The pandemic experience has played havoc with pizza businesses for a little over two years now, negatively affecting customer behavior, business operations, and production routines. And lately, despite the return of some economic normalcy, it has continued to impact the normal work schedules of employers and employees alike. To help resolve many of these issues, restaurants have turned to using AI (Artificial Intelligence) to help run, manage, and implement their businesses across multiple platforms. The newest advances in AI programs, combined with managed services, are helping to redefine and upgrade the customer experience, decrease costs, and increase operational efficiency.
According to Morgan Stanley, 47% of restaurant customers still prefer to call restaurants and fast-food establishments directly to make an order, rather than turn to outside food delivery sources. And in spite of industry predictions, phone ordering activity is not declining at the expected rates. Instead, it’s current labor shortages and supply chain disruptions that are having a huge negative impact on formerly smooth store operations.
But new technology is stepping up and providing the needed answers. For example, a UCaaS telecom provider can front-load an IVR (Interactive Voice Response) that sends the caller to the AI ordering system to place an order. These calls are only re-directed to the local store if there is a problem with the process and it requires the interaction of a manager or member of the operations team. This effectively frees up store staff to concentrate on making the product and successfully delivering it. During slower hours, the system can reverse the process, take the calls at the store, save on the Call Center charges, and many times allow the store to continue operating even in the face of reduced numbers of team members.
Services like those from Crosswind Cloud Solutions also utilize AI to monitor and manage bandwidth connection and maintain 99.9% uptime without consistent monitoring or “hands-on” interaction with store personnel.
Thus, consistent systems monitoring and management helps to quickly spot potential problems, long before they become visible to owners or staff. It’s truly an automated approach to keeping you up and running, and thereby:
- Improving customer experience by allowing team members to maintain a quality guest service experience.
- Allowing customers to skip the line when the drive-thru is full and order via AI-enabled virtual assistants
- Improve customer service levels by providing status updates on order prep times and delivery status.
- Provide real-time data to drive decision making for actual labor needs during peak hours, and effectively,
- Promote self-ordering and scheduling via autonomous delivery.
One more thing, and this can be a big one… companies like Crosswind Cloud Solutions can significantly reduce start-up and installation costs for this type of service. Backed by decades of experience, they can specify, order, and install the equipment you need without the significant upfront costs. Their customers pay for the whole package on a monthly basis. This arrangement can provide an affordable way to test drive and evaluate the benefits of these AI tools without large capital expenditures.
If all of this sounds like the perfect set-up plan for your pizza business, why not give one of our representatives a call today! It just might be the perfect blend of ingredients for baking up your successful pizza business dreams.