Operations

Hopdoddy tests AI to improve guest, team experience

Provided by Hopdoddy

May 24, 2023

Hopdoddy, a fast casual burger brand based in Austin, has tapped Kea, a cashier in the cloud and provider of AI operations, to help the brand streamline its to-go ordering.

"At Hopdoddy we value people, so we put both our guests and team members first," Jennifer Faren, Hopdoddy VP of marketing, said in a company press release. "Our team members get stressed when they're too busy to get to the phone, knowing that a guest needs us, so we wanted to make their lives easier," remarked y. "We're excited to leverage a technology that improves both the guest and team member experience."

Using natural language processing, Kea triages incoming calls, transcribes, upsells, confirms orders and processes payment with a PCI-compliant system. It can integrate into any restaurant using Olo's e-commerce platform, where it automatically sends phone orders. In the case a guest needs more assistance or the call drops, there's a Kea operator that will speak to the guest in real time. Hopdoddy will be integrating this system at a few different locations first, with plans to expand into all 47 stores over time.

"It's important to us that AI makes jobs easier and doesn't take away the human element," Adam Ahmad, Kea CEO and founder, said in the release. "So we strive to work with restaurants that are aligned with that vision. Knowing Hopdoddy is a high-quality burger bar with even higher standards, we're honored that Kea meets these standards. We're looking forward to supporting team members that really care about what they do so they can be present in the restaurant."