More Restaurants Are Turning to Voice Tech: Here Are Three Reasons Why

Technology has been a great help during these testing times and, in particular, more and more restaurateurs have been turning to conversational voice AI ordering systems to help them meet —and increase— their orders with the resources they have available. 

When it’s designed for a specific use case (like restaurants), voice technology is actually pretty straightforward to deploy. Once you have it installed it can act like an employee who can answer the phone at any time, and even take multiple calls at once. That means no calls, or customers, need ever slip through the cracks because you’re dealing with in-person diners, supervising staff, or cooking up something great in the kitchen. 

From our experiences working with restaurants big and small, there are three   key benefits to instituting a voice AI system:  

1. Maximize Sales and Take More Orders

What could be more important than this? A conversational AI phone ordering system can take more calls in less time, and even answer calls simultaneously. For the customer, this means less time on hold or waiting for someone to answer at peak times. For the business, it means supercharging sales while keeping new and returning customers happy.

After all, they’re the best marketing department you could have. 

2. Free Employees Up to Do What They Do Best

It’s never been harder to find, train, and retain skilled staff. Having a voice AI ordering system can be like having a permanent employee who is always on shift to take phone orders, knows your latest menu, and remembers your customers’ specific preferences. That means your actual employees can get on with making food or serving dine-in customers with no distractions.  

Moreover, overwhelmed or overworked staff tend not to stick around, so having the tools to alleviate the pressure on them can help restaurant owners avoid the costs (and headaches) associated with churn. 

3. Control Costs and Improve Operational Efficiency

Right now, restaurant owners feel like they’re constantly balancing rising costs – and they are. The effects are felt on everything from increased wholesale prices for food to higher staff wages. Smart, AI-driven phone ordering is a surprisingly affordable way to bring in an “always-on” voice assistant that helps to control operational costs, even as your business grows.

There is no worse feeling as a business owner than feeling like you’re not meeting demand. 

Missing out on sales is one thing, but letting customers down can feel like failure (and have nasty repercussions). In a fast-paced world a hungry customer who can’t get through during peak hours may quickly resolve to take their business elsewhere – perhaps permanently. 

Technology like voice ordering can be part of the solution, and can help a restaurant make the shift from surviving to thriving.

Importantly, embracing tech like this isn’t about replacing valued staff members. It won’t, for example, prep the food or smile as it shows customers to a table. Instead, it’s about providing the support a business needs to execute well on the customer experience, and helping under-resourced restaurants meet and surpass the ever-rising expectations of their diners.