When we started building VendorStack last summer, we knew that we could be an important resource for founders, executives, product managers and engineers on vendors that solve their biggest pain points. With that in mind, we released the “Top 50 Vendors Used by Startups” last September at our private beta launch. For our open beta launch, we are releasing VendorStack’s second infographic, “Seven Hard Questions Asked by Mobile Developers”.

In particular, we want to draw attention to three vendors that we identified in our infographic, Apptentive, MobileDevHQ and UserVoice.  We picked these three vendors because they solve one of the biggest problems for mobile developers: Getting bad ratings, especially bad ratings from very solvable problems.  

Bad ratings plague every business today because of services like Yelp, App Store and of course, VendorStack.  Business owners are particularly frustrated when an uninformed consumer gives a bad rating because of something outside the product’s control or user error.  For example, we’ve all come across our share of 1-star Yelp ratings for the restaurant goer who rates the restaurant poorly because it was raining out or something equally as silly.  The same is true for mobile apps.  If you read through some of the reviews made by users, they can be equally as frustrating.  Take a look at this review of the Facebook app made by … well just read it:

Obviously a crashing app is bad but there could be a multitude of reasons for that crash, some outside of Facebook’s control.  Facebook may not need to directly address these bad reviews because they’re Facebook and app discovery isn’t a problem for them.  But how about for the mobile apps who are just starting out?  Some bad reviews can do real damage to your app ranking.

Both Apptentive and UserVoice provide the mobile developer tools to better customer service and user management.  Apptentive triggers in-app feedback and surveys after certain user actions because an engaged user is more likely to be responsive to a rating request than one who isn’t using the app frequently.  UserVoice also has a relationship with crash reporting vendor, Crittercism, so that the developers know exactly what caused a user error.  Richard White, CEO of UserVoice explains the impact of bad ratings:

Good ratings don’t guarantee success in the App Store but bad ratings almost assuredly guarantee failure. The best way to prevent bad ratings is to build confidence from the first app load: build “need help? contact us” or “we’re here to help” or “give us feedback” language directly into your home screen. Ideally you’ll also link that to something like UserVoice for iOS not just an email pane. It shows that you have a system in place which shows that you’re invested in customer care.

Once you have your apps rated properly, you can use an App Search Optimization vendor like MobileDevHQ to track where and how you’re getting the most traction.  Getting 1-2 good ratings is only the first step to managing that customer relationship.

Thanks to all the developers, entrepreneurs and vendors who helped us build out “Seven Hard Questions Asked by Mobile Developers”.  We’re looking forward to helping you guys find better vendors, faster.  Each week, we plan on writing up a vendorstack for a particular subject so if you have questions/comments, contact us (maybe through our UserVoice feedback tool?)!

David and Dallas