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Chatbots for Restaurants: Redefining the Customer Experience in 2022
Offering a full-service restaurant-style experience at home for your customers might still be quite a far-fetched idea, but we now have the next best thing: Chatbot assisted restaurant services.
Restaurant chatbots can propel food and beverage businesses to new heights in customer experience. Chatbots, especially useful in this pandemic when people didn’t want to have in-person contact, can handle multiple facets of your business, from order handling to online payments.
As restaurants endeavor to enhance the customer experience, chatbots can be a valuable asset. With the widespread use of digital by consumers, chatbots can be used in almost every retail environment.
Chatbots – Future of the Restaurant Industry
Chatbots can help restaurants satisfy their customers’ needs and significantly improve customer experience. Consider a customer who chooses to order food online instead of going outside. The customer may effortlessly purchase meals online using chatbots while sitting at their home and earn special promotional deals.
According to Juniper Research , Chatbots could help businesses save more than $8 billion annually by 2022.
2022 will be a year of opportunities to implement innovative chatbot technology and improve customer experience, allowing businesses to better communicate with current and future consumers. Gartner forecasts that AI will become a mainstream customer experience investment in the next couple of years as companies would look to migrate from in-person interactions to virtual engagements.
Why choose Chatbots for your Restaurant?
It’s important to understand that a chatbot is not a feature, but a full-fledged solution that can help in various ways. For example, promote a brand, generate leads, and boost sales by providing round-the-clock customer service.
Easier reservations:
People like dining out – And most, if not all, like to make reservations ahead of time in order to not worry about table availability, even on busy days. Customers can reserve tables in a few seconds with a Chatbot, rather than booking over the phone, which can be stressful and confusing during busy periods.
According to Drift , 33% of customers would like to utilize chatbots for hotel reservations.
When the entire booking procedure is completed in just a few clicks, there is no frustration or wasted time, and with a robust AI-based chatbot solution in place, there is no confusion, missed requests, etc., providing an excellent opportunity to gain client confidence and long-term patronage. Chatbots can also automatically send confirmation emails or reminders to ensure customers do not forget about their reservations.
Chatbot dine-in and takeaway services:
The pandemic has heightened the need for meal delivery, and technological advances have created an unprecedented opportunity to cater to this demand at par. You can quickly provide a contactless experience to customers with a Chatbot, starting right from the meal ordering procedure. Users have to browse the menu and can order with just a few clicks. Whether your customer reserves a seat at the restaurant for dine-in, or looks for takeout, Chatbots keep your business running without a hitch.
Customized suggestions:
Each consumer is unique, and they want restaurants and hotels to recognize and cater to these distinctions. Chatbots learn about customers’ preferences and provide customized suggestions based on their interactions. Chatbots also suggest new meals and beverages that complement their chosen meal. This feature always makes customers happy because it shows a stronger sense of customer awareness, which makes them more likely to come back.
Around-the-clock customer service:
Most restaurants cannot afford a live chat service, accessible 24/7. On the other hand, a Facebook or website chatbot may be accessible at any time and can answer customer queries.
According to Analytics Insights , Chatbots are expected to handle 75-90% of client queries by 2025.
A chatbot that can answer your customer’s inquiries anytime, anywhere, might keep that diner from going elsewhere.
Deals and Offers:
Getting new consumers is difficult these days. Thanks to machine learning, restaurants can utilize chatbots to detect and entice returning consumers with automated specials and offers. It can also send notifications through email or SMS to ensure no customer misses out on specials.
Secured Payments:
Chatbots can simplify things by optimizing everything from order processing to invoicing and payment processing. It integrates credit/debit cards, internet banking, and other payment applications and gateways. Since customers have a wide selection of payment alternatives for their orders, all of which are entirely safe and contactless, the process guarantees an improved customer experience overall.
Feedback follow-up:
Website reviews are the new-age word-of-mouth, which has the potential to bring in more customers for any restaurant. Chatbots can send out automatic feedback/review reminders to customers intelligently. AI-based chatbots offer an optimal mechanism for collecting customer ratings and feedback sans any human intervention.
Chatbots across different social channels
Chatbots could be employed in many channels, including the website, social media, and the in-restaurant app, ensuring the chatbot is a valuable marketing tool. With an expected global market size of over $1.3 billion by 2024, chatbots will be the hot-button topic in the social media marketing world, says Global Market Insights . If social channels aren’t at the top of your marketing assets list, it’s time to reconsider.
Website Chatbots:
Chatbots are smart and fully capable of performing various jobs. Everything from restaurant reservations to online meal delivery services. Restaurants and hotels can engage with website users on a one-to-one basis, allowing them to align sales and marketing activities, reduce sales friction, and connect better with customers. Chatbots make it simple to expand lead generation by being constantly “on-call” to answer queries and schedule appointments with prospects.
Twitter Chatbots:
Twitter is a wonderful platform for companies to give vital information to people. Without looking through website pages or hamburger menus, a user may send a direct message using Twitter chatbots. The Twitter chatbot experience is easy and straightforward, and it augments the human experience to meet the demands of your valued customers.
WhatsApp chatbots:
Given that WhatsApp is one of the most widely used messaging app globally, the platform is an excellent approach to handle customer support issues. The WhatsApp bot can customize replies based on a user’s keyword searches and time of the day. It makes the home delivery experience simple and intuitive.
Facebook Chatbots:
Facebook chatbots can revolutionize how marketers and consumers connect on the world’s largest social media platform. It can transmit text, photos, and rich bubbles, as well as CTAs.
Final Takeaway
While chatbots in the restaurant business are still emerging, the evolution will benefit both restaurants and their consumers. By helping brands worldwide automate customer service, streamline transactions, and foster community, Chatbots are paving the future of hospitality.
So, Redefine your customer experience for your restaurant business with our one-stop chatbot solution.
