About Sumo Restaurants
Sumo is the leading Asian fusion restaurant chain in Norway, with 18 venues across Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim, Stavanger, and Tromsø. The brand is build around a double kitchen concept - which allows Sumo to prepare meals for every taste. From those who love hot food, to those who enjoy sushi, and for those who flirt somewhere in between.
“A guest experience will never exceed an employee experience. Get the team right, and the guest experience follows automatically.”
Kari Hermansen, COO, Sumo Restaurants
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The challenge
As iSushi scaled, their customer feedback processes didn’t keep up.
Customer inquiries were handled through local email inboxes at each location, with no central oversight. Leadership had limited visibility into whether messages were answered — or how quickly.
“We had little control over whether they replied, how quickly they replied, or whether they replied at all.”
At the same time, their feedback tool only captured survey responses. It didn’t connect to public review platforms like Google, making it difficult to build and manage their online reputation.
This created three key challenges:
18 locations operating in silos - Google reviews was ad-hoc, Survey feedbacks in another platform and Email enquires in shared inboxes.
Difficult to understand what was going well and what needed improving.
Feedback was disconnected from accountability.
Why RevVue
What stood out wasn’t just the feature set - it was the sense that RevVue understood restaurant operations from the inside, and were genuinely invested in making it work rather than just closing a deal. When new features arrived, they tended to solve problems Kari hadn’t yet articulated.
“You are so far ahead of me when it comes to seeing my industry in a different way than I am used to. I am in the middle of it - you move on the outside, and you see things I don’t see.”
What confirmed it was the email module - a feature Kari hadn’t asked for or anticipated needing. When it arrived, it immediately solved one of Sumo’s most persistent operational headaches.
“I was completely happy with what we had as a combined platform for guest feedback. Then this email module came along and saved more time than you can imagine. I just thought: I didn’t know I needed that.”
The solution
RevVue replaced scattered inboxes, surveys and manual Google checks with a single. All guest enquiries are centralised, tagged by restaurant, and tracked from receipt to resolution. All online review platforms and guest feedback are managed in one place. Leadership has a live overview of every location at any time - and the trend data to know where to focus.
Daily Visibility at Leadership Level
Kari goes into RevVue every morning at around 7am. She reads through overnight feedback, checks whether managers have responded to their assigned items, then opens the overview to see where every restaurant stands — nationally, regionally, and individually. The two metrics she goes to first, every time: service and value for money.
“I refuse to let myself forget how much more control I have now. I can say which restaurant needs to work on what - at any given time. And I have a kind of calm I didn’t have before.”
AI-Powered Review Responses
Restaurant managers receive a notification when a review or enquiry is assigned to them, go in to respond, and — where they want it - use the AI module to draft replies. This has been particularly valuable for managers who aren’t native English or Norwegian writers, removing the barrier that had previously stopped some of them engaging with Google reviews at all. Sumo now aims to respond to every review. With RevVue, that’s achievable.
Reporting and Trend Analysis
Now, Kari has a single overview with trend data, regional breakdowns, and the ability to compare any location against any other. She presents this to Sumo’s board alongside the mystery dining results - and the correlation between the two is stark. Restaurants that performed well in mystery dining jumped on their general Google scores. The data confirms what Kari has always believed: service quality and reviews move together.
“Before, you’d go into Google and see a 4.2. Now I can see the trend. I can see that the last four months have actually been 3.2. That changes everything.”
Accountability and No Hiding
One of the biggest shifts RevVue brought to Sumo wasn't a feature — it was accountability. When everything is visible, nothing can be quietly ignored. A restaurant with consistently poor feedback can't be explained away. But the same visibility that surfaces problems also surfaces what's working - and for Kari, that's just as valuable.
The platform doesn't just show her where the problems are. It shows her where the answers already exist.
“It’s a platform where you can’t hide anything. And that’s exciting - if a restaurant has great service, I can send staff from another location to work there for a week. Everything becomes visible and actionable.”
Looking Ahead
100% onboarded, 100% trained, 100% guest experience. A new coaching structure is being rolled out across every restaurant - embedded trainers, post-shift meetings, learning logs. The logic is straightforward: better trained staff means fewer mistakes, less sickness, higher sales, and better guest scores. For Kari, RevVue sits at the centre of that - the tool that tells her in real time whether the training is landing.
"I'm so happy inside this bubble. And whenever you come with something new, I'm almost always: yes, obviously, that would be brilliant. And then I actually start using it."
