How does your restaurant engage with customers? Do you rely on employees to greet people, take orders, and answer questions? Or do you instead utilize technology to help automate these and other important customer-facing tasks? If you want to level-up customer service and engagement in your restaurant, here’s how an AI-powered chatbot can help.
Introduction to Chatbots
A chatbot is a computer program designed to simulate conversation with human users, especially over instant messaging. Typically, a chatbot communicates via text or speech interactions.
A chatbot that simulates intelligent behavior (or appears to do so) is usually referred to as a natural language processing system (NLP). It may be a form of artificial intelligence when it exhibits complex autonomous behavior. But otherwise it can be a component of a broader system.
Chatbots are often used in situations where it is impractical to have a real person available. Such as customer service or answering questions from prospective customers on websites. The most widely known use of chatbots is in conversational commerce. Which refers to utilizing chatbots on social media to either market products. Directly or assist customers with questions regarding their orders.
This type of bot is typically integrated into messaging applications such as Facebook Messenger or Slack. Other popular uses include entertainment, information services, and personal assistants like Siri or Alexa.
Why should you have a Chatbot?
A chatbot is a computer program to simulate conversation with human users, especially over the Internet. For our purposes, we’re talking about live chatbots that allow customers to reach out when they want help with something on your website.
When someone asks a question or leaves a comment or suggestion, it gets routed to a customer service representative who then follows up appropriately. It doesn’t take much imagination to see how these bots can reduce response times by hours (or even days). The result? Happier customers and more time for you to focus on other things.
What should you build?: There are two primary types of chatbots: scripted and natural language. Scripted bots use decision trees or rules based systems to determine what actions to take depending on what a user says; natural language bots have machine learning capabilities that let them understand unstructured inputs—i.e., free-form text—and respond accordingly.
Most businesses will benefit from both types of chatbots, but if you had to choose one or the other right now, go with a natural language bot. If you do decide to go with a scripted bot in addition to a natural language one, make sure they work together so that information isn’t duplicated across multiple channels.
How should you implement it?: There are three main ways to building a chatbot:
1) Build your own
2) Use an existing platform like Facebook Messenger or Microsoft Bot Framework
3) Work with a company that specializes in building chatbots.
Whichever route you choose, keep these tips in mind:
• Be specific : Don’t try to be everything to everyone. Instead, figure out exactly what problem you’re trying to solve and tailor your messaging around that.
• Keep it simple : Bots can be incredibly complex, but remember that most people won’t want to spend too much time interacting with yours. As such, don’t overload them with unnecessary features or options; keep things as simple as possible while still meeting their needs.
• Ask questions : People love being heard, so give them an opportunity to talk about themselves.
That way, you can learn more about what they’re looking for and provide better service down the line.
• Learn from mistakes : No matter how carefully you craft your message. There will always be some people who misinterpret it or aren’t satisfied with your response. Make sure you know how to handle those situations; otherwise, angry customers could turn into unhappy ones!
What are the benefits of using Chatbots?
Talking with a chatbot can feel strange at first. Many people report enjoying talking to chatbots—not just because they’re convenient, but also because they’re more personable than most automated phone systems. Most importantly, chatbots can help your customers get answers quickly and efficiently. If you have questions about what type of business to start or how to create a new product or service, talk to a chatbot. How much information they can provide!
The benefits of using chatbots extend beyond customer support. They can also assist with brand management, lead generation, and advertising: You could use a chatbot to publish regular blogs posts or news updates on social media channels (for example: Our chefs are preparing special dishes today that feature fresh tomatoes from our garden!). Or you could build out help center functionality so users can submit inquiries directly through your website.
What are the right kinds of Chatbots for restaurants?
Restaurants can use chatbots to complement their human customer service team, or they can use a chatbot as their primary customer service interface. For example, if you’re a mid-sized regional chain with 60 locations around the country. You know you don’t have enough staffing to handle phone calls from customers every day between 6–9pm—or maybe you only want to make yourself available at these hours—you could instead develop a chatbot that serves as your support team during those time frames.
You could then deploy that same chatbot on Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Twitter Direct Messages (DMs), etc., to allow people to contact you outside of business hours. If you are looking to supplement your current staff, rather than replace them entirely. Consider how much time it would take for someone in your restaurant to respond to each type of inquiry (e.g., How do I find my order number? vs. My food is cold; what should I do?).
Would it be faster for someone in house to respond, or would it be better by having a chatbot answer?
What might happen if you were able to automate 80% of incoming messages through a chatbot?
What about 90%? 100%? What level of automation is your current processes?
Is there room for improvement? If so, what’s stopping you from getting there? And finally, think about where your customers are when they need help.
Are they sitting down in a booth or standing up at the counter? Do they have access to WiFi or cell reception?
Are they likely to be using a desktop computer, tablet, smartphone, etc.? The answers to these questions will help shape which channels make sense for your brand and also determine whether you need more than one chatbot.
So what does all of this mean? In short, restaurants can benefit from adding a chatbot to its repertoire. As part of your overall strategy, look for ways to engage customers via new mediums. And encourage loyalty by keeping your name top-of-mind throughout their daily lives.
Closing thoughts on your restaurant Chatbot project
You can’t please everyone. Not every guest is going to have a positive experience at your restaurant. With that said, you want to do everything you can to make sure that customers who visit your business are happy.
An AI powered chatbot can help alleviate many customer service issues by quickly identifying problems and suggesting solutions before they arise. Customers may also be more likely to engage with your chatbot than with a human since it doesn’t have time constraints like humans do. And, as mentioned above, a chatbot will allow you to scale up your customer service department without having to hire additional employees. It’s important to note that not all businesses need a chatbot. However, if yours does or could benefit from one, then now is definitely the time to consider building one.
