Apple is making it easier for developers to interact with their customers by changing the rules concerning responses to App Store reviews.
Instead of being limited only to developers with admin access, Apple has now made it possible for the newly-created Customer Support developer roles to also respond to reviews posted on the Mac and iOS App Stores.
“Now you can let your customer support experts respond to reviews on the App Store,” Apple writes. “Simply assign them the Customer Support role in iTunes Connect, and they’ll get access to everything they need to respond to reviews.”
Apple’s new Customer Support role covers developer staff who previously held App Manager and Marketer roles, neither of which could respond to reviews. Under Apple’s new streamlining of the service, both of these roles were merged into one, while users who previously held the positions were automatically migrated over to Customer Support.
The ability for devs to respond to mean (or nice) reviews on the iOS and Mac App Store was added earlier this year, initially in the iOS 10.3 beta 1 and macOS 10.12.4 beta 1. iOS 10.3 introduced a new API called SKStoreReviewController allowing developers to ask users to rate or review an app while they’re using it.
When developers — or Customer Support staff — respond to a review, the user who posted the original review receives a notification informing them that their point has been addressed.
Do you think Apple makes it easy enough for developers to communicate with customers, and vice versa? Leave your comments below.
