I verbally recited all the one-star reviews

Strange, yes, it works. Reading the critique internally allows me to skip past the point that hurts. But reading it out loud means that I have to read the whole sentence.

Three of the last five significant changes that we've made to our app have come directly from one-star reviews. The users who gave these critiques were rude and right.

I respond to all of them within a day, do what is possible to change it and tell them when it is shipped. Two of them updated their reviews. And one is now a paying customer.

Do you ever respond to negative reviews publicly and did it ever backfire? I keep hearing that responding invites more responses, but it never happened to me so far.