Happy customer telling me the description sucks
I have a scratch-my-own-itch on the Mac App Store for a while now. It's for scanning of QR/barcodes to then start some automation (scripts/workflows).
https://apps.apple.com/de/app/scancode/id1482517543?l=en&mt=12
You can basically use it to add products to a list for inventory. You can scan the code of a wire transfer slip to pass it to your banking software.
https://torstencurdt.com/tech/posts/qr-barcode-automation/
You could use it to scan, look something up and then print the result. You could use it for ticket admission control. The sky is the limit.
I got not many sales - but some. Some bad reviews from people not even bothering to give it a proper try. Not much you can do about that on the MAS except for outweighing them with good reviews - and so far none of those. Not a big deal as I wrote it for me but...
Now a new customer got in touch asking for support. Once he realized the App was indeed solving his problem he sent me this:
If you don’t mind some constructive critiscm - your app is incredible and I’ve needed something like this forever. No other app on the App Store really advertises this capacity - so you can corner the market here!! So it’s absolutely worth updating the description on the App Store to let people know what it can achieve! I took a punt as I was unsure if it would work - but it does 😊 and I’m so glad I purchased. Thanks for making such a great app!
This of course made my day. But it got me thinking. I am looking at the description and video and don't get what I could have done so much better. I fear I might still don't have enough distance to spot the problems.
I am have a new release coming up and I was wondering if anyone had some suggestions.
Thanks!
Ask him asap.
I did! But it wasn't really very actionable input. He explained how he (finally) found it. He then tried the free version - so he knew it would work. But he wasn't quite sure whether his use case was supported.
Which of course only depends only on the user. You can build anything with it.
The only take aways I managed to extract here is:
But I am not convinced that is all that is needed.
Ask him what did he seaarch for initially and which search term did your app show up in?
Add a line like 'Thanks for letting me know, I'll be very grateful for your reply' or something similar.
I did that. Unfortunately he searched for quite generic terms and then tried all the apps until he found mine.
That's still not bad.
Honestly, the name and description are pretty confusing for a non-technical person.
What is a script?
How do you create a script on an iPhone? Is that something a typical end user would do?
What's an Automator workflow?
In other words, I don't think any of the words (or not many of them) would be things that people would search for.
You have to write it so a 10-11 year old could understand it.
Maybe:
Perform repetitive tasks, automate workflows, and more on your iPhone or iPad using barcodes & QR codes.
You probably need to do some Googling for "iphone script", see how others describe it, and use similar wording.
Separately, I like the simplicity of the name "ScanCode", but it's hard to tell what makes it different. I assume there are a ton of barcode scanning apps in the App Store, but they likely aren't able to trigger automation rules. They are likely the typical barcode scanners.
If it were me, I'd update / change the name to make it more clear how your app is different from the other barcode/qr code scanning apps.
Much appreciate the input.
Unfortunately you didn't even realize this has nothing to do with iPhone/iPad, it's a macOS app - which actually emphasizes there is a problem with the description.
May I asked if you watched the video?
So far the app was targeted at people knowing what scripts and Apple Automator is. I didn't think anyone else would be interested. I guess providing more use cases and examples is important for the next update.
But let's be honest. This is a technical product. It is a niche product. Which also makes absolutely useless to compete on the keyword "barcode" alone. And all keywords I can come up with should be covered already.
Happy to help.
I don't have a Mac and I didn't see any any video on the listing from my Windows PC.
When I read the first part of the first sentence "select your camera", and also knew it had to do with barcode scanning, I automatically assumed mobile phone app.
That said, if your app only shows up for people that are looking at the App store from a Mac computer, they wouldn't likely make the same (wrong) conclusion I did.
Maybe it would be better to start with a paragraph that explains what ScanCode does. Your intro is "Select your camera, select the script and scan." That doesn't say much other than steps to use the app.
For example:
ScanCode utilizes barcodes or QR Codes to help you perform repetitive tasks, automate workflows, and more on your Mac computer or Mac notebook.
If you can automate a task utilizing Mac Automation Scripts (AppleScript), ScanCode can help make executing those scripts as simple ask taking a photo.
To get started, select your camera, select the script and scan. Upon a successful scan, ScanCode will execute the script or Automator workflow that you selected.
Just an idea...