We have two Android apps and we get our share of 1-star drive-bys. Usually less than 5% of those actually follow up with a feedback.
We answer EVERY user feedback including international users. I have Google Translate permanently open as a tab and reply in both English and their language.
Our responses have done three things for us:
- It's converted almost every 1-star we've received into a 5-star
- Our users praise us with lots of 5-star ratings just for our customer service
- We get far fewer impulse 1-stars. They read the comments and see that we really do follow up and fix things so they try that first.
I've also handled many very angry emails. With those I take time to explain fully what's going on as passively and politely as I can. Every one of those has turned around positively.
Finally, we don't like to say stuff like "Really sorry that you had to experience that". These days that sounds like the insincere spin we hear from big companies. We just get to the point and use a happy emoticon. I only apologize if it fits the mood.