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Ask HN: Competitor is giving my app 1 star reviews... what do I do?

6 points by technotony ↗ HN
Hello,

I launched my app (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.senstore.alice.harvard) about a year ago and it's performed very nicely, with an average review of 4.6. However in mid-december I started getting one 1 star review a day and over hte last month the average review score has dropped to 4.48 which has reduced my place in the charts. At almost the same time a new competitor arrived, and so I'm suspecting them of giving me the reviews. What should I do?

12 comments

[ 4.5 ms ] story [ 45.0 ms ] thread
k3oni
Can you prove this or are you just going on assumptions?
technotony
Can't prove, but it's a very sudden change in behavior from users. Would also welcome other suggestions about what could cause this, or ideas for how to prove.
k3oni
I don't see that many 1 and 2 start reviews and form the ones that i see they seem legit like: "Pointless Keeps saying no internet connection even though I have one and all other data apps work. Will only address one symptom at a time when it does work. Most conditions have multiple symptoms... " .

Some of the users have a G+ account as well which is linked to their name and those seem legit as well.

Do you see an increase in the app downloads/installs?

Edit: And yes some are just stupid reviews: "Stupid lol" .

benologist
Someone trying to bring you down a fraction of a decimal a day seems far less likely than some people just not being happy with your product.

2 stars legitimate?

    Lauren Bee  December 29, 2013
    Not enough info 
    They give you a wide range or symptoms, but
    you can't check all the symptoms that apply to you just one
    at a time so they can't tell you exactly what's wrong they
    just describe what could, be wrong just based on one symptom.
1 star illegitimate?

    Ashley Cochren  December 29, 2013
    Poor Douse not work the way it says
technotony
It's the significant change in number of poor ratings. I used to get one or two 1 star reviews per month, now it's nearly one per day. And most don't leave a comment, whereas they used to. I haven't released a new version for months, so unclear to me why else there would be a sudden change in bad reviews.
benologist
Have you been improving your app in that time?

Bad ratings may be relative to other apps improving while you idle, or focus on improving the wrong areas, or your improvements aren't helping like they should.

Are you providing a communication channel for your users outside of reviews where you can get feedback and get to the bottom of problems they have?

technotony
There's a feedback section built into the app so I'm tracking those comments. I hadn't released a new app version in a while, so it's possible it's just relative to new apps... Am working on a new version now...
technotony
And the fraction of a day decimal is significant, it's dropped my ranking from 112 to 173, and ranking for main keywords from 1st to 2nd.