Helpshift’s Weekly App Review: How Spotify Can Retain Monetized Users
Helpshift’s Review Analytics gives a thorough, actionable breakdown of what people say about your product in the app store. You now have the ability to transform honest feedback into a solid product development and marketing strategy. Every week I’ll provide data-driven insights for an app based on its publicly available user ratings.
Spotify had a global average review score of 3.8 on iOS, excluding ratings without a review attached.
Spotify’s music streaming and sharing service has maintained excellent sentiments all month. Most people enjoy their experience, and these good reviews definitely encourage more potential listeners to download the app. Let’s see what Spotify is doing right by checking the phrase “pretty good”:
Reviews show an interesting trend from Spotify’s paid listeners. They love the app enough to spend $9.99/mo for Premium, but still leave 3 star reviews in the app store. One listener complains that the app is “Not working [at the moment]” and asks “Spotify team, please fix this ASAP!!!” This means Spotify just got a bad review (and likely lost subscriber revenue) due to a temporary problem.
Premium listeners expect premium service when they have an issue. More importantly, they want to feel heard. Bizzby explains how customer service defines brand and how customers perceive you; on-demand is all about trust between the client and service provider. When that expectation isn’t met, the client will stop relying on the service altogether. Bizzby integrated in-app messaging to solve their clients’ issues in a way that solidifies future business.
Spotify’s product is great enough that listeners are convinced to subscribe. Once they subscribe, they expect a more personalized listener experience. Spotify can avoid public complaints and bolster paid retention by enacting the same strategy that Bizzby did–a private method of communication when something goes wrong. For instance:
Customer feedback is a proven way to iterate your product. In this case, a paid listener has detailed the features that would retain their business (thus improving LTV). That paying listener left a 3 star review because having an innovative product vision is not the same as meeting customer expectation with excellent service. Spotify has an amazing desk platform where emailing is easier, and could retain more subscribers by utilizing mobile solutions that enable the same frictionless result.
Overall:
- Spotify’s paid listeners certainly think the product is good enough to pay for, but are ironically leaving 3 star reviews in the app store when something temporarily goes wrong. Spotify could fix this with a direct messaging platform that keeps the conversation between client and service while the problem gets solved.
- Premium services will positively affect brand perception. When a listener subscribes, Spotify could offer a more customized welcome that makes listeners want to stick around through product troubles.
- Reviews offer relevant advice on how to retain customers’ business. Spotify would retain more monetized users by letting them know natively that requested features are underway. Customers will happily tell others about the announcement–improving both retention and acquisition at the same time.
Improving your mobile app reliably is all about data-driven feedback. We’re happy to help. To get a free ratings breakdown, contact me at [email protected].
