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Love: The Apptentive Framework to Improving the Customer Experience

By: Ezra Siegel

We’re all about the love, but when we use the tagline “Spread the Love”  at Apptentive, we are not just talking about sharing that wonderful feeling. At Apptentive, we use the letters L.O.V.E. as a constant reminder of how we should build our product and interact with our customers. It is a framework that we use to continually improve our product while keeping our customers in mind.L.O.V.E.

These four letters create a list that you should consider everyday when you think about how your app is interacting with your customers. Each aspect of the acronym is important and there is no order in which to follow them. Instead, it is understanding that there is a right moment (which could be all the time) to use each piece of L.O.V.E that is important.

• Listen

Listening is the foundation of every positive relationship. We have all heard the adage, “hearing is easy, listening is hard,” but how does that translate to businesses and is it even important? Every customer has listened to another one for advice, suggestions, and warnings about a product. It is important for businesses to listen to the customer as well. In regards to mobile, much of the feedback can be straight forward, but take the time to digest the words being said as that can lead to a better understanding in general of how the app can be improved. For example, if someone comments on reducing the steps to access a certain feature, consider making it simpler to access all the features.

When somebody reaches out by sending feedback, asking questions, or commenting it means they care. Whether the messages contain praise or criticism, a customer is taking the time to send it. That alone gives it enough value to warrant a developers attention. For every customer complaint there are many others who feel the same way but remain silent. Ignoring negative feedback will result in some serious missed opportunities, and result in driving people away from your app. People leaving negative feedback want to use your app as much or even more so than those who provided positive feedback. Furthermore, negative feedback can provide developers with vital information on how to improve the app. In case you need any help handling negative feedback here are some tips to turn negative reviews into happy customers.

Listening is also about providing a place where you can listen and encouraging people to talk with you. This is why social media has become an integral channel to many businesses. Show that you listen to your customers by always commenting and thanking people through your social media channels. Often times people don’t reach out because they think there won’t be a response. Show them that responding is a priority. With a mobile app, any channel avoiding the app store should be used as an alternative as a place to listen (social media, blogs, forums etc.). At Apptentive, we want to make it easy for app developers to listen to their customers and provide a place in-app where customers can communicate with you, the app developer.

As 2013 picks up speed, it is clear that customers want a better customer experiences. It is so important that people will pay more for companies that provide great customer experiences. As app developers, having many different places where customers can go to be listened to is an easy step to use to start improving the customer experience.

• Observe

Observing is about incorporating data to judge if something is significant or not . In the technical world of bugs, freezes, and crashes some problems may be hard or too time consuming for customers to thoroughly explain.  Therefore, it is up to the developer to investigate an issue in order to come to a complete understanding of the issue. If app developers are focused on listening to their customers, there will be a large amount of feedback. Being able to observe allows app developers to be able to prioritize what feedback is most important and should be acted upon. In an ideal world everything can be fixed, changed, or added but that is not always possible, especially with smaller indie developers. Therefore, it is important to be able to discern what items are most significant. Don’t get sidetracked trying to improve features that only you think is important. Focus on what is important to the customer, or you won’t have any left. Apptentive provides data to app developers to more easily understand customer sentiment towards certain features and generally gathers feedback about what customers like or dislike about an app.

If it is difficult to ascertain what should be fixed through the data gathered, take a walk in the customer’s shoes for a day and use the app (or product) as if you daily life depended on it. That will help clarifying what to improve upon. You owe it to yourself to make the best app possible, because if you don’t take the time to make your app great, why should customers take the time to use it!

• Validate

Repeat-Business

Now it’s crucial to validate the time spent by the person who provided feedback as time well spent. The most common mistake made by businesses, app developers, or anybody asking for feedback is not validating the feedback they receive. Saying thank you is not enough, and can even sound like a dismissal in some instances. Tell the people who provided feedback what you plan on doing with their suggestions or to fix their complaints. Make your customers feel appreciated by explaining to them that the app has been improved thanks to their feedback. App developers should feel obligated to reach back out after any interaction with a person using their app. Whether or not you asked for feedback, it is important to show your appreciation every time it is received.

