This past Wednesday we received an email from a user in Alaska, who used Gaia to good effect when a storm struck:
The email that simply read, “the gps worked awesome in Alaska and saved my ass in a white out.”
I got this email from a user on an search and rescue team, and I wanted to share what he said. It makes my day to hear Gaia really make a difference.
Our group S&R group was actually out this evening evacuating a snowmobiler with a broken femur from miles back off the trailhead. I am a huge proponent of your software and I think I’ve gotten at least a dozen people our team using it now. The area we were in this evening, is an area we were in last year, past midnight in a white out blizzard. It is on top of a ridge where you have to thread your way down through various rock bands without actually going off the ridge. Last year, after we found a lost snowmobiler we used my phone and your app to guide about 10 of us and the subject through the white out conditions and safely down through the rock formations while we couldn’t see more than 10 feet around us. The others with their GPS units had horrible version of topo maps, and it was too cold and windy to break out the actual maps. Using the GPS overlayed onto the actual USGS topo maps was key in getting us out safely. So, with all sincerity, thank you for this app!
I apologize if this sounds overly prideful, but I think our App Store ratings really demonstrate the extent to which we listen to our users, and have steadily worked to make Gaia GPS better over time.
If I remember right, Gaia GPS v1.0 was rated at 2.5 stars after launch subsided. Over time, as you can see in the screen capture from iTunes, our average ratings has become 3.5 stars. And our latest release averages 4.5 stars – spanning 10% of our total reviews.
When you have criticism and bad reviews from users, it makes you feel bad, and if you get too much, your software might really suck. But sure enough, if you just listen a little bit, and work on what they want, instead of what you fee like, then users will like your software better.
Get rid of what bugs them, and they will start to appreciate what you were trying to build in the first place.
Going into the final day of launch week, Gaia GPS is bobbling between 13th-15th place in navigation, and sales are great. The units we sold Monday-Thursday are: 55, 85, 84, 97, which is pretty good as far as we are concerned. We’re finally getting towards paying for the rent and pizza in our little Truckee cabin 🙂
Today was the first day an external review was published about Gaia GPS. It’s quite a glowing write-up on the app, complete with screenshots, submitted to TouchMyApps.com by
@edythemighty. It’s really gratifying that Gaia GPS is good enough to inspire a stranger to both buy the app, and then write this review. I just met @edythemighty when I noticed he had twittered about us.
As a brief aside, I’d also like to note that Twitter is a truly great service. We have had many referrals and reviews stem from the Twitter. People really listen when their friends recommend a product – no advertising or PR is nearly as effective as word of mouth, and Twitter magnifies that.