Technology
Why restaurants are dropping phone lines for voice bot systems
September 1, 2022
More restaurants are replacing direct phone lines with voice bots to allow workers to focus on serving, cooking and internal operations.
The news comes at a time when the foodservice industry is still grappling to find workers, and using an outsourcing support system can help save on costs as food prices continue to climb, according to a Wall Street Journal report. A voice bot system allows more than one customer to place an order and provides an easier and cheaper way to analyze and store data.
"If you call up in the middle of a Friday night rush, all the training in the world isn't going to put that person who answers the phone in a calm state," Aaron Nilsson, CIO of Jet's America Inc., which operates Jet's Pizza and is testing an AI phone bot, told the Journal. "That computer voice never waivers."
Nearly 40% of Jet's Pizza customers use phone ordering and Nilsson would love that figure to drop as online ordering provides extra benefits such as taking the order task off in-store employees. The brand is testing the phone bot in 130 of its 400 locations but it is not mandated.
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