By validating feedback app developers have a wonderful opportunity to create brand advocates out of everyone who uses the app. Letting people know that their feedback helped create part of the new release creates a bond between the customer and the app, so not only will they continue to use it because they helped make it better, but they will tell their friends about the app as well. And as we all know, nothing is more effective or trusted than word-of-mouth for acquiring new customers.

• Engage

Engaging customers is the most dynamic letter in L.O.V.E. because it incorporates every other letter and is open to any innovative ideas one could have. It is important for app developers to spend time and energy engaging and developing relationships with people who use their apps. You can do this by offering discounts or invites to private betas of the app. Try sending out holiday or seasonal cards to your customers so they know that you are keeping them in mind. Consider dropping personal notes about updates and changes to the app to people who have provided feedback. Besides being personal, be creative with your messages (e.g. include a cat video link :D, or anything to bring out a smile).

Don’t let the customer have the last word in a conversation. Let the final interaction come from the developer side with a thank you note, or something as simple as wishing them a wonderful day. If need be, stay on the phone with them for 8 hours like the customer service agent from Zappos (check out the great re-enactment video).

Here are two things we like to do at Apptentive to engage others:

Be real. Real messages from real people. It is fine to give customers your personal/work e-mail and encourage them to drop a line at anytime because customers who talk to you trust you more. Provide information for them on how to stay connected with links to your blog, Facebook, twitter, or any other places where information is published to the public.

Create a presence outside your mobile app. Whatever your target audience is, host or help sponsor an event that your audience would be interested in going to. It doesn’t need to be about your app or your business. You can’t go wrong helping to nurture a community that is your target audience. If you don’t have the money to throw events, just show up to them. Being present, personal, and approachable will go a long way to helping people remember you. This also includes writing guest posts, being open to interviews, and participating in conversations around the internet.

At Apptentive the L.O.V.E. framework works great to make sure we are keeping our customers in mind as we improve our product. Each part of the framework is important as a business tries to establish itself or grow. Every time a new feature, direction, or idea is being discussed it should answer one key question. Is this something that customers want? Without our customers there would be no Apptentive. Join us in focusing on building a better mobile customer experience and sign up with Apptentive today.






How to market your app without a budget with Indie Game Girl #AppsOnAir

By: Ezra Siegel

Indie Game GirlHave a small (or no) marketing budget to drive installs for your mobile apps? Having trouble retaining your customer base? No worries. We addressed these problems and many more in our #AppsOnAir live hangout – How to market your app without a budget.

Emmy Jonassen joined Apptentive to share her insight on marketing for mobile game developers. She is the marketing mastermind behind Indie Game Girl, a free resource that helps indie developers build adoring fanbases with step-by-step marketing instructions. With her expertise, there was a great Q/A recorded discussing how to market your app without a budget. Watch the video and/or read the summarized answers to the questions below.

Here are the questions and summarized answers that were covered during the chat:

Q1. What research should first time *mobile* game developers do, before beginning development?

There are two key things to do.

1. Audience Research. Who is going to be your target audience? Mobile app gamers are used to free games or paying very little, so you need to make up for that through volume sales. Make sure there is a broad enough audience that makes it worthwhile to create the game you have in mind. Research potential competitors as you are all targeting the same audience. Learn from their success or failure whether there is a broad enough audience that can support your app.

2. Product Road Map. Plan out the creation of your app. For example, if you are planning to launch on X date, then you might want to start blogging on Y date to raise awareness. By creating a product road map you are able to smoothly market your app while developing it.

Q2. When should your marketing efforts begin, and what should early marketing efforts include?

It is really important to start marketing from day one. The very beginning of the marketing process is knowing your target audience so that you are able to tailor your gameplay to that audience. Beyond that there are two things to focus on.

1. Building an Audience. While creating your game have an active presence on the blogs, forums, and other sites where your target audience spends their time. Utilize the social media channels and even create a blog of your own to share updates and information about the app.

2. Building a Network. Build a network of people who will promote your app. Follow the reporters, journalists, and bloggers who write about the games that you like and reach out to them before you launch. A great example of building a huge presence before their release is Sauropod Studio with their game Castle Story.

