Turning 1-Star Reviews into 5-Star Fans: A Guide

The Impact of Rating

Apps below 4.0 stars see massive conversion drop-offs. Responses show prospective users that you care.

Respond within 24 hours. A user is arguably still angry; catch them while they simply want to be heard.

Don't be defensive ("It works on my machine"). Say "I'm sorry you're facing this." Validate their frustration.

Don't debug in public. Give a direct support email. "Please email us at help@app.com so we can fix this for you."

Once fixed, ask the user (politely) to reconsider their rating. Many will change a 1-star to 5-star to thank you for great service.

If 10 people say "Login failed", it's a bug, not user error. Use reviews as a prioritized bug tracker.

You can flag irrelevant or abusive reviews to Apple/Google. It's tough to remove them, but worth trying for obvious spam.