Interactions, automated
There are two obvious places chatbots—a typed-out voice and conversation—can impact restaurant operations: ordering and social media. To ease looming labor concerns, operators such as Wingstop, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell have already started using bots to automate the ordering process, oftentimes taking place on social media.
Wingstop, for example, allows Facebook users to simply type “Order” to the brand, which begins real-time automated responses not just to the order itself, but to questions about allergies, nutritional information and other preferences. For operators looking to cut back on customer service as well as online-ordering staff, bots may prove to be a money-saving option as they become more prevalent and kinks get worked out by early adopters.