What happens when app developers do not just read your reviews, but actually act on them?
- Shirin Yazgulieva
- Sep 3
- 6 min read
Written by Shirin Yazgulieva (IMT Atlantique)
When was the last time you downloaded an app and left a review after using it once? If you are like most people (70%), you probably never opened it again. But what if your review had the power to shape the future of that app?
In a recent study published in the International Journal of Research in Marketing, researchers Zeynep Aydin Gokgoz, M. Berk Ataman, and Gerrit H. van Bruggen explore a question that lies at the heart of digital product design today: How do app users respond when developers truly engage with their feedback – not just by replying, but by building on it?
Turns out, consumers are paying close attention.
From curiosity to code: a research story
The paper, rooted in Zeynep’s PhD journey, began not with a question, but a pile of journals. Rather than prescribing a research question, her advisor, Berk, handed her journals and encouraged her to find a topic that truly interested her. What stood out to her were mobile apps – a new, booming space at the time, filled with unknowns and unlimited data. What fascinated Zeynep was not only which apps were downloaded or deleted, but also what kept users coming back. Reviews, updates, back-and-forth between consumers and developers… they all formed a goldmine for understanding real-time digital interaction. This real-world, empirical observation became the foundation of the research project. The authors decided to explore why different updates trigger different types of user feedback, and what that tells us about how consumers evaluate developer actions.
“I remember very vividly when Zeynep showed us a graph of updates alongside the distribution of star ratings. She said, ‘Is this not amazing? It looks like certain updates trigger one kind of reviewing behavior, while others lead to something entirely different.’ There was definitely something going on here. We just did not know what yet. That moment was fascinating. It was clear there was a pattern worth exploring.”
-M. Berk Ataman
And that was the start of a research odyssey spanning years, countless lines of scraped review data and update logs, and an ever-deepening sense that something more fundamental was at play: users were watching.
The Long Road from Data to Insights
What followed was a long and technically challenging data collection process. To unpack this user-developer interaction, the team analyzed millions of app reviews and update logs across the App Store. After dedicating countless hours to carefully analyzing the data, the authors succeeded in organizing the updates into core categories and systematically extracting user requests related to these categories from the reviews. They focused on how specific types of updates, such as adding new features versus fixing bugs, impacted user ratings. The impact was particularly significant when the updates were timed closely to relevant feedback.
What emerged was a complex choreography of digital trust. When developers updated apps in direct response to user concerns, star ratings improved. But when updates seemed tone-deaf or mistimed, ratings declined. Surprisingly, the impact on star ratings was less about the update itself and more about when and why it happened.
Talk is cheap, action is not
In a world where brands flood inboxes and interfaces with promises of "We’re listening”, this research flips the script. The team did not just study what users say. They studied how users react when developers take action.
"It is not just about saying, ‘Thank you for your review.’ It is about showing that you have actually made a change and doing it in a timely way. That is when users feel seen.”
-Zeynep Aydin Gokgoz
“The essence of this paper is about going beyond just responding to user reviews. It is about actually doing what users ask. Users are paying attention to your product development process, and the actions you take based on their feedback can lead to rewards or penalties.”
-M. Berk Ataman
Where it goes after
One avenue for future work is to explore which users are more valuable. Big developers cannot act on every review, so the next question could be how to decide which feedback to prioritize.
“This is one of the first studies to look at the consequences of active responses. Not just passive replies to reviews, but actual product changes. And that opens the door to a lot of future research and practical insights. […] It would be great to explore which users are more valuable. Big developers cannot act on every review. So how do you prioritize?”
-Zeynep Aydin Gokgoz
“We tried to theorize the pattern: ongoing interaction between feedback, updates, and user response. It is a pattern worth exploring further.”
-M. Berk Ataman
This is just the beginning of a bigger conversation about how users shape products, and how firms can listen smarter. As digital platforms evolve, and with real-time feedback becoming the norm, closing the loop between the customer voice and managerial action won’t just be a competitive edge. It will be a necessity.
Read the paper
Interested in reading all the details about how user feedback and developer actions impact app success? Read the full paper here.
Want to cite the paper?
Gokgoz, Z. A., Ataman, M. B., & Van Bruggen, G. H. (2024). If it ain’t broke, should you still fix it? Effects of incorporating user feedback in product development on mobile application ratings. International Journal of Research in Marketing.
Meet Zeynep Aydin Gokgoz
If you were not in academia, what would you be doing?
During high school and also part of university, I dreamt of being a writer. So, I think I would pursue that path, probably write novels this time instead of articles. I think the motivation for writing novels and articles is similar. The creativity part is there. The puzzle-solving is kind of there, but the love of literature and narrative is definitely there. [...]I think the difficulty of being a researcher and a writer is also similar. In my opinion, it is basically staying with ambiguity long enough to create something out of it.
What do you love most about research?
I am a statistician, an industrial engineer, and a marketing scholar. [...] I think I'm drawn to research because it helps me to make sense of how people navigate in a world that is kind of complex, has a lot of choices and is full of noise. So, I love to see some patterns, structure those around models, but also keep the curiosity and the creativity part. [...] I think it is basically puzzle-solving and storytelling combined.
What is one marketing idea you would keep above all others?
I think I'm going to go with the customer experience. [...] Because it is about how they feel about it when they interact with a product, a service, a brand, a platform, whatever it is that you present to them. [...] You need to still keep in mind that you should have some kind of empathy and imagination blended in. [...] It unfolds over time, it has layers, and it is shaped dynamically by each interaction.
Meet Berk Ataman
If you were not in academia, what would you be doing?
I think it would be in the performing arts, most likely theatre. Again, a creative endeavour like Zeynep. I do love telling a story on stage using all sorts of different elements, and I think writing papers is very similar to that. You tell a story from your own perspective using a variety of methods and techniques, and available tools.
What do you love most about research?
Any question that is asked where I don't know the answer to motivates me. I look at papers, I look at industry reports, and if there is no clear-cut answer or an answer that satisfies me, then it means there is something to be done there. [...] It has to be relevant. It has to be a question that someone who is doing business or research wants an answer to.
What is one marketing idea you would keep above all others?
If I have to pick something right now, I would say the first thing that comes to my mind is brand value or brand equity. I would retain that only. It is a combination of all the efforts, all the marketing efforts, everything that we do. And we can express it at various levels. [...] It is a very versatile concept, and it is the combination of the efforts.
This article was written by
Shirin Yazgulieva
Ph.D. candidate at IMT Atlantique (France)
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