Q3. What elements go into making an effective App Store download page that will drive downloads for your game?

There are 5 key elements.

1. Killer App Icon. Create an app that engages the audience that is also able to convey to the audience what the game is about. Avoid text in icons.

2. Great Description. Most people will only read the first sentence, so focus on making that first sentence as engaging as possible.

3. Benefits List. Instead of a features list, have a benefits list. People aren’t interested in the real-time rendering or physics behind the game. They want to know about what they are getting (#of levels, characters, boss battles etc.).

4. Imagery. We live in a visual world so we need to rely on engaging images that accurately portray what the app is all about. Use informative but simple image captions to help tell the story.

5. Ratings/Reviews. Ratings and reviews are the word-of-mouth marketing in the app world. Make sure you have really strong positive reviews as they show what fellow gamers thought about the game.

Q4. How can you use in-app advertising without driving alway the people who use your app?

Take ownership of how advertisements are incorporated into your game.

1. Ad Placement. Places ads in between levels or during loading screens. Try to minimize actual gameplay interruption as much as possible.

2. Be Selective. Be smart about the ads you allow in your app. Don’t incorporate low quality grainy ads that lower the overall quality look of your app and tarnish your skill as a developer.

3. Competitors. This should be incredibly obvious, but, do not show ads of your competitors. Driving traffic away from your app to a competitor = bad for business.

4. Testing. Be aware of how ads are affecting the session use. If the number of app sessions start to fall consider lowering the amount of times ads are placed during a session.

Q5. Do your marketing efforts end when a person downloads your game? How can you continue marketing efforts to keep them engaged even after they purchase the game?

No, the marketing never stops! This is some of the most challenging marketing to do, especially if you are a free app relying on advertising

1. Addictive Gameplay. The best way to bring back to your app is through addictive gameplay. This is where the market research that you painstakingly conducted on even before development comes into play. You know your audience, and you have tailored your gameplay to them in a way that will bring them back.

2. Frequent updates. Updating your app on a consistent basis will help keep  your audience engaged and coming back. If you forget about the people using your app they will forget about you. Frequent updates lets your audience know you are continuing to build for them, and they appreciate it.

3. Out of App Marketing. Don’t forget about your out of app marketing. Your blog, game forums, sites, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest… the list goes on. Continuing to be active in your social community and other communities will help keep people in the loop about your app. These are all pieces of the solution and the best success is achieved combining all these pieces together.

Q6.  How can you drive positive ratings and reviews for your game?

1. Amazing Gamplay. It’s simple and hard at the same time, but amazing gameplay is what will undoubtedly drive in great ratings and reviews.

2. Negative Feedback. It is hard to create a game with the perfect type of gameplay for any audience, so embrace the negative feedback. Reach out to those who give you negative feedback and encourage them to share more information about what was wrong. People who post negative reviews like to be heard. App developers should try reaching out to people who leave negative feedback to make them feel important, and more importantly, involved. Show them that you have considered their feedback and improved upon it and ask for another review. Most likely the person who left negative feedback will become one of your biggest advocates because of the time you spend talking with them.

3. Friends, Family, the Network. Utilize your friends, family, and audience that you have built during development, including those more influential bloggers, journalists, and game reviewers.

4. Apptentive. Apptentive is a great tool for app developers to use to connect with their customers. Apptentive helps you intercept the negative feedback from reaching the app store, engage with your audience, and make sure that the positive ratings and reviews roll in.

Be sure to visit Indie Game Girl at www.IndieGameGirl.com, and connect with her on Twitter @IndieGameGirl and Facebook!




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App Developer Conversations: What to think about new devices from Amazon and Nokia

By: Robi Ganguly

In this week’s App Developer Conversations with Ian Sefferman of MobileDevHQ and Ryan Morel of PlacePlay we discussed the new devices from Nokia and Amazon and talked about if app developers should care.

