Restaurant Chatbot: What It Can Do and How to Make One?

As a restaurant owner, you would always want to enhance customer experience, reduce operational costs, and boost sales. But you might not know that all these things can be done through a restaurant chatbot.

An AI restaurant chatbot can take orders, book reservations, offer customer support, recommend menu items, collect feedback, and do a ton of things.

It can reduce the burden on human representatives and take customer experience to the next level. And that’s the reason famous food chains and restaurants like Burger King, Subway, and Starbucks have integrated a chatbot to assist customers.

Let’s see what a restaurant chatbot can do and how to make one for your restaurant.

Part 1: What is Restaurant Chatbot?

A restaurant chatbot is an AI-powered chatbot used to interact with customers. It is equipped with LLM (Large Language Model) to understand human conversations in different languages.

It is powered by ML (Machine Learning) algorithms to offer tailored responses like a human representative. It is trained on very large data related to restaurants and their customers. That’s how it can answer appropriately, understand complex issues, and make decisions.

Restaurant owners integrate restaurant chatbots into their applications, websites, social media, and other customer interaction platforms.

Part 2: What Can Restaurant Chatbots Do?

Restaurant chatbots interact with customers and handle various tasks. They are mostly used for the following purposes.

#1 Take Orders

The primary reason for using a restaurant chatbot is ordering. Restaurants integrate chatbots to handle more customers at minimal expense and boost sales.

Many customers prefer to order through a food ordering chatbot. They find it more convenient rather than calling the phone number. They can easily place the order they like in no time.

When a customer interacts with a restaurant chatbot, it provides a menu. Once the item is selected, the order is placed. The chatbot can automatically deduct the amount from the linked credit card.

Many popular restaurants and food chains are using chatbots for taking orders. However, most of them have limited options on the menu.

• We used a chatbot to order a pizza.

#2 Reservations through Restaurant Chatbot

Imagine you want to visit a restaurant that requires advance reservation. The traditional way is to call and book a table. However, if the restaurant offers a chatbot, the reservation process becomes a lot easier and quicker.

While making a reservation, you need to inform the chatbot about the date, time, the number of persons, and other requirements. If there is any availability, the chatbot will let you know and give other details.

• Here’s how we reserved a table using a chatbot.

The chatbot has booked the table within a few seconds. Now, we can visit the restaurant and enjoy the meal.

#3 Customer Support

Chatbots work like human representatives. They offer tailored responses and handle customer queries. Not only in restaurants, they are used in many industries to offer better customer experience and resolve their issues.

Restaurants use chatbots for customer support. If there is any issue with order, quality, refund, etc., customers can reach out through the chatbot and explain their issue. The chatbot tries to answer queries and fix issues as much as possible, but if there is anything extremely complex, it directs the customer to a human representative.

• We asked a chatbot about the refund and how to process it. Here’s the response we got.

Chatbots are better at customer support as they can answer queries quickly. They understand the emotions of the customers and assist them throughout the process.

Build A Chatbot

#4 Menu Recommendations

When you can’t decide what to eat, ask a chatbot. It recommends some popular dishes with their details.

If there are certain preferences, such as “no beef,” users can communicate that. It will recommend suitable items from the menu.

• We asked a menu chatbot about the combos the restaurant offers. Here’s the answer.

We got the available combos with pricing. It also mentioned the items included as well as the ingredients. Now, choosing the right combo is easier. But if you have further questions, go ahead.

The best part is that the chatbot offers a tailored response according to your likings and preferences. And if you select the wrong item, such as something that contains an allergen, it will guide you.

We told a restaurant chatbot that we had a shrimp allergy. But then we deliberately selected the Shrimp Burger Combo to check the response. Here’s what we got.

#5 Order Tracking on Restaurant Chatbot

Using a restaurant chatbot, it is easier to track the order. Whether it is being cooked or on the way, the chatbot gives you every detail.

It also shares an estimated time of arrival and assists you throughout the process. You can ask multiple times, and it gives you the answer within a few seconds.

• We asked a hotel restaurant chatbot about the order progress. Here’s the response.

#6 Marketing

Chatbots are also marketers. Yes, they can do promotions, such as offering discounts, personalized offers, coupons, Black Friday deals, etc.

They can reach out to existing customers and let them know about the offer. If there is any special event, such as a restaurant anniversary, it can notify customers.

Many restaurants offer loyalty programs. Customers can use chatbots to check the points they have and where they can spend.

• We asked a chatbot about our points.

#7 Feedback Collection

Restaurant chatbots can also collect customer feedback. After the order, they can leave a message “How was the Meal? Tasty?” or anything like that. They can also request customers to rate the service, food, etc.

Feedback is important for improvement. Chatbots collect data from customers and analyze it. For instance, by the end of the month, a chatbot can show the percentage of satisfied customers and the average ratings.

• Here’s how we gave feedback to a restaurant through a chatbot.

Expert Assistance

Part 3: Real Life Restaurant Bot Examples

1Domino’s Pizza

Dominos has made its chatbot, DOM, accessible through Facebook Messenger, Amazon Alexa, and Google Assistant. It makes ordering pizza hassle-free.

Users can place orders through the chatbot. They can place a new order or reorder from previous orders. They can track their order and get the estimated delivery time.

Payments are made through the connected account, and cash on delivery is also available. Other than order, users can also ask questions.

2Starbucks

Starbucks mobile application has a built-in chatbot that takes customer orders through messages and voice commands.

The order is placed in no time, and the transaction happens through the connected credit card. Send the order request to a nearby store and collect it according to the given time.

It is quite handy for working people. They can save time by ordering through the chatbot or via Amazon Alexa. They can pick up their order while going to the office.

Other than ordering, a chatbot can help with customer support, recommendations, feedback submission, and loyalty programs.

3Burger King

Burger King has integrated a Facebook Messenger bot. It can be used to order items online; however, the menu is limited.

It allows you to select a nearby Burger King restaurant. You have the options for home delivery as well as pickup. Once ordered, it gives you an estimated time when the food will be ready. It deducts the amount directly from the linked credit card.

Part 4: The Best Chatbot Building Platform with AI Restaurant Solutions

The above chatbots are also made using GPTBots, and you can do that too without coding or prior experience. With GPTBots, it is possible to create a perfect bot for a restaurant business or food chain that handles multiple tasks with perfection.

GPTBots empowers you to build a full-fledged conversational AI chatbot for almost any purpose. You can create AI restaurant chatbots and train them on your data for a personalized experience. Be it order booking, order tracking, reservations, feedback, or anything else, the chatbot can handle everything with perfection. The best part is that you don’t have to be an expert; anyone can create a chatbot within a few minutes.

Conclusion

An AI-powered restaurant chatbot could boost your sales and enhance customer experience. It can work like a human representative and help in order booking, tracking, reservations, feedback collection, etc. It can interact with customers and offer the assistance required. It is capable of handling complex queries and making customers happy. If you want to create a perfect restaurant chatbot, use GPTBots. It’s a no-coding chatbot-building tool that helps you create a full-fledged chatbot in no time. You can train it on your data and make everything personalized. Sign up for GPTBots today and get 100 free credits every month.

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