The need for quick results in this pandemic environment is more powerful than ever. Not only that, affordability is a deal-breaker. Not every business has wads of cash to spend on short term powerful strategies. But chatbots are here to help your business thrive.

With the emergence of machine learning technologies, chatbots have become self-learning and possibly solve a bucket load of business problems we face daily.

Chatbots have the potential to do it all:

• Improve the speed of delivery
• Take reservations
• Get more patrons in the door and keep them returning
• Create a seamless customer experience
• Promote special offers
• Make recommendations
• Take orders
• Answer questions or concerns through a fun conversational interface
• Enhance advertising or gather leads for future catering events

…chatbots have the potential to take your business to the next level and do it all on autopilot. Giving you time to do what you love most.

Chatbots can be deployed at several touchpoints – on your website, social media, and even on in-restaurant apps. Let’s see how some of these can be utilized to help your restaurant.

1.  Manage Reservations and Orders

How much time do your employees spend navigating and negotiating reservations and taking orders? It’s a time-intensive task that holds massive potential for human error.

A well-deployed chatbot on your website, app, social media platform, or even phone system can interact with your customers and perform these monotonous tasks with 100% accuracy – every.single.time. Doesn’t that sound sweet. As you know, minimizing errors helps you to reduce customer attrition and avoid mismanagement.

2.  Chatbot Promo Wizard

With machine learning, a chatbot can easily recognize your regular customers. They then send through automated deals and offers through Facebook messenger, SMS, or even via your email list and FB advertising. A returning customer is always a happy customer.

3.  Optimize Food Recommendations

Customers give you their loyalty and trust when you know what they want. In current times, brands and businesses are expected to understand preferences and provide personalized service for customers.

To do this, staff often have to remember an extensive menu and be able to give on the spot recommendations on dishes and drinks. More than likely, your team will just recommend the specials or dishes they deem to be popular amongst the crowd. OR….you implement a chatbot that can do this for you.

Chatbots can help with this enhanced experience by gaining a deep understanding of the customers to make recommendations. This is done in a few ways – gaining information through their search history or asking a few simple questions about what type of food they like or using previous purchase information. This way, a chatbot can advise customers of dishes they may not know about, or recommend the best drink to match their preferred meal.

4.  Better Connection With Your Customers

If online, chatbots can engage with your customer, doing away with inquiries during busy times when your staff should be serving customers. Chatbots are better able to engage, reduce time spent by yourself or staff answering these FAQ, give recommendations, take orders, offer deals, and generally improve the customer experience. And this can be done through a fun and interactive interface with no manpower needed.

5.  Feedback Professionals

Every restaurant knows the value of reviews of websites such as Yelp. They have enormous potential to bring in more business as they are often the first port of call when deciding to go out for a meal or order in. Receiving positive feedback is essential, but manually doing this with every customer who walks through your doors is time-consuming.

If you’re using chatbots for other elements such as delivery and reservation taking, you will automatically have details and permission to contact your customer. This way, the chatbots can automatically send reminders to your customers to leave feedback.

6.  POS System Integration

Not only can chatbots take orders, but a good one can be integrated into the major POS systems so your customer can place an order and complete payment through the same interface. The ultimate in seamless customer experience.

7.  Chatbot Table Service

How many times have your customers complained about staff forgetting about them?

With chatbots available at every table to collect orders, this frustration can be eliminated. Not only do your customers get timely service, but the chatbot can also recommend dishes based on preferences and drink suggestions.

8.  Smash Delivery Expectations

If you are supplying a delivery service, you will know that most of your queries are about the status of a customer's delivery. Using a chatbot can instantly answer these questions, saving you and your employees time. It can also provide your customers with up-to-date delivery information and tracking. Everyone loves knowing when their food is on the way.

Having chatbots as a standard in the restaurant business is only a matter of time.

Using this smart technology allows you to understand your customers, market demand, and enhancing productivity.

Chatbots can also reduce customer service costs by having staff do face-to-face interactions rather than mundane, repetitive tasks.

So if your ready to boost your sales, capture more customers and improve their experience, a chatbot is perfect for you.