We had a couple key observations:

  • Microsoft and Nokia continue to be poor at sharing specifics: where are the dates and prices?
  • Amazon’s always been aggressive about pricing, now they’re being even more explicit that they don’t care about margins on their devices

Watch to find out more and be sure to see the other two segments from this week:

The Transcript:
Robi: Hello. Welcome to another edition of App Developer Conversations. I
am here with Ryan Morel of, PlacePlay, and Ian Sefferman, of
MobileDevHQ. I am Robi Ganguly, of Apptentive. This week we are
going to talk about various introductions on the platforms, from
the hardware perspective, and how to think some more about
platform decisions.

To kick it off, a couple of new devices have come out this week,
that are a big deal, one from Microsoft/Nokia and one from
Amazon. Do you want to talk a little bit about the new Lumia
device from Nokia and what it means for Windows Phone 8?

Ryan: I think it is clearly a really nice device, they look great, and
obviously, they take good advantage of Windows Phone 8, which is
a beautiful operating system. It is still the same problem that
Microsoft and Nokia have had for the last year, they announce
something, there is no pricing, no distribution, or no date, so
it is much ado about nothing at this point. For them, that is
the last thing they can really afford. They have to make an
impact and make an impact quickly if they want to be meaningful
in the market.

Robi: What are your thoughts?

Ian: I think that is exactly right. It is such a beautiful platform and
they are such beautiful devices, but nobody cares so what is the
big deal? It is not going to affect anybody’s lives at this
point. I think that Amazon’s announcement was way more
interesting for virtually everybody, certainly in this room, and
probably watching this. Kindle is on fire, and the new Kindle
devices are awesome and really intriguing, and Amazon’s strategy
as a whole is really interesting. I just like the fact that they
have changed up the business model to the whole
hardware/software platform. I am super-excited about those.

Robi: I think that just over the last 48 hours, watching the way that these
two companies approach their announcements, what they are doing,
and how they are executing is really instructive. On one side we
got Microsoft/Nokia having this huge event and saying, ‘These
great things are coming. Look at it. Wow. We got no date, no
pricing, but hold your breath. Then we got Amazon that says, in
the same way that Apple does, ‘Here is this awesome stuff. Let
us blow you away with some stats on how it is working, and how
many people are now reading books on these devices versus
actually buying books, and you can order it this afternoon. Here
is an email and here is a link to do it.’ It is just a very
different delivery.

Ian: It is clear that Jeff Bezos is the heir to Steve Jobs’s throne, in
terms of anybody else in the world who has the presentation
power and celebrity status, Jeff is the only one out there, I
think.

Ryan: Yes, and rock star presentation, I would agree. I am not sure that I
would agree, in terms of strategy and what the product produces.
Amazon has done a fantastic job, there is no question about
that, they are the only company that can compete with Apple, in
terms of distribution, but I don not look at any Amazon device
and say, ‘I want that.

I think the services are nice, but it does not necessarily blow
me away, from a hardware perspective. Maybe the new Kindle Fire
will be that way, but I do think, to your point Ian, it is a
fascinating flip of the business model and following the app
market’s [inaudible: 03:43]. ‘We are going to give this stuff
away for nothing,’ not nothing, ‘And try to make money on
services.’ I think the question for them becomes, can they
really make enough money on content to get their margins to a
place where they need to be in order to scale that to big
numbers? I do not know. How much content do people really buy?

Ian: The interesting thing is that Amazon does not care about margins.
Unlike almost every other company, Amazon says, We are OK with
2% margins as long, as we do it on $100 billion of revenue.’

Robi: That is right.

Ryan: They are going to have to start caring at some point though, it is
inevitable. Right now, their stock price is heavily inflated, so
unless they start showing margin growth, that is going to go the
other way. Maybe they can keep selling the story to investors,
‘All these online services are going to make money over time,’
but as you move down the timeline, it becomes a harder sell.

Robi: I think they think of themselves as Walmart. If they are the next
generation of the store that everybody goes to, which it seems
in many ways, online, they already are, then margins do not
matter as much if you got the breadth and the coverage,
globally. I think as an app developer, what is really
interesting is that not only are they bringing you this stuff in
a way that is similar to Apple, in terms of saying, ‘Here it is.
It is ready and you can order it,’ but they are also saying,
‘And we are awesome at taking credit cards. We are going to make
you a lot more money.’ That is not a piece that is coming in the
Microsoft/Nokia story about new devices, about how many people
are making money. Steve Ballmer’s comment about the next big
game is going to be on Windows 8 seems to ring hollow when you
look at actual numbers of how many people are buying things on
these various platforms.

