Challenge

A leading Filipino fast-food brand sought to strengthen its new mobile app’s reputation by quickly improving app-store ratings.

Solutions

• Implemented a targeted in-app ratings strategy powered by behavioral data to engage high-satisfaction users.
• Delivered personalized, well-timed prompts within the Tillster mobile application to review volume.
• Optimized message delivery and user segmentation to ensure prompts reached the guests most likely to convert.

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Results

• 90% increase in Google Play Store rating, rising from 2.2 to 4.2 stars
• 30%+ lift in Apple App Store rating, improving from 3.5 to 4.6 stars
• 1,000% increase in total review volume across both app stores
• Achieved all performance gains in 6 weeks

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Setting the foundation for strong app performance

When Tillster launched a leading Filipino fast-food brand’s mobile ordering and delivery app, the brand made a unique request: ensure that the app rating is at least as high or higher than its largest competitor, a well-known international player, in the App Store and Google Play Store.

App ratings are important for driving discovery and downloads because search algorithms place greater importance on higher-rated apps. Having a good rating also makes a guest who has never ordered feel more confident in using the app.

However, securing high ratings for a newly launched application is typically a slow process. Reaching four or five stars across a meaningful volume of reviews often takes months, and most brands delay ratings prompts until enough performance data accumulates.

For this rollout, achieving competitive ratings was an immediate priority. Tillster therefore needed a strategy that could elevate the app’s rating quickly enough to match or surpass the brand’s primary competitor from the outset.

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Activating an impactful ratings strategy

While long-term usage data is often preferred to guide these strategies, Tillster built a proprietary dataset early in the launch that inferred each customer’s satisfaction level. 

Tillster identified the ideal cohort for ratings prompts using several behavioral indicators, including the number of orders placed, ordering frequency, and recency of activity. These data points allowed Tillster to build a high-volume segment of customers who consistently demonstrated strong engagement and were most likely to have a positive experience with the app.

To encourage ratings in a meaningful and frictionless way, Tillster delivered targeted in-app messages exclusively to this segment—directing Android users to the Google Play Store and prompting iOS users within the app itself.

The strength of this segmentation strategy was reflected in the substantial lift in ratings and review volume that followed.

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Driving rapid ratings lift and review growth

Before activating the Tillster App Rating Prompt, the brand’s mobile application held a 3.5-star rating in the Apple App Store and a 2.2-star rating in the Google Play Store.

Shortly after the prompt was introduced, ratings began climbing rapidly. The App Store rating rose above 4.4 stars, while the Google Play rating increased to more than 3.2 stars, reflecting an immediate lift in guest sentiment.

Within a six-week period, the app achieved a 4.6-star rating in the Apple App Store and a 4.2-star rating in the Google Play Store—representing a dramatic two-star improvement in a short timeframe.

Review volume experienced a similarly significant shift. Prior to the prompt, the app generated 234 total reviews across both app stores. In the six weeks following activation, it received more than 2,600 additional reviews, marking an increase of over 1,000%.

Since then, the application has continued to maintain ratings equal to or higher than those of its primary competitor across both major app stores.