Berlitz: From “we need to make our students’ voice visible” to a 50% lift in website conversions

Snapshot (TL;DR)

• Primary goal: Increase the visibility of authentic student feedback and Google reviews across local markets
• What they actually got: Centralized testimonial and testimonial consent management, multi-source review widgets, and measurable conversion uplift from landing pages
• A/B testing results revealed a 52% increase in conversion rates when displaying the Trustmary review widget compared to not having it
• Why it matters: Real trust signals, visible on-site where it affects conversions, not just on third-party profiles
  

The Challenge: Real-world quality outpaced visible trust

Berlitz is a premium, global language services provider operating in over 75 countries, with a network of more than 350 language centers delivering language and cultural training worldwide.

This scale brings two classic brand challenges:

1. Student satisfaction wasn’t visible enough

Berlitz consistently delivers strong learner outcomes and high satisfaction, but those positive experiences were underrepresented online. As is common across industries, dissatisfied voices were more likely to leave feedback, allowing isolated negative comments to carry disproportionate weight compared to the reality experienced by the vast majority of learners.

2. Decentralized, manual processes

Testimonials and consent were collected through decentralized, manual processes, spread across Google Docs, paper forms, and local storage. Each region followed its own approach to requesting feedback, with varying levels of activity and consistency. As a result, there was no single source of truth for approved, usable testimonials at a global level.

On top of this, each region has its own way of asking for feedback and reviews, and some regions are more active than others.

At the same time, the brand needs to look coherent across the globe.

The challenge, therefore, was strategic: how to protect and scale a premium global brand while enabling local teams to translate genuine student satisfaction into visible, compliant trust signals that support enrollment and growth.

The starting point: A tactical ask that revealed a strategic opportunity

The initial objective was straightforward: increase the volume of Google reviews for local language centers. The aim was to better reflect the reality of student outcomes and ensure that occasional, unrepresentative negative feedback did not outweigh the consistently positive learning experiences delivered across markets.

However, during the vendor evaluation process, Berlitz identified a broader opportunity. Trustmary not only addressed review generation, but also offered a structured solution to long-standing challenges around testimonial governance, consent management, and on-site credibility.

That “extra” was a turning point:

– Trustmary offered significantly more than we initially set out to find. It gave us a single, centralized environment for testimonials, consent management, integrations, reporting, and on-site widgets, all governed, scalable, and aligned with the standards of a global premium brand, Ile describes.

The Trustmary Method in practice: One central base, many local paths

Berlitz implemented Trustmary along three practical tracks that mirror the Trustmary Method:

1. Collecting feedback at the right moments

Student voices are captured when experiences are fresh and meaningful:

• QR codes at front desks and inside classrooms 
• Survey flows that seamlessly guide respondents from a feedback thank-you page to Google, when appropriate
• Email campaigns, activated where and when relevant

Throughout the process, authenticity remained non-negotiable.

– It’s essential for us to keep it real. We deliver premium services, and our students are genuinely satisfied. Our role is to create the right moments for learners to share their real experiences, so we can responsibly amplify them, Ile says.

For Berlitz, real student stories are the most credible currency of trust, particularly in an environment where AI makes it increasingly easy to fabricate content at scale.

– That’s also why we’ve launched a global brand initiative focused on video testimonials from actual students. Real learners, real outcomes, not scripted actors or synthetic voices, she continues.

2. Managing testimonials centrally with legal clarity and confidence

As a global premium brand, Berlitz requires absolute clarity around consent and usage rights. Testimonials must be not only authentic, but also legally sound, traceable, and reusable across channels, from websites and campaigns to sales and social media.

Without a central hub for all social proof, good stories were either lost or too scattered to make an impact.

– We needed a single, reliable source of truth, where consent and testimonials live together, and where we always know what can be used, how, and where. Trustmary gives us that clarity, Ile explains.

3. Activating social proof where it drives conversion

When prospective learners search for language courses, they are presented with multiple options in search engine, often differentiated by subtle but powerful trust cues. Visibility and credibility at this stage are critical.

Getting trust signals to show up on SERPs is crucial. By adding a Trustmary review widget with review schema for their Austrian landing page, Berlitz can get stars added to their search engine results page to get more visitors to choose them over competitors.

– For our language course pages, the star rating is now displayed directly in the search results. For the Austrian version of the website, Google even rewrote the meta description to feature one of our reviews, which was a strong signal that our student voices were being picked up and amplified, she rejoices.

Once visitors arrive on-site, the focus shifts to conversion. With overall digital traffic becoming more competitive and less predictable, Berlitz prioritized maximizing the value of every visit by reinforcing trust at key decision points on landing pages.

– Traffic is becoming more fragmented and harder to grow. That makes conversion optimization essential. Displaying real, verified student reviews helps us build trust and convert more of the visitors we already have, Ile says.

To strengthen credibility further, Berlitz deployed multi-source review widgets that aggregate testimonials from several trusted platforms. This approach reinforces transparency and reliability, demonstrating that student satisfaction is consistent, not isolated.

– Bringing reviews from multiple sources together strengthens credibility. It shows that trust in Berlitz is broad, verifiable, and earned across touchpoints, she says.

