CASE STUDY
Via 313 Doubles Down on Guest Recovery and Operational Excellence With Ovation
The Challenge: Limited Visibility and Lost Guests & Problem
Before Ovation, Via 313 Pizza was using their Point of Sale’s built-in feedback tools and keeping an eye on reviews on Yelp, Google, and other third-party platforms. But it wasn’t enough for the 20+ location, Detroit-style Pizzeria.
“We just didn’t have a good enough detail on how to recapture guests—especially negative guest experiences.” – Kiplan Welsch, President, Via 313
“We started at a 4.1 and finished the year at a 4.7. That’s helping drive sales—no question about it.”
The Impact: Faster Recovery, Smarter Operations, and More Reviews
Real-Time Guest Recovery
“After we finally launched Ovation, the goal was to have better granularity in the guest experience to get better capture and more responses because it was simplified—and the switch, immediately we felt the difference.”
Kip said the team now regularly spots and responds to feedback from guests who are still in the restaurant. “So instead of having to send an offer, we can make contact right at the table.”
Operational Adjustments Backed by Data
“We pay very close attention to the Insights report,” Kip said. “We use this, like I said, down to looking at it by the hour to be able to adjust labor modeling. Honestly, we found some of our softer volume shifts were actually where we needed more coverage. And most specifically Friday and Saturday nights during our volume period.”
By comparing hourly ratings across locations, they identified where team members were being scheduled too late, leading to wave effects and long wait times. “If you have the team members on time—especially your service and support service staff—we can immediately take that surge.”
They’ve since implemented a “peak-to-peak” initiative to smooth out their high-volume periods.
Online Reviews and Reputation
Via 313 has seen their Google rating jump from 4.1 to 4.7 since launching Ovation, with some locations like improving from 3.9 to 4.6.
“Google is what we’re most looking at. We feel like we get the most honest feedback, both positive and negative. What Ovation has done to take all of these positive guest experiences and then channel them over to Google has been super, super beneficial for us. There’s no question about it—it’s helping drive sales.”
“I think you could ask anybody in my entire organization and they would have positivity—I mean, from the marketing department to finance—just because they know how beneficial it has been.”
