Our most recent webinar, held in collaboration with Zendesk, went on to explore maximizing app success through customer support and feedback. After all, your users are everywhere, and with fierce competition in the market, the best customer support wins the most customers.

During this session, Karen Taborda, Customer Growth Team Lead at AppFollow, and Ryan Kao, Sr. Technology Administrator at Match Group, discussed this topic at length. Bringing Match Group's experience of managing 59 million monthly active users to the table will certainly offer you expert insights you won’t find elsewhere.

Below you will find a readable version of the webinar, which we recommend you watch in full. Enjoy!

The current landscape of the market

In short, the app market is cutthroat.

With everyone owning smartphones, users on average have around 80 apps installed—an intense competition for attention. People spend over three hours on their phones daily, checking them 58 times a day. Lifestyle apps are among the top five categories, with dating apps ranking high. Nearly half of U.S. adults aged 18 to 29 use online dating apps.

The market is oversaturated, and companies are swamped with feedback from multiple channels. Zendesk conducted a study interviewing several CX leaders from various industries—only 8% of CX leaders think AI is transforming customer experience, but about 70% believe that in three years, the traditional CX structure will be obsolete, replaced by a completely different industry dynamic.

It’s all about reputation and care. So, how to address that the right way?

How Match group works with customer feedback

When one thinks of Match, one probably thinks about Match.com, but Match has over 20 dating apps under its umbrella. These apps are available on both iOS and Google Play Store, where reviews are posted daily. Recently, the department underwent a restructure where care previously managed these reviews. Now, there is a push to involve marketing, as care and marketing share similar values. Match believes care is a form of marketing because good responses boost brand awareness.

The company is cultivating all these reviews, capturing them using automation and AI, and has established a process to meet with marketing monthly to deliver this feedback. For more immediate reviews, the primary focus is on monitoring bugs, as any app has them. This is a key focus for the care department because it impacts the user experience.

If a new app is launched, like the recent dating app for the Asian community which also includes social functionalities, there is more feedback due to its newness and added features. AppFollow helps us use their reporting tool to monitor these reviews, categorizing them as bugs or feedback.

Through that, a list is compiled and delivered to the marketing team, who then creates campaigns. They might even branch out to target specific feedback, such as from a sector in New York or a social community in San Francisco, by setting up a community chat within the app to give these people a space to talk.

Originally, care was viewed as merely handling customer inquiries, but as the company evolves with CX, it is becoming a partner with the end users and other parts of the business. The company is developing a way with the marketing, product, and development teams to hold monthly meetings to discuss feedback. These reports are pulled, compiled into a presentation for stakeholders, and from there, the data is used to build campaigns, deploy bug fixes, and improve the app. The level of involvement has increased compared to five years ago.

Working with automation

Since the start of 2024, Match Group has become 100% automated within AppFollow, meaning no agents are answering reviews. AppFollow has been engineered within Zendesk to automatically respond to one- and two-star reviews and directs users to contact the help center. The response varies depending on the issue; for privacy concerns, a tone-specific response is used, and for bugs, a different tone is applied.

With this kind of volume, it’s impossible to reply to every review manually. Implementing AI and automation helps scale the feedback loop.

The operation relies entirely on automation and templates because managing thousands of reviews from over 20 apps would be unmanageable for agents from both a business and cost perspective. AI improves this process—responses are triggered based on keywords detected in the app reviews.

The future of CX

Automation, especially when augmented by AI. Match Group uses both Zendesk and AppFollow, including their AI tools.

Tags within AppFollow are used to categorize feedback for insights. AppFollow integrates with Slack, which in turn allows feedback sharing with other teams. Significant insights, like an unusual number of reviews tagged with 'functionality' and 'bugs', are shared with the product or engineering team.

Handling reviews in multiple languages across over 40 countries, Match Group uses AI and automation for translation. Specific language teams, like the Paris office for Meetic, handle local reviews. Reviews are organized by geolocation; spikes in negative reviews from specific areas are addressed by local teams.

AI and automation will change many aspects of business, including customer support. However, it’s important not to lose touch with end users. As AI advances, there might come a time when users can't distinguish between AI and human interaction. But there must be heart and soul behind what you do. For example, at Match Group, AI is not allowed to handle safety or privacy issues because these need a human touch and compassion.

While AI may eventually develop these attributes, you have to maintain a connection with end users. Your care department is the voice for your customers, and businesses are starting to value this because care teams are on the front lines, understanding what's going on with the users.

On top of that, learn your demographic and use care and interactions with users as a marketing tool. Many newer companies focus heavily on marketing through billboards, ads, etc. While that's effective, if you don't have a large budget, focus on user interactions to build your brand.

To do that, use care as your marketing tool. If people see you're responsive and engaging, it drives brand sentiment high because they trust your brand and know you engage with them. In today's society, especially among teenagers and younger users, there's a demand for immediate responses, like the swipe feature on Tinder. They want quick resolutions.

While it would be great if all reviews were positive, most are negative. Addressing one to two-star reviews and understanding patterns should be your priority. This is where tagging and AI responses come in, allowing you to address issues right away.

Next, understand the data to determine if the issue is a pattern or a one-off, and share it internally with teams that can address the feature or bug. Focus on negative feedback first, then move up to positive feedback. People tend to gravitate towards negative feedback when evaluating an app, so addressing that comes first.

Afterword

Be sure to watch the entire webinar to hear these insights from the experts themselves. Or better yet, put these insights into action with AppFollow—automation and AI Replies will do wonders for any situation where user feedback needs to be addressed instantly.

FAQ

Does customer support mix with marketing?

Integrating customer support with marketing strategies will let you use user feedback to create targeted marketing campaigns. It’s especially useful for smaller companies.

Are automation and AI useful in customer feedback?

Automation and AI will help you manage large volumes—thanks to categorization and tagging. You will be able to respond faster and help your team focus on critical issues only.

Should negative reviews be addressed first?

Responding to negative reviews quickly shows users that their concerns are taken seriously. It also helps identify and fix recurring issues.