Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Monday, 7 October 2019
Thursday, 3 October 2019
Monday, 30 September 2019
Chatbots in Restaurants: Redefining Customer Experience
Chatbots can be programmed to carry out a myriad of tasks. Can they help your brand?
Chatbots can free your staff up for other tasks.
Gartner predicts that by 2020, a whopping 85 percent of enterprise-customer relationships will be managed without human interactions. Surveys show that 89 percent of consumers opt to engage with businesses through text and 64 percent of consumers that communicate with businesses via text leave with a positive impression.Clearly, we are not far from the time where majority of interactions will be automated completely given that conversational AI/intelligent chatbots are playing a crucial role in almost every industry.
With chatbots becoming mainstream, several industries are utilizing them as they offer greater and less intrusive opportunities when it comes to customer engagement (esp. hyper connected millennials). It is only a matter of time before chatbots in restaurants make their way to the forefront. Designed to communicate in a meaningful manner with customers, chatbots can be integrated with any interface (Facebook, Slack or Telegram to name a few). For example, the pizza bot from Domino’s takes delivery orders directly from Facebook Messenger with a mere emoji.
Given that customer retention and loyalty is at the core of any service-based business, it is paramount for restaurants to fulfill and exceed expectations when it comes to guest service. Everything from running marketing campaigns, their website to online and offline services is a means to attaining the very goal of impeccable service. However, be it ordering food, making a reservation or even getting recommendations, it is impossible for service staff to meet everyone’s standards consistently, which can result in a negative brand image for the restaurant.
With chatbots, your customers no longer need to make a call to reserve a table, wait for staff to attend to them or wait in line for tables to free up. Restaurants don’t need to have an exclusive service executive for the customers either. Bots can be programmed to carry out a myriad of tasks ranging from answering FAQs, making a reservation, ordering food or processing payment. The bot can carry out these tasks in manner similar to a service executive, difference being—it can execute round the clock with zero downtime.
Here’s an interesting scenario:
The customer uses the chatbot to order a steak. Post assessing the order, an intelligent chatbot can offer suggestions on pairing that steak with a red wine.
Additionally, if the customer is looking to simply order wine along with their food, the chatbot shows recommendations on the different kind of wines available with the restaurant.
Customer then selects the wine of his/her choice and places the follow up order. If this is an order for delivery, the payment can be processed through the bot itself.
Restaurants can use chatbots for similar meal pairings or recommendations—this not only engages the customer with your brand but also drives revenue. The best part? You don’t have to ask your customers to download the chatbot like an app (it can be integrated with the channel of your choice). These bots also keep the conversation ongoing. Whether it is by asking relevant questions, sharing interesting trivia or even cracking the occasional joke just like a friend would on Messenger.
Furthermore, chatbots in restaurants need to be perfectly synchronized with the marketing and other customer oriented efforts. Bots can parallel serve as an intelligence-gathering tool which assists a restaurant in understanding their customers. With customer contact details, past orders, preferred method of payment etc., the chatbot in restaurant can not only personalize a customers experience but also reward/incentivize loyal customers in order to increase repeat business—all through a well designed chatbot conversation.
That apart, while the staff focuses on preparing and serving food, chatbots can engage with the customers by answering questions related to open and close times, reward points or whether if the restaurant is open on a public holiday. The use cases of chatbot in restaurants rely heavily on the kind of experience restaurants want to offer their visitors.
For millennials, the generation that actively prefers not speaking with others, they can be the perfect fit as they are the ones who, apart from food, also expect a digital experience. This is where restaurants need to evolve by understanding modern day customer behaviors and expectations with the advent of digital technology.
Across multiple industries, capturing and retaining customer interest and business through AI powered technologies has now become a priority. An estimated 2 billion messages have been sent by 60 million businesses on Facebook messenger alone on a monthly basis. This shows that there is a huge opportunity for chatbot in restaurants when it comes to enhancing customer engagement and thereby opening the doors to a broader hyper connected demographic.
Hotels have already started integrating chatbots in their operational processes and noticed good ROI. Restaurants that take the leap in incorporating chatbots will be sure to see a growing customer base and more cost-effectiveness, which will ultimately be conducive to overall growth and revenue generation.
Mitul Makadia is founder of Maruti Techlabs and a true technophile. With his industry experience, he has rapidly developed Maruti Techlabs in specialized services like Chatbot Development, Artificial Intelligence, Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning. Makadia has considerable expertise in Chatbot Development and NLP.
