I just got my first bad review, and It seems that the client didn't read the instruction. My application named DiyDict. For making good looking handbooks. people can change background image for their handbooks include button images. It has an instruction, said buttons are draw on background Image. you should draw the buttons on background Image. But he didn't read it, and said he change the background image and the buttons are gone.. And instruction said, even if you do not draw the buttons, they still exist. the client didn't read instruction maybe, and said the buttons are gone, so you can't go forward or back. [but he can..] And he didn't visit my website.. I know the concept is a little different. I didn't use the default navigation bar. users can draw there own navigation bar so it looks nice and compatible with content of their handbook. and because they may get handbooks from other people, so it's important to be able to design everything inside their handbooks. And I got letters, reviews on website and my website.all 4 and 5 stars, It's the first 1 star review, I really don't like it. I send apple a letter to remove the review because the client does not read the instruction. But I felt guilty.. I can't find any contact information for my client, Is there anything I can do to contact him?
Theres always going to be someone out there that will critize your work. Wheather it be out of plain stupidity or just missunderstanding. I hate to brake it too you, but theres close to nothing you can do. I mean you could check out there name (most people use the same name for reviews as they use for other websites) but aside from that, my gut says you have a slim chance of getting in contact. I don't even know if Apple is willing to give out the person's information for such a matter. Sorry.
Unfortunately Apple does not give us any way to contact people that leave reviews (good or bad). Also, Apple will not remove a 1 star review for you just because you think the person didn't read your instructions. The best you can hope for is to put a note in your app description directed to that user's comment and hope that either the person comes back to read it (and then possibly updates his/her review & rating), or that other people considering buying your app actually bother to read your app's description and see that the other reviewer was wrong. Sadly neither of these things are likely to happen though.
The best way we've found of preventing this sort of thing is to put an email button right in the app, and make it really easy to find. That way, a frustrated/confused customer will generally email you for help before taking their frustration out in a bad review. And yes, there is no way to contact a person after they've left a bad review.
No matter what you do to idiot proof your app this sort of thing is going to happen. I feel your pain - it can hurt your bottom line when a review like this is one of the first you get. If you know someone with the app, you may be able to get them to post a "response" review to the same AppStore. Things you can do to minimize this type of thing: 1) address common questions in your AppStore description and on your support site 2) refactor user interface to make every option as obvious as possible 3) include an in-app button as a shortcut to your support site 4) include an in-app button to send you an email (3) and (4) can be done with one line of code, launching Safari or Mail. This can do a lot to help confused users.
thank you for all of your advice In fact, I include a sample in my application introducing the history of my application. and it change background almost for each page, I thought even if he do not read the instruction, he should know. And itunes is down..maybe, I can't leave a review for my application anwsering his question.. I would add Email function next version, hope it will help.
There are going to be people out there who don't read the instructions, hundreds of people leave reviews for my free games without reading the instructions. The only thing that we, as developers, can do, is to try to increase the simplicity of the instructions and make it impossible to miss. Like previous posts said, there will still be people who leave bad reviews, it is part of the App Store. Also, don't let the bad review(s) bother you, it happens and you just have to keep moving on Of course, always do your best to make the customers happy, but there will always be those people who complain no matter what you do.
the issue is apples review-on-delete system if someone deletes your app; it is because they don't like it; so don't expect positive reviews. i think users will eventually become aware of this. the key point is to identify how many 5 star reviews are given.. that's the most important aggregat - i ignore 1 star reviews because there are moron's out there. don't take it personally
iTunes very clearly states, when leaving a review, to contact the developer first with any problems and gives the contact link beside the text area. If the person didn't even try contacting you, then they simply didn't understand the right course of action. A reminder to all devs though: Please do ensure your website and support links are accurate when submitting your app. Quite a few times I've tried clicking on links for support and get broken links or, a completely different website, or a page with simply no clear way to contact the developer.
This seems to be the most surefire way to handle negative feedbacks for your app because it worked for us twice. The customer who made the 1-star feedback updated his post after reading the response. Keep it simple, straightforward and not too cheesy.
+1 I can confirm it works - we had a regression and I explained via a comment that the update w/ the fix was being reviewed with Apple and would definitely fix the issue - people came back and changed their 1-star review to a 5-one in that case. Of course your mileage may vary. We do follow-up via emails when people are contacting us and it does wonders when you are responsive and caring about your customers' issues...
Jouni from the Minigore team turned me on to this handy little piece of code: App iRater It might be worth implementing it in your app.