Ryan: I think, just in my head as we are talking about this, there are two
big announcements: Nokia/Microsoft and Amazon. We have spent all
of our time so far talking about Amazon. That shows how little .
. . we just do not know anything about the Nokia/Microsoft
stuff. No developer, do developers even have the SDK so they can
start developing for Windows 8? The Lumia is going to come out,
and people say, ‘It is a beautiful device.’ There are no apps,
other than ones that Microsoft paid hundreds of thousands of
dollars for, and there is a new iPhone, and all these new great
Kindle devices.

Robi: I think that wraps up our first piece, talking about the new devices
and stuff that has come out this week. Stay tuned for our next
segment, where we discuss platform decisions and how you should
be approaching it.

Ian: How does a developer choose which platform they should go for first,
between iOS, Android, Amazon, Microsoft, and even in there
perhaps between . . .

The lean app developer and customer communication

By: Robi Ganguly
lean

Being lean = less waste

It seems like everywhere you turn these days, there’s another great piece on the importance of “Being Lean.” Learning from Eric Ries, Steve Blank, David Cohen & Brad Feld and many others really drives home the point that startups should move faster, focus on developing customers and testing hypotheses. We are huge proponents of the lean methodology, as evidenced by our presentation at the Lean Startup Seattle pitch event.

They’re not just lessons in books, however – every successful app developer we’re working with has an incredible focus on 3 important things:

  • Finding their core customers,
  • Figuring out how to make them happier,
  • Focusing on the things they care about the most.

A major benefit of the lean methodology is that you AVOID building features that customers don’t want. We think that this is extremely relevant to app developers because users expect applications to just work. The more complex you make your app in a vacuum, the more hypotheses you’re making about users’ wants and needs. This tends to result in apps that are confusing and overly burdensome on new app users. So, we urge you to keep your apps simple to begin with and to learn and grow with your customers in order to be more successful and efficient.

Customer service & communication: your secret weapon

At Apptentive, we are driven to provide powerful yet simple tools for direct customer communication so that app developers can build the best apps possible. When done well, customers don’t need to be “sold” or “marketed to”, they just need to try your app out for themselves and let it speak to them. Customer communication is absolutely vital to the process of innovation: it allows you to learn. Information directly from consumers about what’s working for them and what is causing friction helps you assess your execution against your goals.

We came across an interview with Eric Ries on the Assistly blog that was incredibly relevant to how we think about customer communication and app development. Eric addresses why customer service is critical to learning (emphasis ours):

ABS: How would you rate the role of customer service and support in the lean startup?

It’s very, very important, but it must be understood correctly. In larger companies customer service is seen as a cost center, a necessary evil, not related to the mission. Marketing and product development are outbound functions, and customer service is seen strictly as inbound. That’s extremely shortsighted because we’re really better off trying to have a deep understanding of the customer and their behaviors. Customer service is really a learning function.

We can do so much more to integrate support into product development to tighten that loop. It’s easy to say but hard to do. Most companies do not have a way to value this “validated learning.” At the end of the day you can have all your slogans, but what are you actually doing?  You need actionable data. That’s why I advocate the tenets of the lean startup—rapid experimentation, shorter development cycles, and measuring actual progress to learn what customers really want.

Learning from customers has never been easier

Today’s consumer environment has trained people to speak up and share their thoughts and opinions any time, any where. Whether it’s on Facebook, Twitter, their blog or directly in your app, customers expect to be heard when they speak up. This means that as an app developer you have a huge advantage: simple solicitations of feedback are consistent with user expectations. You don’t have to teach customers to help you out – they’re ready and waiting for you to ask and listen.

Your opportunity awaits you – are you going to trust Eric, Steve, Brad, David and the rest of the people urging you to listen to your customers?