Article Source: https://www.qsrmagazine.com/outside-insights/chatbots-restaurants-redefining-customer-experience
Friday, 27 September 2019
Josh Thomas: Reviving the Restaurant Industry, A Chatbot Story
We know the story all too well. Amazing restaurant opens up, locals rave and pack the venue every weekend, and a year later? They close their doors. It’s a story all too common. In fact, 80% of restaurants and bars are out of business within 5 years. (Business Insider)
Who would have thought? After all, on paper, they had it all right. They were active on social media, hosted events frequently, were inundated with local press, and treated every single customer like they were their own special star. Alas, all of the limited-release craft brews, hand-cut cocktail ice, and artisanal charcuterie meats in the world couldn’t save them.
Bypassing the ‘why’ (ahem, Millennials & Uber - I’m guilty also), we have a serious issue- people just aren’t showing up to restaurants as frequently. As Sam Wynne, our client & owner of BrainDead Brewing in Dallas, TX puts it-
“a few years ago it was all about getting a handshake at the front door, but now you have to get that first handshake digitally.” — Sam Wynne, BrainDead Brewing
Some restaurants are downright awful. For them, it’s only a matter of time. But for those who aren’t? One of my favorite spots in Dallas for Tacos and Old Fashioneds (don’t judge my taste buds, bud) was Victor Tangos. They closed this year after a decade of stellar service. This is a prime example of a great venue that provided immense value, but just couldn’t keep up with the times.
Now, let’s get to the meat of this post. I’m going to share two of the strategies we are using to help restaurants, bars, breweries, and others push through the hard times.
The Benefit
Chatbots can be used for many things. At Botsmith AI, we are leveraging them to build brand awareness, increase attendance, and distribute information on events & specials for our restaurant clients. Additionally, we are using them to thank visitors to ensure the best customer service.
It’s like email on steroids. Done right, the benefit here is obvious & incredibly potent.
A Few Strategies to Start
Quick Note on Choosing a Platform
I’ll cover this briefly as others have already written exhaustive lists on the pros and cons of each chatbot platform. For restaurateurs who want to go this alone, I highly recommend using ManyChat. It is incredibly visual and intuitive, and easier to manage than most platforms. That said, there are other great platforms out there, so do your research and pick the one you feel most comfortable with.
The Facebook Comments Growth Tool
Growth tools are the bread and butter of what makes chatbots great. We won’t go into a ton of detail here (again, tons of articles about these) but here is our favorite:
Facebook Comments GT Example: Run an organic page post or paid ad promoting an irresistible special. Ask users to comment on the feed to be sent a coupon. Create the tool + sequence in ManyChat. The bot automatically sends the opt-in + coupon, and informs them they will get some messages every now and then. Don’t forget to ask them to share with friends!
BrainDead Brewing Beer List Messenger QR Code
Using Messenger QR Codes
Here is a hot tip for you, and something we are doing at BrainDead Brewing. We are printing Messenger QR codes on menus & stickers, linked directly to the beer list. Now, instead of patrons getting up to read chalkboards, they can scan the code in Messenger and read the updated list on their phones.
The benefit here is that they become subscribers. The next day, you can thank them for their visit via Messenger, ask how their visit was, and welcome them back in. Bonus points? Give them a coupon to come back in the following week and thank them personally when they do.
P.S. If you want to see BrainDead Brewing’s Messenger QR Growth Tool, just open the Messenger app, go to the camera and hold your finger on the screen to scan the image above! Or Click Here to see the Welcome Sequence.
Final Note
Restaurateurs, you’ve got it rough right now, but we are all appreciative of your hard work, and for bringing our communities together with great food, masterfully crafted cocktails, and cold brews. My hope is this helps many of you keep your businesses running strong so I can continue stuffing my fat face.
If I can help, or if you would like us to build a bot for you, please shoot me a message!
Send Josh a Note on Messenger
Cheers to your success,
-Josh
Article Source: https://chatbotsmagazine.com/reviving-the-restaurant-industry-a-chatbot-story-cbbf77a3b938
Who would have thought? After all, on paper, they had it all right. They were active on social media, hosted events frequently, were inundated with local press, and treated every single customer like they were their own special star. Alas, all of the limited-release craft brews, hand-cut cocktail ice, and artisanal charcuterie meats in the world couldn’t save them.
Bypassing the ‘why’ (ahem, Millennials & Uber - I’m guilty also), we have a serious issue- people just aren’t showing up to restaurants as frequently. As Sam Wynne, our client & owner of BrainDead Brewing in Dallas, TX puts it-
“a few years ago it was all about getting a handshake at the front door, but now you have to get that first handshake digitally.” — Sam Wynne, BrainDead Brewing
Some restaurants are downright awful. For them, it’s only a matter of time. But for those who aren’t? One of my favorite spots in Dallas for Tacos and Old Fashioneds (don’t judge my taste buds, bud) was Victor Tangos. They closed this year after a decade of stellar service. This is a prime example of a great venue that provided immense value, but just couldn’t keep up with the times.
Now, let’s get to the meat of this post. I’m going to share two of the strategies we are using to help restaurants, bars, breweries, and others push through the hard times.
