#32 - Build A Successful Shopify App - Get more reviews 🚀

It's almost Christmas! And also the end of the year.

And installs are getting lower every day 😭

Let's take the positive. Fewer installs mean fewer support tickets and fewer problems. We'll rest a little and keep working on improvements.

Based on my experience we see installs increasing at the end of February. So if you're like me and getting fewer installs, no worries!

When I started with Shopify Apps I struggled to get reviews on the App Store. Yet they were so important. The more reviews you receive and the better your ranking.

I was getting installs but I wasn't getting reviews. So I asked Shashank from PushOwl and Ariyeh from Reconvert:

"How do I get more reviews?"

And they shared with me something very simple: "If you want more, ask for more"

You see, I wasn't asking people to leave a review on the App Store. I thought it was natural for people to do it, but then I thought about all the great apps I use and the fact I never left a review.

But I would happily do it if the founders asked me so. I was just not thinking about it

So we started to ask for reviews everywhere: Emails, In-app, after the onboarding, and some email campaigns.

But I was still struggling so I asked again: "People don't reply, what should I do?"

And they told me the best moment to ask for a review is after helping the user. So go ahead and ask for a review every time you're helping someone.

And that's what I did, at the end of every conversation I had in the live chat, I asked for a review.

And it was way better! People started actually to leave a review.

But I wanted more, it wasn't enough. And so I also asked: "What if I don't have any problem so people don't contact support, how would I get reviews?"

And I received one of the best replies with an incredible aha moment:

"If they don't contact you on the live chat, you need to contact them yourself"

So you contact people on the live chat when they open the dashboard so you catch them at the perfect time and engage with them.

At some point, you'll find something to optimize in their business and that's when you can ask for a review.

(You can also create fake bugs on your app and wait for people to contact you but I don't recommend it 🤫)

The process

Here is what we did to optimize the process:

• When someone opens the dashboard, we create an alert straight to Slack

• In this alert you can give some information like: how long they've been using the app, how much they made, etc...

• In this alert you add a link to your support tool (we use Crisp) to engage the conversation with the user

• So you can directly open the link and send a message to the user right when they open the dashboard a.k.a best moment to contact them!

I hope you enjoyed this email

See you next week,

Mat