Building a financial brand users love with user sentiment

A brand’s app rating can be a point of pride or a black eye. High app ratings can drive user growth and elevate brand reputation. Low ratings can lay waste to an entire digital strategy. One may think app ratings rely solely on the quality of an app, and what users choose is a process of natural selection. But without some intervention, an app rating may not be representative of the quality of an app.

Left untouched, app ratings typically only reflect negative sentiment, as 65% of users leave a rating or review after a bad experience (The Mobile Marketer’s Guide to App Store Ratings & Reviews, Apptentive). Without facilitating reviews from users who don’t usually share positive experiences, a vocal minority can bring the rating of a well-built and intuitive app well below its industry average.

App ratings by the numbers

How great is your digital experience? Most brands answer that by citing their app rating. But if your rating doesn’t reflect what you know you have, you’re not alone. On average, only 0.05% of users review an app, and less than half of users who leave a rating or review do so after a positive experience (Apptentive). 

Despite the skewed ratio between a low rating and satisfied users, your rating still matters to potential users. Of new users, 96% would consider downloading a 4-star app. Only 15% would consider downloading an app rated at 2-stars (Apptentive).

Provide a fuller picture of your digital experience

One more traditional way to gather diverse reviews is to simply ask for them — encourage users via your marketing channels to rate and review your app.

But you may have experienced an increasingly common method of capturing end-user sentiment: in-app prompts that ask users to leave feedback. These ratings prompts allow your FI to request feedback on their mobile experience from mobile app users. Users with positive sentiment are asked to share their experiences via a rating and review in their respective app store.

End users expressing negative sentiment are directed to one of two options:

• A survey where they can share their feedback with you and your digital provider without negatively impacting store ratings
• An app feedback section that allows for direct one-on-one communication with the user to resolve their specific issues

This path to improving your app rating not only helps build your brand and customer service reputation, but provides valuable feedback you can act on to meet business goals and grow user adoption and retention. 

How we get user feedback for our clients

When users give feedback to FIs on the Alkami Platform, our clients gain insights that help them make business decisions that can further improve their app rating.

To that end, we include Apptentive as part of our Platform. Apptentive provides a user feedback platform to shift unrepresentative rating trends while measuring shifts in sentiment from customer experience. We chose Apptentive as an out-of-the-box product to help capture true user sentiment and also gain more detailed feedback when a user is unsatisfied. 

Apptentive’s Rating Prompts only solicits ratings from pre-qualified customers. This facilitates positive ratings from satisfied customers and direct, actionable feedback (delivered out of public view) from unhappy users. What does this mean for our clients? Higher ratings, better reviews, and a better understanding of where they stand with their users. The relationship between FI and user also flourishes when users see their feedback incorporated into their digital banking experience.

Users become more loyal to brands that make them feel valued and heard. Taking an active role in managing user sentiment builds a brand people love.