The Benefit
Chatbots can be used for many things. At Botsmith AI, we are leveraging them to build brand awareness, increase attendance, and distribute information on events & specials for our restaurant clients. Additionally, we are using them to thank visitors to ensure the best customer service.
It’s like email on steroids. Done right, the benefit here is obvious & incredibly potent.
A Few Strategies to Start
Quick Note on Choosing a Platform
I’ll cover this briefly as others have already written exhaustive lists on the pros and cons of each chatbot platform. For restaurateurs who want to go this alone, I highly recommend using ManyChat. It is incredibly visual and intuitive, and easier to manage than most platforms. That said, there are other great platforms out there, so do your research and pick the one you feel most comfortable with.
The Facebook Comments Growth Tool
Growth tools are the bread and butter of what makes chatbots great. We won’t go into a ton of detail here (again, tons of articles about these) but here is our favorite:
Facebook Comments GT Example: Run an organic page post or paid ad promoting an irresistible special. Ask users to comment on the feed to be sent a coupon. Create the tool + sequence in ManyChat. The bot automatically sends the opt-in + coupon, and informs them they will get some messages every now and then. Don’t forget to ask them to share with friends!
BrainDead Brewing Beer List Messenger QR Code
Using Messenger QR Codes
Here is a hot tip for you, and something we are doing at BrainDead Brewing. We are printing Messenger QR codes on menus & stickers, linked directly to the beer list. Now, instead of patrons getting up to read chalkboards, they can scan the code in Messenger and read the updated list on their phones.
The benefit here is that they become subscribers. The next day, you can thank them for their visit via Messenger, ask how their visit was, and welcome them back in. Bonus points? Give them a coupon to come back in the following week and thank them personally when they do.
P.S. If you want to see BrainDead Brewing’s Messenger QR Growth Tool, just open the Messenger app, go to the camera and hold your finger on the screen to scan the image above! Or Click Here to see the Welcome Sequence.
Final Note
Restaurateurs, you’ve got it rough right now, but we are all appreciative of your hard work, and for bringing our communities together with great food, masterfully crafted cocktails, and cold brews. My hope is this helps many of you keep your businesses running strong so I can continue stuffing my fat face.
If I can help, or if you would like us to build a bot for you, please shoot me a message!
Send Josh a Note on Messenger
Cheers to your success,
-Josh
Article Source: https://chatbotsmagazine.com/reviving-the-restaurant-industry-a-chatbot-story-cbbf77a3b938
Thursday, 26 September 2019
Ish Jindal: A Comprehensive Guide for using Chatbots in your Restaurant
Dominos, TGIF and Pizza Hut all have chatbots and you can too.
Early last year, a high-level Uber executive named Chris Messina claimed that 2016 would be the year of conversational commerce. If you don’t know what that means, then you are normal.
But if you work in the restaurant industry, you should definitely change that.
Silicon Valley has an uncanny habit of creating new tech trends that turn industries on their heads. Conversational commerce is one of those tech trends and the restaurant industry is one of its first targets.
This is your comprehensive guide on why this is the case and how you can get ahead of the curve.
Here’s how this is article is structured. In the sections 1 and 2, I am going to explain what conversational commerce is and why there is growing buzz around it in the tech space. Skip to section 3 if you already know all of this. In section 3, I will discuss what this new tech trend means for the restaurant industry in particular. Finally, section 4 will give you resources you need to get started.
Enjoy!
1. What is conversational commerce?
The term sounds jargony at first, but when you break it down to its fundamental parts, it is fairly basic. Conversational commerce is the process of conducting business by talking to someone. The vast majority of business conducted in human history has been conversational commerce.
If you have ever gone to a corner store, pharmacy or a shopping mall and talked to any of the store attendants you have engaged in conversational commerce.
It can even occur over distances. Ever ordered food through the phone? Or chatted with someone to buy something from them? Those count as conversational commerce as well.
2. Why it matters
There are three reasons you should care about conversational commerce:
Reason 1: The growing popularity of messaging apps.
Think about all the apps you use everyday. A messaging app surely figures near the top of the list.
Unsurprisingly, this is the case for most people with a smartphone. The chart below shows the number of people using the top 4 messaging apps vs the number of people using the top 4 social media apps over time.
In 2015, the top messaging apps overtook the top social network apps in usage by a wide margin.
Implication 1: Your customers are devoting hours of their attention to conversational apps.
Implication 2: Your customers are used to the chat interface because they use it on a daily basis (you will find out why this is important in Section 3).
Reason 2: The proliferation of platforms that allow customer interaction.
The potential of conversational commerce has not gone unnoticed by companies in the space. In the year after Messina’s statement:
Facebook introduced its Messenger bot platform which allows Facebook pages to create automated chat experiences with users
Kik, Telegram and Line developed their existing bot platforms further
Viber opened up public accounts for companies to talk to people
iMessage added apps within chats.