Local execution stories: A global framework, adapted locally

Trustmary is currently implemented across several Berlitz markets, each operating within distinct cultural, behavioral, and regulatory contexts. While the underlying platform and governance model remain consistent globally, execution is intentionally adapted at the local level.

This flexibility is critical. Expectations around feedback, reviews, and public praise vary significantly across cultures, influencing how, when, and where students are most willing to share their experiences.

Below are three examples that illustrate how different markets applied the same centralized trust framework, while tailoring their strategies to local realities, resulting in stronger participation, higher-quality feedback, and measurable impact.

Austria: Instructor-led momentum 

• In Austria, the success of Trustmary adoption was driven by strong internal leadership and seamless integration into the learning experience.
• Vienna’s Google rating moved from 3.2 → 4+, aided by a steady inflow of newer reviews.
• A/B Test: Adding the Trustmary widget delivered a +52% conversion uplift.

– The turning point was leadership buy-in at the local level. The head of instructors in Austria actively championed the process, and when you combine that with simple tools like QR codes, adoption follows naturally, Ile explains.

Latin America: Conversion rate boost

• In multiple Latin American countries, similar A/B tests showed a positive uplift in conversions.
• The increase wasn’t as dramatic as in Austria, but the direction was clear: showing trust signals boosts performance.

– The team in Latin America also ran A/B tests comparing pages with and without the review widget. The results consistently show an improvement in conversion rates when student reviews are visible. While the magnitude varies by market, the direction is clear: authentic trust signals positively impact performance, Ile says.

Beyond reviews: Operating trust at a global scale 

Global vs Local review bubs

Beyond increasing review volume and improving ratings, the initiative fundamentally transformed how Berlitz manages feedback and social proof across the organization.

What was once a fragmented ecosystem, spread across Google Docs, paper docs, and local storage, is now centralized within a single platform. This shift significantly reduced manual effort and enabled smoother collaboration between global brand, digital, web, and local market teams.

– Some markets are motivated by competition, others simply want straightforward tools that make their work easier. That’s why it’s critical to allow local flexibility while still centralizing the underlying system, Ile says.

The project also prompted a broader strategic conversation around how trust should be represented at a global brand level. While customer satisfaction naturally varies by market, Berlitz is exploring ways to balance local relevance with a unified brand signal, including the option to display both country-level scores and a global average to reinforce customer satisfaction as a shared, company-wide priority.

In short, Trustmary enabled Berlitz to move beyond review collection toward a scalable trust infrastructure, one that combines governance, operational clarity, and measurable commercial impact, and turns authentic student voices into sustained business outcomes.

Working with Trustmary: Fast feedback loops, real people

For Berlitz, the collaboration with Trustmary has been defined by responsiveness, transparency, and a strong partnership mindset. Beyond the initial scope, the platform delivered additional strategic value, becoming a core component of how Berlitz centralizes reviews, governs consent, builds trust, and improves conversion performance globally.

Implementation progressed smoothly from kickoff through rollout across multiple countries, supported by close collaboration between teams. Even in markets with more complex regulatory requirements, such as Germany, the Trustmary team demonstrated flexibility, patience, and a clear understanding of enterprise constraints.

– The communication was consistently clear and constructive. Aligning expectations across markets takes time, and it required real patience, both from our global and local teams and from Trustmary’s salesperson, Aki Honkala, and the wider Trustmary team. That collaborative approach made a real difference in getting this right, Ile describes.

Beyond the working relationship, the product itself proved to be a strategic enabler. What began as a tactical initiative around Google reviews evolved into a comprehensive solution for collecting feedback, managing consent, and activating authentic student voices across the customer journey with direct impact on business outcomes.

For Berlitz, Trustmary is more than a software provider. It is a partner in building credibility at scale and translating long-standing student satisfaction into visible, verifiable trust across global digital touchpoints.

What’s next: SEO & AI visibility, review hubs, and wider rollout

Trustmary is currently active in a select number of Berlitz markets, with a clear ambition to expand adoption across all countries in which Berlitz operates. As with any global transformation, scaling new ways of working and new technologies takes time, but Berlitz approaches this deliberately, by validating impact, defining best practices, and then rolling out with confidence.

Building on early success, Berlitz plans to extend its Trustmary usage across several strategic dimensions:

• Trustmary Profile Pages: Centrally hosted pages that aggregate verified reviews for each organization are quick to launch and tend to surface well in LLM-powered answer boxes and discovery moments, especially helpful for users searching “<brand> reviews” and “is <brand> legit?”
• More automation: Triggered feedback surveys at key milestones in the learning journey
• Global standardization: Extending the “central base” model to more countries while preserving local playbooks
• Deeper SERP impact: Leveraging structured data where appropriate and aligning with ongoing AI visibility workstreams
  

Why Trustmary was the right fit for Berlitz

Berlitz was not looking to add another isolated tool to its technology stack. The objective was to establish a single, enterprise-ready platform that could:

• Collect authentic student feedback at meaningful moments
• Manage consent clearly and reliably across markets
• Activate multi-source trust signals directly on Berlitz-owned channels, where they influence decision-making
• Demonstrate impact through measurable performance data, including A/B testing and reporting
  

Trustmary met these requirements in a way that aligned with Berlitz’s scale, governance standards, and premium brand positioning.