How Vapiano Boosted Ratings and Review Volume Across 155+ Locations
CASE STUDY
“Working with re:spondelligent has transformed how we manage our global reputation. In just 12 months, we’ve seen remarkable improvements across our entire network – from a star rating increase in key markets to a substantial growth in review volume.
re:spondelligent helped us streamline our operations. We have increased the response rates in most countries, and our response times have reduced by 37% on average. For a brand operating across 32 countries, having this level of centralized control while maintaining local market relevance has been game-changing.”
Challenge
As a global company operating 155+ locations across 32 countries, Vapiano faced significant performance inconsistencies with ratings varying dramatically from 4.5+ stars at top-performing sites to 3.5 stars or below at underperforming locations.
For management, the primary challenge was monitoring global performance effectively, obtaining adequate insights to identify root causes of operational issues, and implementing a systematic approach to track negative feedback, escalate concerns, and follow up with local teams.
Meanwhile, local teams faced the challenge of maintaining global brand standards while adapting to diverse market preferences and ensuring consistency in review responses across different cultural contexts.
Goal
Vapiano’s main goal was to transform their review management from a fragmented, reactive process into a unified, proactive system that would enable centralized global oversight while empowering local teams with actionable insights to maintain brand consistency and drive operational improvements across their international network.
Solution
To achieve these goals, re:spondelligent implemented a comprehensive solution tailored to Vapiano’s global operations, including
IWantTo.Review for proactive review collection and intelligent response management.
An automated review response system to increase response rates and decrease response times while maintaining global brand standards.
A centralized monitoring system, from customizable performance dashboards to flexible email notifications with detailed overviews, configurable for different user types.
An early warning system – threshold-based KPI monitoring which triggered automatic notifications when performance indicators reached critical levels.
Key Results
Overall Star Rating Improvement
After a year of using re:spondelligent, Vapiano achieved an average star rating increase of 0.05 stars across all global locations. Notable success stories include Vapiano UK and Vapiano France, each with an impressive 0.5-star increase. Vapiano Australia and Vapiano Kuwait followed closely, both improving by 0.4 stars. Other countries – Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Spain – saw valuable gains ranging from 0.1 to 0.2 stars. Such improvements in star ratings significantly impact customer trust and restaurant footfall.
Growth in Review Volume
The overall number of reviews increased by an average of 15% across all countries, with Switzerland and Chile seeing the highest growth at +69%, followed by France (+58%), the UK (+36.4%), and both the Netherlands and Austria (+29%). This growth was strongly supported by the IWantTo.Review feature, which makes it easy to request guest feedback through custom landing pages.
Response Rate and Time Improvements
The average response rate increased significantly from 70% to 89%, with most countries showing strong improvement. Several markets – including the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Kuwait, Latvia, Lithuania, Réunion, Switzerland, Spain, the UAE, and the UK – achieved near 100% response rates, demonstrating a strong commitment to guest engagement.
At the same time, response time decreased by 37% on average. In countries where teams were already responding before using the platform, the average response time dropped by at least one full day. In newer markets or those less engaged previously, teams were able to quickly adopt best practices and reduce their response time to as little as two days. Responding to reviews promptly not only strengthens guest relationships but also signals professionalism, care, and accountability – factors that directly impact reputation and customer loyalty.
Improvement in Online Reputation Score (re:Score)
The re:Score, an objective metric measuring online brand perception on a scale from 1 to 100, increased by an average of 1.7 points across countries. While individual rankings vary by market, most countries saw positive development. Notable gains include the Netherlands, which improved by 12.2 points, followed closely by France (+12.1), Kuwait (+9.3), the UK (+7.6), and Australia (+7.5), clearly demonstrating the growing strength of Vapiano’s digital reputation.
Revenue Impact
An increase in star ratings is closely linked to revenue growth, with a 0.5-star improvement typically resulting in a 5-9% boost per location. Additionally, the 15% increase in review volume suggests higher customer engagement, which leads to increased visibility in search rankings and higher click-through rates, further driving revenue.
“What sets re:spondelligent apart is how it adapts to our complexity. Managing reviews in multiple languages across different cultural contexts used to be overwhelming. Now, the AI-powered responses are trained on our brand voice, the templates adjust by language and star rating, and the sentiment analysis helps us spot patterns we never would have caught manually. The weekly and monthly reports keep everyone informed without drowning us in data. It’s sophisticated technology made simple for day-to-day use.”
Anne van Hemert, International Marketing Manager
The solution offered by re:spondelligent was comprehensive and continuously evolving based on the customer’s needs. Using the key features offered by re:spondelligent helped Vapiano achieve improvements that went beyond enhanced online ratings, seeing measurable benefits in top-line growth, operational efficiency, and long-term customer loyalty.
Review Collecting
IWantTo.Review enables restaurants to collect more online reviews using customizable landing pages shared through post-visit communication or easily accessible QR codes that can be placed throughout the restaurant. The system intelligently guides satisfied guests to leave positive reviews on public platforms like Google and TripAdvisor, while capturing private feedback from unsatisfied customers for internal resolution and service recovery.
Review Responding
A recommended combination of flexible response templates configurable by language and star rating, and AI-generated responses tailored using Vapiano’s customer-specific training data. These AI responses are easily adjustable, ensuring teams maintain control while adding a human touch for more authentic guest engagement. Such a system enabled local market adaptation while maintaining global brand consistency.
Benchmarking
The Comparison feature enabled both internal benchmarking (comparing multiple locations and countries against each other) and external benchmarking (against competitors), allowing headquarters and local teams to benchmark key metrics across multiple locations. Meanwhile, industry-specific sentiment analysis provided detailed insights into guest satisfaction drivers to pinpoint specific areas for improvement.
About
Vapiano Global is an international fast-casual Italian restaurant chain that has grown from a single location in Hamburg, Germany in 2002 to become a global dining destination. Operating over 155+ restaurants across 32 countries, Vapiano has established itself as a leading player in the international restaurant industry. Known for its fresh, handmade pasta, pizza, and customizable Italian cuisine, the brand has successfully expanded across diverse cultural markets worldwide.
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