Seemingly WhatsApp is the only big chat app missing in action (as an Indian this makes me sad), but even they have announced plans for commercial accounts soon. In fact, they are already doing beta testing of commercial accounts with a few businesses now.
Implication: You can now easily interact with your customers in the apps that they use most.
Reason 3: The Increasing capability of Artificial Intelligence.
Conversational commerce has always been hampered by the need for human labour. We get tired, we can only talk to one person at a time, we get stressed out, and most importantly we need to be paid. This makes us too expensive and slow for certain tasks.
Till recently, the solution has been to get customers to serve themselves. Think about travel booking as an example. We have shifted from a model of asking travel agents to bundle flight and hotel bookings for us, to doing it ourselves using the plethora of online hotel and flight booking sites available at our fingertips.
Why? Because we can instantly book flight tickets and hotel rooms on Expedia for cheaper than any travel agent could afford to charge (There is a great piece explaining this shift better and more in-depth that you should check out if you have the time. Here is the link)
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is slowly enabling us to shift back to a paradigm where the user does less on their own. An ideal AI travel assistant would be able to take your travel requirements and book all the flights and hotels you need in one bundle like a travel agent. Unlike a travel agent though, they could do it instantly like an app and for cheaper because there is no human that needs to be paid sitting at the back. Computers cease to be a tool used to do something yourself and more an assistant that is doing things for you.
Before you get too excited we are still a few years away from such a travel assistant. But the underlying AI technology is becoming cheaper, more advanced and readily available. Google, Facebook and IBM all have AI resources available for anyone to use right now.
Implication: Conversational Commerce is becoming cheaper to engage in.
A Quick Note on AI
There are two caveats to consider when thinking about AI. First, AI as it is currently available is still quite raw.
Second, if you are willing to sacrifice the complexity of the interaction, you do not need AI to create a good and cheap conversational commerce experience.
You’ll find out why conversational commerce is still beneficial without AI in the next section.
3. How can restaurants use this tech?
Restaurants are arguably the pioneers of conversational commerce. One of the only reasons I still use my smartphone to make calls is when I am ordering food. But even this basic use case could stand to be improved significantly by new technology. The primary new channel through which conversational commerce can occur is chatbots.
A chatbot is a piece of software that can respond to a customer’s messages in a chat interface using either AI or pre-programmed rules. The examples we gave above of the AI fail and the hotel booking were both examples of chatbots.
Where can customers find them?
Customers can interact with them in popular messaging apps that support chatbots (FB Messenger, Telegram, Line, Kik) or even on your website.
The most obvious use case for such a technology is for food ordering. Users could use a food ordering chatbot much like they would a phone ordering system except instead of talking to a staff member they chat with the bot.
Another possible use could be a chatbot for taking feedback. Bangalore based food chain Bhukkad uses a conversational feedback form for their delivery orders. You can read more about their experience here or check out the bot that they use over here:
Real-world Examples of Restaurant Chatbots
The three most prominent users of chatbots in the restaurant space are Domino’s, TGI Friday and Pizza Hut. Dominos and Pizzahut use it for food ordering and TGI Friday for making reservations.
What are the advantages of a chatbot?
This is a natural question to ask. All of the examples above could be implemented through an app or a website so why use a bot?
Let’s break it down:
Bots require no extra downloads
Bots have one clear advantage over apps in particular. Customers do not have to download anything extra to use a bot. If you use GrubHub for delivery and a customer has Eat24, the probability that the customer downloads Eat24 just to order from your restaurant is quite low. The average American downloads 1 app per month. In developing market like India, where people have cheaper phones with less memory, the probability becomes lower.
As Cliff Kuang from FastCo Design put it
There’s an enormous amount of friction associated with learning about a new app, downloading it, signing up for it, and then remembering you even have it.
Since users can interact with bots in messaging apps they already have downloaded or in a web browser, the chance of them completing an order goes up.
Chat is mobile optimised
Regular websites don’t fair too much better than apps. While you don’t have to download anything extra to use a website, many websites have a tendency to suck on people’s phones. If they aren’t built correct, they can be slow, clunky and unresponsive. If they aren’t optimised for the phone screen, users can spend ungodly amounts of time pinching and zooming on the screen to figure out what is going on. Even if you do invest enough money to build a good website, the user’s internet connection could give out reducing your beautifully designed site to a continuous stream of loading screens.
Chatbots don’t face these problems. First, chat as an interface was designed with the mobile user in mind. So whether you implement it through an app or your website, the user can easily see what is exactly going on at all times.
Second, if you build a bot within a messaging app like FB Messenger, you can trust Facebook’s highly paid and highly trained UI team to make the interface responsive.
