Integrating your restaurant POS with an automated answering service will make you the most popular spot on the block — here’s why

How can restaurants grow using technology in 2023?

Over the past three years, restaurants embraced technology in ways they never had before. To survive through lockdowns and restrictions, they used online ordering and delivery services. And as they started having a harder time finding and retaining staff, they turned to restaurant employee scheduling and benefits systems to make managing staff easier — and to make jobs more appealing. Finally, with inflation and supply chain issues, restaurant inventory softwares have helped identify areas of overspending and offer solutions.

In 2023, restaurants are continuing to recover from the challenges of previous years. In order to keep growing, provide a great customer experience, and create  a work environment that’s sustainable for employees, restaurants have learned to embrace change and eliminate inefficiencies in restaurant systems wherever possible.

Ensuring all your technology communicates seamlessly by working with integrated restaurant systems can save your team hours each week, and improve the customer experience.

What technology is used to improve restaurant operations?

Restaurant management solutions is a broad category, including any form of technology that helps restaurant operators run their businesses more smoothly. 

Here are some of the most popular restaurant software and restaurant technologies: 

• Restaurant point of sale (POS) software, which is the center of a restaurant’s operation. Used to take orders, send them to the kitchen, track inventory and efficiency, and so much more, a great cloud-based restaurant POS system can be a gamechanger. 
• Restaurant answering services/cloud call centers, which use AI to answer customer queries that come in over the phone. A great virtual answering system for restaurants will know how to answer every common query while sounding like a human, and will route calls beyond its scope to a staff member.
• Online food ordering systems, which allow restaurants to fulfill and deliver orders from customers wanting to eat at home. 
• Online reservation platforms, like OpenTable and Resy, which allow customers to save their spot in your restaurant ahead of time and earn rewards points. 
• Restaurant marketing tools like email marketing software, social media marketing software, and advertising software, which help restaurants reach new customers and remind old customers that they’re due for another visit. 

6 use cases for integrating your restaurant POS with an automated phone system

1. Make the ordering process easier and faster for customers, and increase your sales.

There will always be customers who want to call in an order over the phone. Whether they’re not comfortable with online ordering technology, or they’re just currently driving, customers often call restaurants to order a meal for takeout or delivery. And it’s a good idea to make it easy for them to do so.

By integrating your AI virtual answering system with your restaurant POS, you can take over-the-phone orders without interrupting a server or host working the floor. It’s such an easy way to order that customers who try it once will probably find themselves ordering this way again.

2. Give your staff more time to help in-person customers.

The interruption of a phone call during an unexpected rush is never particularly welcome. Servers are already working on half a dozen tasks at once, taking care of customers, taking orders, punching them in, bringing food over, closing out checks, and doing it all for several tables at once. The phone ringing is simply likely to go ignored if the restaurant is busy. 

By implementing a restaurant phone answering service, the number of phone calls that servers or managers will actually have to deal with is sharply reduced. 

In fact, at PLNT Burger, three locations saved a total of 20 hours in just one month by letting Slang.ai take care of 245 phone calls.

3. Take more calls, 24/7, and capture all interested customers.

Customers don’t always know when a restaurant is open, and they’ll call with reservation inquiries, catering inquiries, and any other kind of question at any time of day, any day of the week. Without a phone answering service, these poorly timed calls all go to voicemail, and that potential business is likely lost to a competitor who will answer the phone.

Connecting your AI virtual answering system to the rest of your restaurant management software, including your reservation system, lets customers easily make reservations for another day — even when you’re closed.

4. Instantly provide the latest information on holidays, specials, wait times, online ordering, and reservations during busy times.

Restaurant phone call volume increases by 20% around the holidays. People are clamoring to make large group reservations, learn about catering, explore  options for office parties, and even just find out if you’re open on New Year's Day for brunch. 

Make sure that every caller can get all the info they need whenever they call with Slang.ai. Your servers and hosts dealing with that 36-person table will thank you, and you’ll be able to seize every business opportunity that each season brings.

5. Improve customer satisfaction with more accurate ordering.

As mentioned above, phone calls often come at busy times for restaurants, and the busy servers who have to answer the phone don’t always have the time to write down every detail of orders that come in on the phone.

Connecting an AI-powered virtual call center with your POS for restaurants, you don’t have to worry about mistakes in an order. The order will be sent right from the call to the POS — and if the customer said “no lettuce”, the POS will relay that message straight to the cooks. Whether your virtual answering system takes the call, or directs the customer to an online ordering option, diners can order more quickly and in their preferred style, no matter how short-staffed you may be.

6. Easily collect and manage data to help your restaurant optimize and grow through analytics and reporting.

By connecting your phone answering service to your restaurant POS system and your other tech, you can add call statistics and metrics to your monthly business check-ins. How many calls came in about reservations? More or less than this month last year? Keep track of the health of your business, improve the customer and employee experience, and learn what you can do to grow bigger in 2023, with Slang.ai.