#5 Transforming App Reputation Management with the help of AI

Customer ratings & reviews are a part of the app reputation. They can be the driving force behind an app's success or its downfall. All successful apps and games have a rating of at least 4.0—and that’s due to good reviews, and management of said reviews. (unless their superiority on the market is just too overwhelming). So, managing these reviews should be a top priority for any business in any customer-facing industry, including the mobile app domain.

At AppFollow , we’ve always understood this imperative, which is why we’ve incorporated AI into our review management process. But where is it going? What is the future for it? Is it really a substitute for the ole’ human connection? Let’s find out.

Why AI is the answer to many challenges of today

Customer feedback comes from various corners, not just the app stores. Think about social media comments, forum posts, or feedback on dedicated review platforms like G2. The challenge here is twofold:?

• Each platform has its own tone and context, which means a one-size-fits-all response won't work
• Interpreting so much data manually is a monumental task

This is where ChatGPT can excel if applied correctly.?Kudos to OpenAI .

It can easily adapt to different platforms, understanding the context and sentiment behind each review, regardless of its source. This cross-platform capability ensures that you maintain a consistent brand voice everywhere.

What makes ChatGPT particularly valuable is its ability to perform smart analysis on the reviews. It's all about understanding what’s actually going on. Is the customer genuinely happy or just sarcastic? Are they frustrated about a feature, or is it a more general complaint? Getting the right response in can be much easier than before.

The AI’s ability to respond fast means you can manage higher volumes of reviews more efficiently, with relevant context at hand. This expansion in capability moves ChatGPT from being just a text enhancer to a proper review management system.

Crafting a message becomes quicker, helping you deal with a larger volume of reviews, and with AI assistance, the chances of grammatical errors or awkward phrasing are minimized. You can ensure that the tone remains consistent across all responses.

Bringing AI aboard at AppFollow

While AI-powered responses are already a feature available at AppFollow—automation and the chance to use AI-based responses that automatically guess what you’d like to write into the response window—there will be more.

Bulk AI

So, individual responses are sorted. But what happens when you're flooded with a barrage of reviews? Manual methods or even traditional algorithms won't cut it—you need something more powerful.

This is where you will be able to select groups of reviews by sentiment—positive, negative, neutral—and then have AI send out personalized responses for each category. Whether you’re dealing with a crisis or basking in a surge of 5-star reviews, wouldn’t it be nice to handle it in minutes, instead of days or weeks?

Full automation

Our next goal is to introduce complete automation in review management. This would mean that AI will not only generate but also send responses based on tags and sentiments. Here’s why it’s worthwhile:

• It frees up human agents to focus on more complex tasks
• The AI never sleeps—24/7 support!
• Automated responses can be analyzed for performance, providing actionable insights for further improvement
• The AI is incredibly good at understanding what the sentiment is about, even with little contextual information

For those not ready to fully commit to AI-driven responses (coming soon!), auto-tagging can be a stepping stone. What it does is this: sift through the incoming reviews and categorize them based on their content. This helps in organizing the reviews and provides the human agents with a clearer picture of what the customer base is talking about.?

Would the use of AI be ethical?

Indeed, the use of AI inevitably raises questions about ethics. While AI takes over some tasks, there’s no compromise on data privacy. The challenge is to ensure that AI-generated responses don't come off as robotic but have a human touch. This involves rigorous testing to align the AI with your brand’s voice.

The standard tone of voice used by ChatGPT is quite easy to spot, and likely soon to join a phenomenon known as Banner blindness. “Feels like it was written by ChatGPT” is now a common statement met on Reddit, various articles on the net, and other media platforms.?

If you use AI in your projects when it comes to customer-facing tasks, make sure to personalize it and avoid common constructions. Pro tip: ChatGPT’s standard style follows this structure in just about every paragraph: intro, point A, point B, comparison between points A and B, and summary.?

Final thoughts

Artificial Intelligence is a strategic asset in managing mobile app reviews, especially when high review volumes are concerned. The question isn't whether you should integrate AI into your review management strategy, but how quickly you can do it to stay competitive.

For us, AI is a toolkit that we’re continually honing to provide a more efficient, effective, and responsive review management system. It empowers customer, product, and marketing teams, and helps them do more with less. With advancements in AI showing no signs of slowing down, we're excited about the endless possibilities it holds for revolutionizing customer service in the mobile app industry—and beyond.

What do you think about the use of AI for customer-facing challenges and tasks?