Finally, since each chat interaction happens on a single page the customer never needs to interact with a load screen.
The chat interface is familiar
Every website and app looks different. Even if you convince a user to use one of them, they have to learn how to navigate their way around. Look at the Domino’s website and bot again. With the website there is so much happening on the screen you do not know where to click.
With the bot on the other hand, the customer knows exactly what to do. The interface is similar to one they use everyday.
Chat feels more human than apps and websites
When a customer interacts with a bot and an app the two experiences feel very different even if they achieve the same thing. Using an app feels like using a tool to achieve something, while using a bot feels like the computer is assisting you through a process.
Before you start building… (Read this whole section. It is very important)
There are two things to consider before you start building your bot. First, I would think long and hard about what function your bot will serve. Remember that AI technologies are still very raw so the tasks a customer gets done through a bot cannot be too complex. Also, in my personal experience of using bots everyday, I have found that the best bots tend to be those which do one or two tasks really well. Add too many tasks and the user can get easily confused because you have to run through far too many menus. I wrote a whole other piece on this that you should check out for a better understanding (Chris Messina recommended it so I promise it is good).
Second, I would try and figure out which platform you want to build your bot on. This will depend largely on where your customers are. Facebook Messenger is fairly universally used so bot developers tend to gravitate towards it. But if you are in a region where another messaging app is popular then build a bot on that platform (Line, Kik, Telegram, etc).
Also consider a bot on your website as an option. Website bots offer two advantages of their app based counterparts. First, in a lot of developing markets, like India, people do not like using Facebook Messenger because it uses too much data and runs very slowly on most phones. In a case like this, you could build a bot on the preferred messaging app in the region or on your website (this is especially true if WhatsApp is the preferred messaging app in your region because WhatsApp does not support bots). Second, Messenger (and Kik and Telegram) bots all face a discovery issue. People do not know how or where to find them. Your website on the other hand is already getting traffic and people can easily run into them on Google. But be warned, if you make a web-based bot it is harder to send users notifications once they have left the site. This could be a downside if you want to ping your customers with discount coupons over time.
Article Source: https://hellotars.com/blog/restaurant-chatbot-guides/
Early last year, a high-level Uber executive named Chris Messina claimed that 2016 would be the year of conversational commerce. If you don’t know what that means, then you are normal.
But if you work in the restaurant industry, you should definitely change that.
Silicon Valley has an uncanny habit of creating new tech trends that turn industries on their heads. Conversational commerce is one of those tech trends and the restaurant industry is one of its first targets.
This is your comprehensive guide on why this is the case and how you can get ahead of the curve.
Here’s how this is article is structured. In the sections 1 and 2, I am going to explain what conversational commerce is and why there is growing buzz around it in the tech space. Skip to section 3 if you already know all of this. In section 3, I will discuss what this new tech trend means for the restaurant industry in particular. Finally, section 4 will give you resources you need to get started.
Enjoy!
1. What is conversational commerce?
The term sounds jargony at first, but when you break it down to its fundamental parts, it is fairly basic. Conversational commerce is the process of conducting business by talking to someone. The vast majority of business conducted in human history has been conversational commerce.
If you have ever gone to a corner store, pharmacy or a shopping mall and talked to any of the store attendants you have engaged in conversational commerce.
It can even occur over distances. Ever ordered food through the phone? Or chatted with someone to buy something from them? Those count as conversational commerce as well.
2. Why it matters
There are three reasons you should care about conversational commerce:
Reason 1: The growing popularity of messaging apps.
Think about all the apps you use everyday. A messaging app surely figures near the top of the list.
Unsurprisingly, this is the case for most people with a smartphone. The chart below shows the number of people using the top 4 messaging apps vs the number of people using the top 4 social media apps over time.
In 2015, the top messaging apps overtook the top social network apps in usage by a wide margin.
Implication 1: Your customers are devoting hours of their attention to conversational apps.
Implication 2: Your customers are used to the chat interface because they use it on a daily basis (you will find out why this is important in Section 3).
Reason 2: The proliferation of platforms that allow customer interaction.
The potential of conversational commerce has not gone unnoticed by companies in the space. In the year after Messina’s statement:
Facebook introduced its Messenger bot platform which allows Facebook pages to create automated chat experiences with users
Kik, Telegram and Line developed their existing bot platforms further
Viber opened up public accounts for companies to talk to people
iMessage added apps within chats.
Seemingly WhatsApp is the only big chat app missing in action (as an Indian this makes me sad), but even they have announced plans for commercial accounts soon. In fact, they are already doing beta testing of commercial accounts with a few businesses now.
Implication: You can now easily interact with your customers in the apps that they use most.
Reason 3: The Increasing capability of Artificial Intelligence.
Conversational commerce has always been hampered by the need for human labour. We get tired, we can only talk to one person at a time, we get stressed out, and most importantly we need to be paid. This makes us too expensive and slow for certain tasks.
