>I’ve rarely gotten useful answers from support from services I use. I thought if I used my own product every day, read every email and answered it thoughtfully, people would appreciate this, and it would build some degree of loyalty and appreciation.

I run an app with 16,000 users and receive 2–5 support tickets per week. I read every one of them.

Around 20% of my app has been built based on user suggestions.

People are generally kind and promote my app across multiple platforms for free. I don't have any budget for marketing.

Users don't always show their appreciation with words. Instead, they show it by eagerly helping resolve issues providing clear steps to reproduce bugs, sending screenshots or videos, and responding quickly to follow up questions. I also regularly come across people recommending my app on Reddit or in YouTube comment sections, which often surprises me. :)

If you're supporting your users well, they're probably giving back in their own way too. :)