Our first Marble Jar app review is in.
It is not good.
I read it on my iphone on Sunday night when I was at a party with the family. Hosted at a log cabin, with great pot luck fare and a firepit it was a wonderful summer evening that sort of makes everything seem balanced. Friends food, family, and flambe– in the form of this review.
I’d like to tell you that my thick skin and I got through the evening uncharred, but I can’t. I moped around and felt sad. I was generally a poor party guest.
I wrote my LA team to ask for the protocol in responding to bad press. They asked me to pass my response by them before I submitted but gave no particular feedback. (‘Didn’t do’, as our British soccer coach would say (imagine the accent it helps)) My friend Nicole from PMG gave concise instructions (yet another reason she is great at her job)
- Thank the blogger for taking the time to write the review and preview the product
- Apologize for any negative experiences that they had
- Reframe those experiences [so, here I would offer that while the ipad experience was not ideal, the iphone experience is flawless. talk about what your team is doing on the next round of updates for those with ipad apps, etc.}
- offer a personal walk though of the product – if warranted
- offer a link to other user reviews
- re read before you post and answer any questions that she/he posed
I did some of that. Perhaps some of you will do all of that. It is a good formula.
Here is what I wrote:
Tracy,
Thank you for taking the time to review my app marble jar.I was sorry to read that you were disappointed in your experience.
There are a few tips I can give you and your readers to make it better as I work to build an iPad optimized version of the app.
I would recommend hitting the 2x button to enlarge the app to the full size of the iPad screen, this is how my four year old uses it…it eliminated the black bars and makes the key board twice as large.Additionally you can tap the “shake the refresh” button on the tips screen to see use tips and parenting suggestions. I will relabel the button with my first update next week. That should prevent anyone from shaking his/her phone so hard that it flies across the room!
I would love to hear whether of not you tried it with your kids. As I iron out the technical wrinkles I would be curious whether or not your kids respond to the app as much as mine have.Last night at dinner my 6 year old proposed that we build a “donation” jar where we can add marbles for each dollar that he gives away to our local King Street Youth center here in Burlington Vermont. I liked the idea but thought he was finding a loop hole..(he would donate the money but at the end ask for a toy of his choice.) When I asked him what his celebration would be when the jar was full he replied: “You would buy me a star wars lego toy….to give to the kids there.”
It is as a framework for conversations like this one (initiated by my kid) that I find value in the app. Amongst our morning routine jars, and sleepover jars you will find “healthy choices”, “happy earth” and as of this morning: “donations.” What a great way to practice growing into the people that we hope to be.
I hope you and your readers give the app a try. I will let you know when it is optimized for iPad for sure!
Thanks again
Anna
I almost signed it “the mom who put her savings into this app so that you could use it with your kids but you didn’t cover that part at all.” However that didn’t seem to fit with the PMG protocol. I wish I could have virtually included a drop of blood or sweat or one of the 10,000 emails between the developer and I as we debated the “shake to refresh” feature amongst others.
Its tough for me to rebut the “its not for me” approach though. Letting everyone figure out what is for them is pretty much the theme of my life, and this app.
Here are a few technical tips, which may or may not be for you.
How to make an iPhone app fill your iPad screen
App can fill iPhone screen if you prefer it to be larger...
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Oh, Anna. I am so sorry that you are going through the emotional roller-coaster here.
I still believe that there is no such thing as bad press (unless of course you are one of the recent strands of politicians making bad choices. See: news headlines from the past six months). While a glowing review is what you can hope for, when a review that does not meet your expectations appears it creates opportunity for you to have a voice. This is especially true now that most news sites operate like a blog allowing comments.
This is actually a really good topic for a post that I should write for those investing in public relations… more over there this week.
Call me if you need a shoulder or sounding board.
Nicole
Hi Anna,
I’ve dealt with my share of negative reviews, and they can just be a punch to the gut. I don’t think people realize how much heart and soul is put into businesses, and how their public criticism can do more harm than good.
Your response was just right, and I’m glad you did respond. Sometimes reviews can be helpful, if something needs to be improved upon. But sometimes folks just don’t understand.
[…] Palmer was not happy with my recent review of Marble Jar. She wrote a rebuttal to the review here and it led me to ponder the underlying reason for my dissatisfaction with […]