Till recently, the solution has been to get customers to serve themselves. Think about travel booking as an example. We have shifted from a model of asking travel agents to bundle flight and hotel bookings for us, to doing it ourselves using the plethora of online hotel and flight booking sites available at our fingertips.
Why? Because we can instantly book flight tickets and hotel rooms on Expedia for cheaper than any travel agent could afford to charge (There is a great piece explaining this shift better and more in-depth that you should check out if you have the time. Here is the link)
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is slowly enabling us to shift back to a paradigm where the user does less on their own. An ideal AI travel assistant would be able to take your travel requirements and book all the flights and hotels you need in one bundle like a travel agent. Unlike a travel agent though, they could do it instantly like an app and for cheaper because there is no human that needs to be paid sitting at the back. Computers cease to be a tool used to do something yourself and more an assistant that is doing things for you.
Before you get too excited we are still a few years away from such a travel assistant. But the underlying AI technology is becoming cheaper, more advanced and readily available. Google, Facebook and IBM all have AI resources available for anyone to use right now.
Implication: Conversational Commerce is becoming cheaper to engage in.
A Quick Note on AI
There are two caveats to consider when thinking about AI. First, AI as it is currently available is still quite raw.
Second, if you are willing to sacrifice the complexity of the interaction, you do not need AI to create a good and cheap conversational commerce experience.
You’ll find out why conversational commerce is still beneficial without AI in the next section.
3. How can restaurants use this tech?
Restaurants are arguably the pioneers of conversational commerce. One of the only reasons I still use my smartphone to make calls is when I am ordering food. But even this basic use case could stand to be improved significantly by new technology. The primary new channel through which conversational commerce can occur is chatbots.
A chatbot is a piece of software that can respond to a customer’s messages in a chat interface using either AI or pre-programmed rules. The examples we gave above of the AI fail and the hotel booking were both examples of chatbots.
Where can customers find them?
Customers can interact with them in popular messaging apps that support chatbots (FB Messenger, Telegram, Line, Kik) or even on your website.
The most obvious use case for such a technology is for food ordering. Users could use a food ordering chatbot much like they would a phone ordering system except instead of talking to a staff member they chat with the bot.
Another possible use could be a chatbot for taking feedback. Bangalore based food chain Bhukkad uses a conversational feedback form for their delivery orders. You can read more about their experience here or check out the bot that they use over here:
Real-world Examples of Restaurant Chatbots
The three most prominent users of chatbots in the restaurant space are Domino’s, TGI Friday and Pizza Hut. Dominos and Pizzahut use it for food ordering and TGI Friday for making reservations.
What are the advantages of a chatbot?
This is a natural question to ask. All of the examples above could be implemented through an app or a website so why use a bot?
Let’s break it down:
Bots require no extra downloads
Bots have one clear advantage over apps in particular. Customers do not have to download anything extra to use a bot. If you use GrubHub for delivery and a customer has Eat24, the probability that the customer downloads Eat24 just to order from your restaurant is quite low. The average American downloads 1 app per month. In developing market like India, where people have cheaper phones with less memory, the probability becomes lower.
As Cliff Kuang from FastCo Design put it
There’s an enormous amount of friction associated with learning about a new app, downloading it, signing up for it, and then remembering you even have it.
Since users can interact with bots in messaging apps they already have downloaded or in a web browser, the chance of them completing an order goes up.
Chat is mobile optimised
Regular websites don’t fair too much better than apps. While you don’t have to download anything extra to use a website, many websites have a tendency to suck on people’s phones. If they aren’t built correct, they can be slow, clunky and unresponsive. If they aren’t optimised for the phone screen, users can spend ungodly amounts of time pinching and zooming on the screen to figure out what is going on. Even if you do invest enough money to build a good website, the user’s internet connection could give out reducing your beautifully designed site to a continuous stream of loading screens.
Chatbots don’t face these problems. First, chat as an interface was designed with the mobile user in mind. So whether you implement it through an app or your website, the user can easily see what is exactly going on at all times.
Second, if you build a bot within a messaging app like FB Messenger, you can trust Facebook’s highly paid and highly trained UI team to make the interface responsive.
Finally, since each chat interaction happens on a single page the customer never needs to interact with a load screen.
The chat interface is familiar
Every website and app looks different. Even if you convince a user to use one of them, they have to learn how to navigate their way around. Look at the Domino’s website and bot again. With the website there is so much happening on the screen you do not know where to click.
With the bot on the other hand, the customer knows exactly what to do. The interface is similar to one they use everyday.
Chat feels more human than apps and websites
When a customer interacts with a bot and an app the two experiences feel very different even if they achieve the same thing. Using an app feels like using a tool to achieve something, while using a bot feels like the computer is assisting you through a process.
