At Significo, our mission is to make healthcare technology more human. Of course, we want what we build to be a good resource for patients or members who are end users, helping them learn about, better manage, or improve their quality of care. But when it comes time to launch an app to the play store or app store, this is also an opportunity to improve the user experience as well as your company’s reputation. Beyond the business value, making healthcare more human extends to being a good actor in the digital space. Read more about the lessons we’ve learned launching apps and best practices to follow, below.
General best practices
As a general rule, marketplaces want to see that developer accounts are responsive, listening to users, fixing bugs quickly, and being “good citizens” in the ecosystem.
These are all in addition to providing an app that provides value and is useful to the members of the ecosystem that look to the marketplace to give them a clear and consistent picture of the relative quality of the apps within the ecosystem.
Responsiveness to users
Any user review should be responded to within one week. This shows that the developer account is interacting with the community and the users that give feedback.
If the user is experiencing a bug, then support with debugging and an offer to connect via email is helpful.
If the user is reporting an issue that has been fixed with an update, an explanation of this and recommendation to update to the most recent version is appropriate.
If a user experiences something negative, and sees that there is already a complaint about this same issue, and a thoughtful response with when a fix can be expected, then they are far less likely to leave a negative review.
If the review is positive, thanking the user for leaving the review and reminding them of the email address they can reach out to in case they ever have future concerns or comments about the app shows an overall availability.
Being responsive does not mean that you have to take engineering action on every issue that is raised. Sometimes a user has unreasonable expectations of an app. It is okay to politely let them know that at this time, the functionality they are looking for is beyond the scope of the app, or that their employer’s configuration of the app does not activate the feature they are requesting.
Listening to users
Use the release notes in each new build to highlight how this build responds to user feedback and releases a fix, improvement, or new feature that has been requested and is intended to improve the overall app experience.
If a user leaves a review or suggestion, let them know that the feedback is being considered and will be shared with the Product Team for consideration, even if it’s not clear that the product should change to accommodate this request/critique.
Fix bugs quickly
Show your work! If a user reports a crash or bug, let them know when the issue is fixed, and ask if they are willing to use the app again and share with you via email if they continue to have issues. This is one area where we often see people updating their review. A one-star review for a crash can turn into a five-star review for a bug fix, and responsive support in getting the user back in to use the app they were hoping to explore.
If you have fixed a bug that was complained about in a prior review, note the fix in the release notes. Return to the prior review that you already responded to within one week of original posting and let them know that the issue previously reported is fixed, and the release number where the issue was fixed.
Getting credit for your hard work
App Marketplaces are very sensitive to developers artificially inflating their ratings. This does not mean that you shouldn’t have a strategy for getting positive reviews from the right people.
Identify the key actions that characterize your best users. Is there one feature that they come back and use regularly? Can you identify the actions that are taken by the people who keep using the product after 60 days? When a user is on this track, and looks like a success case, prompt the user to leave a review. This should be after more than one week of usage, and often after 4 weeks of usage.
Feedback is as important as reviews. Cultivate user feedback groups that will provide valuable feedback, and are open to reviewing releases and being responsive. You can incentivize these groups with early access to features, gift cards, or access to other benefits. Creating Slack groups and communities where product suggestions and feedback is given can be a treasure trove for Product Managers.
The full product team, sales team, etc., should be using the product, leaving feedback, and rating the app. This is common practice, and all other apps are doing it. If you have the first 20 reviews at 5 stars, you have some inertia at that rating that will be harder to tank with a few disgruntled users, especially if you are responding promptly to issues.
Being good citizens
Good citizens don’t just take, they contribute to the community.
Trying out other apps, leaving thoughtful reviews and comments from accounts connected to the developer account, and even contributing to open source projects can earn developers reputations of being good citizens in the ecosystem.
This extends beyond the app marketplaces and into Github, Stack Overflow, and other communities.
Being a good citizen within the app marketplace means staying up to date on the guidelines that are published by the marketplace, and adding these suggestions to the product roadmap.
Include in release notes that you have implemented the recommended Android/Apple/Amazon/etc marketplace standards into the build shows them that you are following along and staying modern. This can earn features by the Marketplace in future Developer Relations showcases.
Finally, go to events hosted by the marketplace. Some of these are online, and others are at conferences. If you have engineers going to a conference, have them look for the events, hackathons, and meetups that are hosted by Developer Relations for the respective stores.
If you have more questions about being a good actor in the App Store or Play Store, or bringing your app to market, reach out to Significo about our healthcare app expertise!
