The review section of the government’s 311 app can be a dark place. Driven by strong opinions about getting the most out of taxpayer dollars, some residents don’t hesitate even if the 311 app doesn’t work as expected.
A common criticism is that the app crashes when users try to upload a photo, or that GPS location services don’t work properly. Users also often complain about clunky interfaces and requests that are closed without any resolution or explanation.
Negative reviews, whether warranted or not, can influence whether people download your app. According to a study conducted by software company Alchemer, 75% of people cite mobile ratings as a key factor for downloading an app. Meanwhile, almost half of respondents said that the lowest average star rating they consider acceptable when rating apps to download is 4 stars.
government technology We analyzed user ratings for 311 apps from 75 small and medium-sized city and county governments to determine which apps residents like best.
The 75 apps have an average rating of 3.3 stars on Google Play and 3.1 stars on Apple’s app store. Android apps developed for agencies with a population of more than 250,000 people received slightly higher reviews than apps from agencies with a smaller population, while the opposite was true for iPhone apps.
Learn how agencies of all sizes can improve public awareness of the 311 app. government technology We selected the brains of the agencies with the highest ratings.
Focus on user habits and simplicity
Since NYC311 launched the app in 2009, the city has received more than 16 million in-app contacts. That number has increased rapidly in recent years as fewer residents call to report incidents.
Not only does the NYC311 app have more reviews than other apps, but it also has higher than average ratings on both Google and Apple platforms.
Deputy Chief Joe Morrisroe said the city has given great consideration to the specific requests people may have while out and about reporting immediately.
“To keep the app simple, our strategy is to add the most important ‘on-the-go’ service requests to the app and make it easy for customers to find the full catalog of service request types online. “That was the case,” he said. Email.
Morrisroe added that the most popular features are simple, such as displaying updated alternate parking information on the home screen.
“This eliminates the need to call 311 and lets you know when you need to move your vehicle,” he said.
Allow only executable requests
The City of Detroit’s Improve Detroit is one of the most positively reviewed apps in the country, with high ratings on both Google Play and the Apple Store.
Detroit CIO Art Thompson said one of the secrets to the city’s success is that the app is designed to only accept requests that are actionable.
“It was really important to be able to show with certainty that we were closing tickets rather than them going into a black hole,” Thompson said. “Meeting customer expectations is very important to us, because we don’t want to receive complaints about something that takes 30 or 60 days to fix. Because when people start to lose faith in the product… , because that’s the time.”
Keep your app up to date and relevant
In Detroit, our goal is to make sure our apps never get outdated for our citizens. Although the city regularly reinvents itself, it remains strategic about its marketing campaigns.
“If we develop a new service, it kind of blends in at first, but then you add two or three different services, and we try to make sure that doesn’t get lost in translation,” Thompson says. Masu. “We run a campaign every few years to highlight additional improvements we have made so people can feel the growth and development.”
New features are typically inspired by the current needs of the community. For example, during the 2021 floods in Detroit, the Improve Detroit app added the ability to file a water damage claim.
Thompson added that the city’s partnership with vendor SeeClickFix will make it easier for the city to continue to evolve the app’s features and tools over the years.
“Support continues over time because more and more departments are buying in support and being able to grow it over time, rather than doing custom things in-house that don’t scale well as the city grows. ” he said. “We’re always thinking about how we can improve and streamline things so that people can receive responses, fix issues as quickly as possible, and feel like their voices are being heard. .”