Why App Store upgrade blurbs matter (looking at you, Tesco)

“Tesco’s got a mobile app,” I told my wife last week, “It’s pretty good too.”

She downloaded it and within 2 minutes had a transaction underway. She is mightily impressed.

“They made it really quick and easy,” was my wife’s initial feedback.

A very positive approval indicator from ‘control’ then. That and the eighty quid she spent via the app a few minutes later.

My issue with Tesco is this — the upgrade screen.

Now I know some people don’t read the text, preferring to hit ‘upgrade all’ and get on with their day, however on occasion I like to have a read. I like a bit of explanation. I don’t ask for much but — flipping heck — how about some properly formatted sentences?

How about a hello? How about a ‘thanks for your attention’ or ‘thanks for being a loyal customer’? I don’t know. Come on, this upgrade screen is really, really important. Countless companies seem to leave this screen to the bored-to-shit assistant work experience dude. And I use that term ‘dude’ deliberately.

This stage is a critically important juncture in the overall app experience, especially if I haven’t used the app for a while. I have not. I last had a peak at Tesco’s shopping app about 6 months ago; minimum.

So what a fantastic opportunity to get me excited about version 3.0? You’ve actually got a FULL screen of text to wow me. Maybe you might include some kind of commentary, or some ‘award winning’ quotes. Or perhaps just a humanising few sentences indicating that the Tesco team are really pleased and proud to present quite possibly their best work yet.

Tesco’s explanation text is, admittedly, a lot better than some I have seen. One of my favourite apps earned my complete annoyance by simply writing “bug fixes” on the upgrade screen. Nothing else. Great. That really encourages me to check out the app. That ‘sells’ it to me.

What it actually demonstrates is a poor or limited QA approach on the old version, if that’s all you’ve changed.

Reading Tesco’s upgrade description I certainly don’t see any reason to bother looking at the app. It reads like a sparse summary of what the developers have been working on for the latest version.

How boring. What a missed opportunity!

Don’t forget about the end user, Tesco!

Posted via email from MIR Live