A busy restaurant requires harmony.
Hosts welcoming guests, chefs crafting delicacy after delicacy, servers moving swiftly to deliver each creation, customers chatting, laughing, eating, and drinking.
Amidst this synchronized and all-encompassing dance, one crucial element can easily go unnoticed: your telephone.
Answering your phones should be as seamless as your dine-in service. However, as demands inside the walls of your restaurant grow, fielding a constant flow of calls can stretch even the most well-oiled team thin. That’s where an AI-powered restaurant phone system can step in to extend the harmony of your restaurant beyond your brick-and-mortar.
Why Phones Still Matter to Restaurants Despite the digital boom, the telephone holds indisputable value for restaurants. Phones serve as a direct channel for guests to inquire about your hours of operation, dietary accommodations, and unique policies such as corkage fees or pet allowance.
In addition to added convenience for your guests, phone calls significantly drive revenue—be it through reservations, take-out or delivery orders, catering for parties and events, private dining bookings, or purchasing gift cards.
With each ring carrying potential business and an opportunity to improve a guest’s experience, answering each and every call is invaluable.
Managing Phones is a Pain Fielding every call comes with its fair share of challenges.
Your team juggling between catering to in-house guests and answering calls can compromise the attentiveness and quality of service, both inside and outside of your restaurant. Even when you're fully staffed, peak hours bring unavoidable mayhem to the floor, and the last thing on your team’s mind is answering monotonous questions via phone.
Missing calls during and outside of operational hours can have significant revenue implications. Research shows that 75% of callers will not leave a voicemail, and an average of 85% of customers will not call back—giving your competitors the opportunity to get their business. This solidifies the need for a solution that ensures no call is left unanswered.
How AI Answering Helps Restaurants AI answering technology that understands and responds to customers can provide a multitude of benefits to your busy restaurant , including improved efficiency and reduced labor and resource costs. Unlike traditional automated voice recognition systems, AI-powered solutions offer a sophisticated, conversational interface that can manage guest inquiries without needing human help.
Introducing Slang.ai Slang.ai is one such example of this technology, built to empower your staff to focus on what matters most — your in-house guests — while simultaneously maintaining the highest quality of service to callers.
In short, Slang.ai can do the following without placing additional demands on your staff:
Facilitate reservation management Addresses frequent questions Deliver a service akin to your finest host. Slang.ai’s virtual answering service caters to the unique needs of restaurants through automated and customizable responses.Capable of handling multiple calls simultaneously 24 hours a day, Slang.ai can help you increase bookings without compromising a consistent and excellent experience for all of your guests.
Top 3 Reasons FSRs Need AI Answering Implementing an AI answering service for your restaurant is beneficial to your staff, your guests, and your bottom line. It can be the difference between a busy, thriving restaurant and a staff spread too thin to deliver the world-class service your restaurant is known for.
Specifically, AI answering services:
1. Make your staff more efficient Implementing Slang.ai enables teams to devote their full attention to in-house guests, elevating the standard of service and keeping your staff focused. In fact, Slang.ai users report over 200 hours a month saved .
The digital phone concierge can field nearly all inquiries, but if a question requires human assistance, the AI will immediately escalate the call to a staff member, ensuring that every question is answered.
2. Capture more revenue opportunities The challenges of after-hours, coinciding, and generally missed calls are easily managed through the power of AI. With the ability to answer up to 1,000 in the same second, you can capitalize on every possible revenue avenue, from last-minute reservations to bulk catering orders, even when your team is occupied.
Staffing challenges are rampant in the restaurant industry, but Slang.ai helps you operate as if you have an extra teammate—or twenty—dedicated to guest calls.
3. Create consistent guest experiences Peak times no longer equate to compromised service accessibility. With 24/7 coverage, AI phone answering reliably handles routine questions, freeing up staff to focus on delivering memorable guest experiences.
With customizable responses and the ability to understand different accents and dialects, Slang.ai can respond in real time without the frustrating phone menus. This level of consistency and care reinforces your brand reputation and customer loyalty without increasing your headcount and associated costs.
Beyond the Call of Duty Even in the most well-managed restaurants, controlled chaos goes with the territory. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Harnessing the potential of AI phone answering technologies paves the way for seamless operation in full-service restaurants, unwavering guest satisfaction, and sustained growth.
AI answering services like Slang.ai are not mere tools but essential in crafting the future of restaurants by bridging the gap between traditional service values and modern efficiency demands, ensuring that no call—or opportunity—is missed.
Interested in seeing how Slang.ai can capture more revenue and delight your guests? You can schedule a demo now.