Before you start building… (Read this whole section. It is very important)
There are two things to consider before you start building your bot. First, I would think long and hard about what function your bot will serve. Remember that AI technologies are still very raw so the tasks a customer gets done through a bot cannot be too complex. Also, in my personal experience of using bots everyday, I have found that the best bots tend to be those which do one or two tasks really well. Add too many tasks and the user can get easily confused because you have to run through far too many menus. I wrote a whole other piece on this that you should check out for a better understanding (Chris Messina recommended it so I promise it is good).
Second, I would try and figure out which platform you want to build your bot on. This will depend largely on where your customers are. Facebook Messenger is fairly universally used so bot developers tend to gravitate towards it. But if you are in a region where another messaging app is popular then build a bot on that platform (Line, Kik, Telegram, etc).
Also consider a bot on your website as an option. Website bots offer two advantages of their app based counterparts. First, in a lot of developing markets, like India, people do not like using Facebook Messenger because it uses too much data and runs very slowly on most phones. In a case like this, you could build a bot on the preferred messaging app in the region or on your website (this is especially true if WhatsApp is the preferred messaging app in your region because WhatsApp does not support bots). Second, Messenger (and Kik and Telegram) bots all face a discovery issue. People do not know how or where to find them. Your website on the other hand is already getting traffic and people can easily run into them on Google. But be warned, if you make a web-based bot it is harder to send users notifications once they have left the site. This could be a downside if you want to ping your customers with discount coupons over time.
Article Source: https://hellotars.com/blog/restaurant-chatbot-guides/
Wednesday, 25 September 2019
How Can Chatbots Play an Important Role in the Food Industry?
Do you want a human with that?
Just under two years ago we wrote a blog exploring the rising trend of chatbots and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the food industry. Fast forward to 2018 and we find ourselves now living in a digital economy of expectation, one where we don’t want to go out and stand in a queue to order food.
Why choose a chatbot?
Put simply, chatbots can mimic human conversations using technology based on AI. They are often personalised with names and can be seen by customers as an extension of your brand online.
Chatbots allow your real-life staff to work without being interrupted to answer simple questions as these can be directed to your online chatbot. By encouraging customers to place an order with your bot and not wait in a queue, it can increase sales as chatbots can process an unlimited number of orders at any time, day or night.
With many millennials preferring to communicate with a business online instead of over the phone, using a chatbot can help attract a younger audience.
Where can you chat with a chatbot?
Chatbots can be accessed within an app, a business website or on a social media messenger platform. The most popular messenger platform for chatbots is Facebook Messenger. Launched in 2014 and opened to chatbots in 2016, the platform has an estimated 1.2 billion users. That’s a lot of potential customers your bot could be chatting to!
Using chatbots on a messenger platform can help entice occasional customers to become regulars and build brand loyalty if they like your bot. They’re also good for appealing to customers who don’t want to download your app but still want a quick and simple ordering experience.
How do you write the chatbot chit chat?
It’s important to create a well-thought-out content strategy for your chatbot that will work for your brand. First, focus on creating a storyline arc for your chatbot to follow – from initiating opening conversations through to rising action, climax and resolution.
Your copy needs to be engaging, representative of your brand values and tone of voice, and in line with customer expectations. Keep interactions to a maximum of four lines as this helps to reinforce a natural sense of ‘back and forth’ conversation and encourages a customer to interact with every piece of content. To help the conversation feel more natural and less drone-like, programme your chatbot to not only answer questions but ask them back too.
It’s also important to keep your chatbot feeling fresh. Nobody likes a stale bot. Instead, your content strategy should be updated to stay relevant with seasonal campaigns, company promotions and other topical events.
Looking at some top brand’s chatbots
Global chain Starbucks introduced their Barista Bot last year on their app, allowing customers to quickly pre-order and pay for their drinks and skip the queue in-store. The chatbot might even spell your name right on your order!
In the US, supermarket brand Whole Foods launched their recipe bot to help customers decide their shopping list and recipes for the week. By using emojis instead of words, the chatbot speeds up interactions with customers and creates a unique experience with your brand for customers online.
Perhaps one of the best-known influencers for AI in the food industry is Domino’s, who created their pizza-loving chatbot ‘DOM’ in 2014. Today, Domino’s now conducts more than 65 percent of its sales in the U.S. via numerous digital platforms including using DOM.
To the future and beyond
The use of chatbots in fast food outlets and restaurants is having an instrumental impact on the way the industry interacts with customers and processes orders. Chatbots not only speed up interactions, encourage more sales and build brand loyalty, but they also ensure a brand stays current in a diverse and digital market.
With Domino’s DOM currently being tested to answer customer phone calls in America and KFC opening the first AI-only staffed branch in Shanghai, China, chatbots seem here to stay for the food industry with new and exciting possibilities.
