Ask HN: What can you do with bad reviews?

kevinholesh · on Oct 26, 2009

Let me get this straight. You're making fun of your early adopters, the ones who tried your product and gave their honest feedback.

These are the ones you want talking about your product, getting TV stations behind it. Making fun of them is a great way to kill your company early. It may seem like fun now, but it won't be fun when none of them visit ovi.com again.

Turn them into your loudspeaker. Get them talking to the TV stations saying that they want their content on your product. The last thing you should be doing is criticizing them for your marketing problems.

icey · on Oct 25, 2009

Don't ignore your users, recruit them.

If your customers want more channels and the bottleneck is a TV station, let your customers know that you want to add new channels as well. Let them know that you haven't had much luck getting things done, and if they (your users) wanted to help, they could send an email to so-and-so at the TV station.

I'm a little amazed that you think it's even remotely OK to deride your users. Those are the people you work for, you know. If you treat them poorly they're likely to fire you.

pierrefar · on Oct 26, 2009

Oh man. Never make fun of users.

Instead, thank them for taking the time to write feedback, explain the situation, and (here is the most important bit) tell them what they can do about.

For example, set up a petition online asking a TV channel to open up on your platform, and ask them to sign it. Or give them address to a decision maker (could be a politician for example) and ask them to write to this person.

You can take this a step further: if a user says he/she works for a TV channel and is sad it's not there, ask them who you should talk to and ask for a referral. Likewise if they have a friend who works there.

You'll need a public page to manage these efforts that is the first port of call and one reference for everything. Say domain.com/more-channels . Anyting descriptive and memorable will do. On this page, write that this page is for helping users get more channels on the platform, and give them references along the tips I mentioned. ANY TIME you engage a user about this topic, provide a link to this page.

And don't forget to give your contact details on this page.

Good luck.

makecheck · on Oct 26, 2009

I haven't figured out why, but far too many people will (often anonymously) publicly eviscerate a product when they find a problem, without actually bothering to contact the maintainer for help.

It's sad, because there is often a perfectly valid reason for the issue; and the fix is often trivial, or at least, explainable.

There are a few defenses against unjustifiably-bad reviews. (I have had to deal with this personally.)

First, if you can become a member/poster on the forum with a rant against you, do it. Post a reply that identifies you as associated with the product, and clarify whatever the customer has apparently misunderstood; or, if it is a bug, instruct the person on how to provide more information to have the problem fixed. There is little chance that the fuming anonymous poster will ever see this, but they might; and either way, it shows others that you are doing your best to deal with the problem.

Second, forums sometimes have moderators who will accept complaints and remove remarks. Rants are often obvious; for instance, if everyone except one fuming moron is giving you 5 stars, a moderator shouldn't have any problem removing the offending post.

And third, be vigilant. It can be disheartening to have people publicly destroy your product, and sometimes all you can do is just keep working and make it better. At some point, the bad press will fade. It may well have caused some damage to your product's appeal in the short term, but in the long run your name will be considered one of the good brands.

DanielStraight · on Oct 26, 2009

Anything but what you did. That's about the worst thing you could've possibly done, so anything else at all would be a step up.

What the reviews indicate is that your product description is misleading. They aren't upset because you only have one channel. They're upset because they were deceived. If deception and derision are your idea of marketing, the sooner your product dies the better.

sammcd · on Oct 25, 2009

For this specific situation it is good to address the issue. However, you need to take ownership. This situation does depend on you. Getting channels is your problem.

The best way to address the issue is to work on the product. This isn't a bad review, this is a good user feedback.

colinplamondon · on Oct 26, 2009

Wow, you came across as an enormous dick. If I saw that on a product I was considering I would high-tail it away and purchase a competing product.

When someone tells me that my company's book app sucks because it doesn't have Twilight or Harry Potter, the answer isn't that they need to read the description. The answer is to apologize, explain the reasons we can't offer those titles, and offer a refund, no questions asked. I get at least three emails like that a day, too- we've only had one person to date ask for the refund. If you're nice to your customers, they're nice to you.

pclark · on Oct 25, 2009

its always better to engage the customer and explain and address complaints, why would you think you should do anything else?

ekpyrotic · on Oct 26, 2009

Your response is outrageous. Simply inexplicable.