Are You Using AI In Your Job?

We want to understand the real-world applications of AL and ML in business and the impact it will have on all our jobs.

Want to help? Complete the survey, your insights could make a big difference. It will just take one minute.
You'll be the first to get access to the final report.-->

Users Love to Leave In-App Feedback

Bobby Gill | March 12, 2021

It’s really important to get feedback from your users. They are the people using your app and the people you’ll need to continually make happy if you want your app to be a success. Feedback can be used to shape your app, highlight potential issues with it and give your users what they want.

While developing Appacts mobile analytics platform, we also developed a series of small apps to be released across each of the mobile platforms with Appacts’ plugins built in. We used the apps to collect analytics and research user behavior. Throughout this series of articles I’ll be making reference to a simple Pet Names app that was created for Android.

I thought it would be interesting to see how users responded if I gave them somewhere inside the app to leave feedback. Little did I know just how big the response would be.

Like it but wish you could add the names to a fav list”

Feedback left in Pet Names in app.

Encouraging Feedback with In-App Plugins (Why It Works)

Appacts gives you the ability to log both a feedback comment and a rating score. I created a simple screen to collect both and log them using the Appacts Android plugin. On the main screen of my app I included a small link button to the feedback screen.

What’s amazing, by doing this I found I receive a lot more feedback which is left in app than I get through the Google Play store. In fact it’s 880% more.

It’s clear that users are more inclined to leave feedback when given the opportunity to do so via a shorter journey and without needing to close the app to visit the app store.

You could also try using this technique to manage your app’s reputation on the app store.

How about naming the button “Not happy? Let us know” in an attempt to persuade users to give you negative feedback directly through the app as opposed to tarnishing your reputation on the app store.

How about taking it one step further by adding two buttons. “Like this app?”, “Hate this app?”. One to direct negative feedback to your own feedback screen and the other to direct positive feedback to the app store. 

Identifying unhappy users is just as important as the happy ones. Tracking what people dislike can help avoid churn and retain users for a longer period of time when their concerns are addressed.

It’s not necessary to use any third-party tools to get the benefits, you could just bring up a pop-up after users have visited your app several times. This concept is heavily used by many popular apps, especially games; one of these games is Pokemon Go

After users play the game a few times, a prompt to let the developers know how you’re enjoying the app pops up. The feedback might not flood in, but it will improve the user journey and remind users that it’s something that they should do.

In 2020, a record number of companies invested in app development. As crucial as these investments are, the feedback of your users is one of the most cost-effective ways in planning updates and changes to your app.

Feedback isn’t just a way to check in with your users. It’s a vital tool to allow your app to grow in a way that builds more loyal users, reaches more people, and makes a bigger impact. 

I hope this opens a whole new concept for you. Any kind of feedback is good and the more you get the better chance you have of developing an awesome and successful app.

*Metrics are based on 1 year (23/02/2013 – 23/02/2012) worth of data logging. Google Play Store: 4 Reviews, 10 ratings. Appacts: 33 reviews, 98 ratings.

Bobby Gill
Co-Founder & Chief Architect at BlueLabel | + posts

Get the latest from the Blue Label Labs’ blog in your inbox

Subscribe

* indicates required