A prediction by Gartner states that by 2020, non-human interactions will account for 85% of enterprise-customer relationships. Surveys reveal that 89% of consumers prefer to engage with businesses via text. Out of all the customers that engage with businesses via text, 64% of them leave the interaction with a positive impression.
From the statistics above, you can tell that artificial intelligence (AI) is the way of the future. For we in the hospitality industry, we can make great gains from integrating artificial intelligence into our customer interactions.
Below are some of the ways your restaurant business can benefit from chatbots:
Benefits of Chatbots
- They Ease the Management of Reservations and Order Taking
How much time do your employees spend on taking orders and managing reservations? My guess is a lot. Depending on the online food ordering services you have as your partners, taking, processing, and completing an order takes time.
A chatbot that you deploy on your website, app, and social media accounts can interact with customers and complete these tasks at 100% accuracy. A restaurant is a service business. Minimizing errors help you maintain customers.
- Chatbots Promote Deals and Offers
Chatbots can tap into your email lists and entice your existing customers with attractive deals and offers. This strategy can work on your website and social media pages to bring you a lot of repeat business.
With a feature like Machine Learning, chatbots can recognize your regulars and retarget them with automated deals that may entice them back for more business.
- Chatbots Present Your Menu in a Better Way
Any restaurant with a big menu faces the risk of oversight by customers on some dishes. you can solve this problem by training your employees to know the menu thoroughly and offer on-spot recommendations or deploy chatbots. Which solution sounds easier to implement.
You can program chatbots to present your menu in visually attractive and conversational ways. Chatbots can study your customer's preferences and offer better recommendations.
- Chatbots Connect Better with Your Customers
The current generation of consumers prefers personalization and an understanding of their choices. Many businesses suffer poor reviews on yelp because their staff cannot point out the vegan options on the menu.
Whether the customer is sitting in your dinner or ordering online, chatbots engage better with your clients. In this way, chatbots reduce the need for additional manpower and saving you a ton in the longterm.
- Chatbots Collect and Follow Up on Feedback
Restaurants rely on reviews to fix problems and bring in more business. Sure, there are services like Yelp that collect customer reviews but how can you follow up on the feedback.
Chatbots can remind your customers to fill feedback forms. With no human intervention, chatbots offer a better system that collects and analyzes feedback and reviews.
- Chatbots Establish an Easier Takeaway and Delivery System
Do you offer takeaway and delivery services? If so, chatbots can reduce the effort that a customer requires to make such an order. The customer does not have to call you or open your app. A message on Facebook Messanger or your website's chat window is sufficient.
- Chatbots Automate Your Loyalty Programs
Automating your loyalty programs encourages sales. Deploying chatbots to handle this task is a more effective tactic than employing people who will use sales-y language that repels customers.
Chatbots Make and Save You Money
Take a moment and calculate how much money you would spend were you to employ humans to complete these tasks in a year. If a chatbot were to bring 1% of repeat business, how much more would you make in a year? From the figures, chatbots make and save you money.