Comments are the best way to receive feedback about your mobile app. Know where your app is going right and where it is going wrong through these unbiased comments. It is not always that you will have 100% neutral comments. Some people do have unbiased opinions, just because they are anonymous, hate you to the core, are your biggest competitors, or just fooling around your app. However, most comments help you not only validate your app but also act as a source of inspiration to strive for more.
Positive comments are always soothing to hear. What about the negative things you hear about your app? It can be de-motivating and disturbing for a vast majority. However, the reality is, excluding a few exceptional apps, you are bound to hear one, or more, negative comments about your app. Today, we will not teach you how to deal with positive feedback, because it is easier. However, dealing with negative feedback takes tremendous patience, backed by an eye for long-term vision.
It is always better to hear 10 things from unhappy customers than just disregarding them and letting them go away. So, what to do? Well, let us quickly go through 10 ways in which you can deal with negative comments, with great ease and comfort, without disrespecting your users.
#1. Unhappy customers help you to grow
Whether, a positive or negative comment, your users do care about your app, and hence invested time in putting down their comment. Even if they have not liked your app, they have shared their opinion. This means they want you to improve and win over the unhappy customers.
When you look at things from this perspective, you will consider every single comment as a sign of care, letting you stay positive all the time. Just embrace every single feedback with tremendous positivity, by thanking your users, and telling them that you will surely work on your weaknesses as per their feedback. When you do this, they will feel an important part of your app, ultimately leading to an increase in loyalty value.
#2. Playing defensive is a big ‘NO’
This is a natural human tendency, wherein we tend to defend our app, whenever we receive a criticism. Strictly avoid this scenario. Irrespective of whosoever is right or wrong, just accept every feedback from users graciously, informing them that you will surely consider their feedback.
In case you are wrong, users will undoubtedly walk away listening to your wrong arguments. Even if you are right, users would not understand your point, and they will think you are confronting them unnecessarily. Both situations will lead to your app losing an important user, who had the potential to bring ten more users through word of mouth.
#3. Do not forget to respond without fail
Acknowledging user comments is extremely important, especially when negative. When you first deliver a timely acknowledgement in a positive manner to all those people speaking against your app, they are bound to get impressed, and might start liking your app over time.
#4. Say you’re sorry if users have faced issues
Apologies have great powers. They have an amazing ability to melt even the toughest hearts. When you apologize politely, your users experience a great sense of decompression and relief, motivating them to establish a long-term relationship with you.
#5. Go an extra mile solving problems
Many times, an apology is just not enough for users. They want to get the issues solved on immediately. If you are proactive enough in resolving their problems, they will feel free to use your app knowing that they have your backing round the clock.
#6. Take time to hear them properly
The key to successful communication is listening, and not saying. Listen to every single word and respond accordingly. Express your concern or feelings at the right moment, with an inclination towards solving their problems.
There are times when an external interference is disrupting their overall experience with your app. You might be unaware of it, but hearing your users carefully can let you discover these hidden problems. Hence, a better understanding can make things smooth enough to handle.
#7. Recognize the trolls and handle them wisely
As discussed earlier, there are people who just like to fool around your app by creating a wrong buzz, for the sake of fun or other reasons. They remain anonymous in order to hide their identity, or spam comments using a wrong name altogether.
Such feedback is very dangerous because even if you are right, people might take you wrongly. Additionally, when you unnecessarily argue with them at length, you and your app could leave a bad impression on other users. It will add no value whatsoever but could have a major negative impact on your app. Just be nice and polite to these trolls all the time. A time will come when they will leave your app by themselves, since they are not having fun anymore.
#8. Leverage the opportunity to educate
If users are wrong, misunderstanding the app and posting misleading comments, try to understand why the situation arose in the first place. Take full advantage of this opportunity to educate them and other users as well. Addressing such comments through apt guidance will leave a nice impression about you and increase your credibility among the community of existing users as well as new users.
#9. Learn from the past experiences
Keep track of every single conversation you have with negative users. Evaluate those conversations from time to time for drafting future strategies, helping you deal with complex situations. This will lead you to readymade solutions for upcoming issues, which are very similar. Moreover, you can even work upon those, to discover even better ways of handling situations.
#10. Have a private conversation if needed
Arguing with adamant users publicly is the most foolish way of dealing with negative comments. If users lack empathy towards your app and are not cooperative at all, ask them for a one on one private conversation. If they agree, you can argue politely with them at length. If they are still not convinced after all what you have said, leave the conversation politely.
Feedback is a reflection of what users think!
These are the 10 useful tips from our end to handle negative feedback on your app wisely. Whether right or wrong, an app is successful only because of users. Do handle them with care, and your app will surely move places. If you have anything to share from your end, feel free to leave your comments.
Image: Customer opinion survey with Dissatisfied circled
