The current review system is lacking in some basic features that would allow app developers to handle reviews and act on them. Such as;
- Get notified of new reviews. Developers should be able to subscribe their email, or a group email to review notifications (new review, review changed, review replied [see below]). The current system forces developers to log into their developer account just to see if a new review was published.
- Get information as to who published the review. Right now developers only see an account ID, which uselessly forces them to search in installation data to find out who wrote to review just to interact with them.
- Add the ability to reply to reviews. This would open a bridge of communication with the customers. Giving the possibility for the customer relation to grow by thanking for a good review, or to help understand the bad review and make amends.
- Add the ability for users to change their reviews. If a review was made by mistake, or the rating was selected by mistake, or if the user’s experience changed since their review, users should be able to change or remove their review.
- Add the ability to view reviews from the marketplace. Other users might want a better indicator than a number of stars. Tendency and context is good too. A company could have bad reviews many years ago, 5 star reviews today. The reason for bad reviews also gives a good indicator of what might or might not be great in a product.
- Given #5, add the ability to report reviews. Some reviews might be meant for other another app, can be unjustified, can be unethical (like bot reviews), etc. This would allow both users and app developers to flag bad reviews.
Thanks!