How to ask for App Store reviews

In this post I want to explain how easy it is to get positive reviews for your App Store app. The method I started using with my customers brought my app more positive reviews than before so I am confident that other developers could find this explanation useful.

Let’s first say that there is (still) not a way to contact users who leave a review on the App Store. Most of the times, users download an app and they expect it to work immediately and perfectly. If this is the case (and we all hope it is), then users will enjoy the app. The problem is that very few people will remember to go back in the App Store and write a nice review.

There are many ways to ask users for a review which are for example showing an alert to the user after the app was opened 10 times or sending a push notification. I find none of this methods appropriate and I started experimenting a few weeks ago how I could get a nice reviews for my app Notes for Watch.

When I shipped the first version, a bug occurred when users were using both the Apple Watch and the iPhone at the same time. This resulted in a really low rating as you can see.

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Please note the last review: “if it worked as advertised it would get 6 stars”. I fixed the issue in the next version and no, I never received 6 stars.

To avoid receiving more negative reviews, I made sure to add more support options in the app. The FAQ section is easily reachable in the settings view (it’s just one tap away from the main view) and the contact button offers support via email or via Twitter. This is how the settings view looks like in Notes for Watch.

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Notes for Watch started getting more and more users which translated into more support emails. When I’m not asleep, I usually have a pretty fast replying time (sometimes I’m even able to reply to a customer support request in less than 15 minutes). This is positive for customers which are always surprised by the quick response and they immediately thank me for the fast reply. Here there are a few examples.

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Awesome, now customers know that there is a real person behind the app and it’s actively supported and improved. When users have issues or they simply want to send feedback about future features, it’s good to reply as soon as possible. When the problem is fixed and I’m sure that users are enjoying the app, I add a post scriptum to my email like this:

P.s: If you’re enjoying the app, please take a very short moment to leave a quick review in the App Store. It helps continuing the development of the app :)

In this moment, users are happy because they know the app is working properly, they quickly received support and they can trust the developer for other issues in the future. They are most likely in spending a few minutes of their day in writing a positive review for your app now. The results are positive and as you can see, I’ve received three 5 stars reviews since I added the previous sentence to my last support email I send to customers.

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If I didn’t explicitly ask for a review, I would’t have received those 3 positive reviews.

Let me know your opinion on Twitter. Thanks for reading.

Thanks to Max Bäumle for proofreading this post.