(for those of you totally unfamiliar with the lean startup principles, we suggest stepping through the slides below, they’re very helpful and a quick overview)

Lean Startup presentation for Maples Investments by Steve Blank and Eric Ries

View more presentations from Eric Ries









App developers: stop obsessing over downloads

By: Robi Ganguly

imageThe team over at GigaOm has been really crushing it lately, highlighting the importance of user experience and the importance of software that evokes emotions, like happiness[link]. Both Om and Ryan Kim have been pointing to the overwhelming use of statistics and numbers as marketing “crutches”. Ryan writes in his piece, “Please, app makers, give me more than download stats” that:

It seems I get a daily email boasting about an app and its millions of downloads. It starts to feel like a game of one-upmanship, as startups jockey for bragging rights over the maximum number of downloads in the shortest amount of time.

On one hand, I think it’s great to see apps thriving and startups coming out of nowhere with encouraging success stories. But at the same time, I’m starting to get tired of — and a little skeptical about — these numbers. Yes, saying you can get millions of downloads is noteworthy, but what I want to hear is how many of these users are still around in a week, a month, after six months, and how often are they engaging? Basically, I want more information than a simple download number can give.

YES, YES, YES!

In our quest to help app developers connect with their consumers and make better apps we are always asking how valuable any one app is to the consumer. Our belief is that we’re sprinting towards a reality in which there is infinite consumer software. Sure, your app might be able to get a huge amount of downloads and garner a significant amount of “buzz”, but what are those downloads worth to you if most people try your app out once and never think about it again?

Instead of focusing on downloads on touting those numbers when talking about your app, we’d love to see app developers talking about:

  1. Monthly active users
  2. What an average active user looks like in terms of usage. Games and utilities tend to have very different user profiles.
  3. How they’re iterating on their app in order to be more successful with the people who install their app.

If we, as an industry, are to evolve beyond the idea that apps are cheap and disposable, we need to be talking about the deeper stories behind apps – who’s using them and why. As Ryan and Om both suggest, the simple story told by the download metric is a story that implies that the importance of app development is in getting a download, not in meeting real consumer needs. At Apptentive, we believe that the real work in app development lies in successfully providing software that consumers want, are delighted by and ultimately, love.

So, developers, we challenge you to talk more about your serious, returning consumers and to tell us about how you’re working to meet their needs. We’d love to hear in the comments about stories you have about figuring out when you’ve really resonated with a consumer and what it taught you about how to make your next version even better.

App developers for multiple platforms need to plan ahead

By: Robi Ganguly

 

Jon Evans wrote an open letter to Apple and Google on behalf of iOS and Android developers. It’s an elegant letter with many strong insights into some of the limitations on each platform that are really hindering app developers. We wanted to point you in its direction in order to highlight a few key points that we think are important to all app developers:

    1. Developing an app on a platform binds you to the platform’s strengths and weaknesses.
      As Jon highlights at the beginning of his post, many of the reasons for an app being deficient can be traced back to the design of the platform it has been built on. No garbage collection on iOS means the developers have to commit to being very diligent about memory management.
    2.  Developing for multiple platforms means that you have to be more thoughtful in order to provide a similar experience across platforms.
      If you’re releasing apps for iOS, Android and Windows Phone 7 at the same time and want your apps to be very similar, it’s important that you plan ahead and take into account the differences in the platforms that might impact your design decisions. We’ve seen many an app that was designed for iOS and then “ported” to Android suffer from an expectation that they would be able to accomplish the same UI tricks and polish. It’s much easier to plan ahead and understand how the limitations will translate in your design than to be working on a hackish fix at the nth hour.
    3. For now, at least, the most flexible development machine is a MacBook.
      As Jon points out, it’s impossible to develop iOS apps on anything other than a Mac, which is a real shame. This means, however, that if you’re a developer, looking around at new hardware, you should probably be looking at the MacBook Pros if you plan on releasing any iOS developers. It’s hard to keep track of the number of developers we’ve talked with who haven’t realized this until a bit too late.

Are you an app developer for multiple platforms? Let us know in the comments what else you’d recommend to your peers in terms of planning and resources. Developing great apps is tough enough without having to worry about all of the ins and outs of each platform Smile.