading in deciding if you want to
0:23:36respond to all the reviews for the
0:23:38current version seems about reasonable
0:23:40but beyond that I probably wouldn't go
0:23:42too much farther back yeah and kind of
0:23:45expanding a little bit on the on the
0:23:46less is more angle again you know keep
0:23:48in mind as you mentioned that that you
0:23:51know you're posting this response but
0:23:52then the the user who wrote the review
0:23:54is prompted and will likely edit the
0:23:58review and so you have to make sure that
0:24:00if somebody you know assuming that
0:24:02you're not going to be keeping on top of
0:24:04every single response you write to see
0:24:05if the person edited it and then see if
0:24:07you need to edit your response and
0:24:08everything like that's that's not
0:24:09productive so keep in mind though that
0:24:12your your response might not make as
0:24:16much sense if the users review is
0:24:19heavily edited after you gave the
0:24:20response and so write the responses with
0:24:23that in mind so for instance one of the
0:24:26responses I wrote and I haven't actually
0:24:27done that many of them honestly but one
0:24:29of the responses I wrote
0:24:30was one of the top reviews was asking
0:24:32about battery life saying the new
0:24:33version seemed to use more battery life
0:24:35and so in my response I didn't really
0:24:39specifically call out like you know
0:24:41anything in particular about about the
0:24:44question that was asked it was I gave a
0:24:47more kind of general response about
0:24:49battery usage in the app and I said
0:24:51basically like you know here's the kinds
0:24:53of things that make any podcast app use
0:24:56more battery power and you know and you
0:24:58know here's like playing fast using the
0:25:00screen brightness and the speaker and
0:25:01everything else and I like you know I've
0:25:03tested overcast III test overcast
0:25:05against other podcast apps and I try to
0:25:07make sure it's always comparable or
0:25:08better but if you've if you figure out
0:25:10anything else please let me know and I'm
0:25:12always trying to find out you know any
0:25:14areas I might have missed something like
0:25:16that right and so and so I gave an
0:25:19answer that no matter what the review is
0:25:21edited to that will still basically make
0:25:23sense as a standalone written piece
0:25:26there and I think it's important to do
0:25:28that because again like whatever you
0:25:30respond to the the user who wrote the
0:25:33review can then edit the review to say
0:25:35anything so if you just say like I agree
0:25:38the person can respond to the reviews
0:25:40saying this app sucks and they're the
0:25:43first review saying this app sucks and
0:25:45then your responses they're saying I
0:25:46agree like so you have to always make
0:25:48sure that you are accounting for the
0:25:50fact that the thing you're responding to
0:25:52can change at any time to say anything
0:25:54and make sure the e review still makes
0:25:56sense in that context yeah it's just
0:26:00yeah so I mean you the nice thing is an
0:26:02iTunes Connect you can sign up to get
0:26:04notifications when users change reviews
0:26:06that you responded to so at least you
0:26:09can track that down a little bit and
0:26:11there's also there's a filter in iTunes
0:26:12Connect but still like it's definitely
0:26:14good advice to keep that in mind that
0:26:16you don't control the other end of this
0:26:18and this is all in the public you know
0:26:19it's all public facing not just like on
0:26:21a public website even it's like right on
0:26:23your App Store page the last thing that
0:26:26I wanted to sort of touch on briefly I
0:26:28think is the mental health aspect of
0:26:31responding to reviews oh boy
0:26:33because and this is so it's probably
0:26:36worth saying that I'd went through and
0:26:38did a little bit of responding to
0:26:39reviews but after that initial wave of
0:26:41just like making sure I understand what
0:26:43how this process works and what it looks
0:26:45like I've you know just like I do for my
0:26:48customer support I've you know outsource
0:26:50the actual day-to-day operation of
0:26:53responding to reviews to someone else
0:26:55you know I have someone else who
0:26:56responds to my first level customer
0:26:58support and now I have someone who is
0:26:59you know a very part-time basis but is
0:27:02taking you know is responding to the
0:27:04reviews in the App Store and the main
0:27:06reason why I do that I mean it's nice
0:27:08from a you know it's from a time
0:27:10perspective it frees me up a little bit
0:27:11and so on but the main reason why I do
0:27:15that is because I find reading reviews
0:27:19of my own products can be very
0:27:22detrimental from a like motivation from
0:27:24a happiness self-worth like all kinds of
0:27:27very significant things can happen yes
0:27:29and this is one of these things what's
0:27:31so reading one really mean like pointed
0:27:35review about yourself you know Kumasi as
0:27:38always is the thing that sticks with you
0:27:39it's not the thing that you know if
0:27:41someone writes this glowing five star
0:27:43review about how much they love the app
0:27:44like that's nice and it I mean I wish it
0:27:47stuck with me more but it's almost
0:27:49always as these you know these mean
0:27:51intentionally vindictive kind of reviews
0:27:53that people will write and so that's why
0:27:56you know for me I decided you know I'm
0:27:58just in the same way that I haven't
0:27:59really been reading my App Store reviews
0:28:01very much over the last few years it's
0:28:03like I this is not a reason for me to
0:28:05get back into that game that I remember
0:28:07what that did you know cognitively to me
0:28:09and so it's like you know what I will
0:28:12just pay a little bit of money to have
0:28:13someone else to do that because for them
0:28:15it's not personal you know for them it's
0:28:16not that same thing when they're you
0:28:19know if someone's attacking the product
0:28:21that I made when it feels like they're
0:28:24attacking me whereas you know if someone
0:28:26else is it precisely more you know
0:28:28separated from that product you know
0:28:31it's it's more just a job it's a thing
0:28:32and like it's a it's a Thomas has a more
0:28:35of a comedy to it perhaps so it's you
0:28:37know it softens the blow and so just
0:28:39something to keep in mind that while
0:28:41this is a useful tool while this is
0:28:42something that I'm glad we have you know
0:28:45be careful and I really speak cognizant
0:28:47of the impact that it is having on you
0:28:49and be careful about then how you do
0:28:52that and when you went in the day you do
0:28:53that or like how you're feeling
0:28:55emotionally like this is if the
0:28:56something that you're doing and you're
0:28:58feeling really sad or down that day
0:28:59maybe don't go read your app store
0:29:01reviews like that's unlikely to make you
0:29:04feel better yeah I would say that's good
0:29:07advice in general like in general you
0:29:09don't need to read reps or reviews very
0:29:11often or very closely I think it's
0:29:14important to you know do what we said
0:29:16earlier like you know view them in the
0:29:17same way that the public views them so
0:29:19look at your store page occasionally and
0:29:21see which ones are on top and see what
0:29:24your average is and I don't think you
0:29:26need to go much further than that in
0:29:28both reading them or responding to them
0:29:30I have found the same thing that reading
0:29:31my after reviews is almost never a good
0:29:34thing for my motivation or my mental
0:29:37state and so I mostly just don't do it
0:29:39and I'm very happy not doing it and that
0:29:41will probably continue so anyway thanks
0:29:44very much for listening and we'll talk
0:29:45to you next week bye