Article Source: https://eat-marketing.co.uk/chatbots-and-food-industry/
Just under two years ago we wrote a blog exploring the rising trend of chatbots and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the food industry. Fast forward to 2018 and we find ourselves now living in a digital economy of expectation, one where we don’t want to go out and stand in a queue to order food.
Why choose a chatbot?
Put simply, chatbots can mimic human conversations using technology based on AI. They are often personalised with names and can be seen by customers as an extension of your brand online.
Chatbots allow your real-life staff to work without being interrupted to answer simple questions as these can be directed to your online chatbot. By encouraging customers to place an order with your bot and not wait in a queue, it can increase sales as chatbots can process an unlimited number of orders at any time, day or night.
With many millennials preferring to communicate with a business online instead of over the phone, using a chatbot can help attract a younger audience.
Where can you chat with a chatbot?
Chatbots can be accessed within an app, a business website or on a social media messenger platform. The most popular messenger platform for chatbots is Facebook Messenger. Launched in 2014 and opened to chatbots in 2016, the platform has an estimated 1.2 billion users. That’s a lot of potential customers your bot could be chatting to!
Using chatbots on a messenger platform can help entice occasional customers to become regulars and build brand loyalty if they like your bot. They’re also good for appealing to customers who don’t want to download your app but still want a quick and simple ordering experience.
How do you write the chatbot chit chat?
It’s important to create a well-thought-out content strategy for your chatbot that will work for your brand. First, focus on creating a storyline arc for your chatbot to follow – from initiating opening conversations through to rising action, climax and resolution.
Your copy needs to be engaging, representative of your brand values and tone of voice, and in line with customer expectations. Keep interactions to a maximum of four lines as this helps to reinforce a natural sense of ‘back and forth’ conversation and encourages a customer to interact with every piece of content. To help the conversation feel more natural and less drone-like, programme your chatbot to not only answer questions but ask them back too.
It’s also important to keep your chatbot feeling fresh. Nobody likes a stale bot. Instead, your content strategy should be updated to stay relevant with seasonal campaigns, company promotions and other topical events.
Looking at some top brand’s chatbots
Global chain Starbucks introduced their Barista Bot last year on their app, allowing customers to quickly pre-order and pay for their drinks and skip the queue in-store. The chatbot might even spell your name right on your order!
In the US, supermarket brand Whole Foods launched their recipe bot to help customers decide their shopping list and recipes for the week. By using emojis instead of words, the chatbot speeds up interactions with customers and creates a unique experience with your brand for customers online.
Perhaps one of the best-known influencers for AI in the food industry is Domino’s, who created their pizza-loving chatbot ‘DOM’ in 2014. Today, Domino’s now conducts more than 65 percent of its sales in the U.S. via numerous digital platforms including using DOM.
To the future and beyond
The use of chatbots in fast food outlets and restaurants is having an instrumental impact on the way the industry interacts with customers and processes orders. Chatbots not only speed up interactions, encourage more sales and build brand loyalty, but they also ensure a brand stays current in a diverse and digital market.
With Domino’s DOM currently being tested to answer customer phone calls in America and KFC opening the first AI-only staffed branch in Shanghai, China, chatbots seem here to stay for the food industry with new and exciting possibilities.
Article Source: https://eat-marketing.co.uk/chatbots-and-food-industry/
Tuesday, 24 September 2019
How On-Demand Food Delivery Companies Can Use AI To Optimize Food Delivery?
In the so called information age at least on-demand food delivery app platforms are one of the truly great things of our time. And the only reason why the number of quick-serve and fast casual restaurants are projecting up with a skyrocketing speed. Granted, they have wrapped themselves with the online delivery platforms.
Spurred by the internet penetration and smart use of smartphones resulting in increasing obsession of the consumers to order food online have boosted the food ordering industry, that as a result, witnessed a heated competition where every other food delivery app is vying to attract a bigger chunk of the market.
But to the dismay, the smaller entities in the industry are not harnessing the power of latest technologies to optimize deliveries, streamlining operations and do effective marketing. As a result, they fail to drive their sales up. Artificial Intelligence (AI) comes from the same unutilized family of technology which remains untouched, considering it one of those abstract concept with presumably no real application.
To prove this perceived notion of AI wrong and to help you uplift your brand up by reeling in more consumers here we discuss how a brand can use AI to simplify their marketing efforts.
Predictive Customer Behavior
Understanding what consumers want and need - ideally, before they even do - can help the brand to understand each specific customer and learn their habits which eventually can help them better serve and drive sales.
The simplest way to understand this in action is when you log into any eCommerce app and you are supplied with an array of suggested products to buy. By AI's deep learning technology, brands can predict consumer behavior months in advance and put it at work. The recommendation engine enables consumers to choose meals based on their eating preferences.
Chatbots Assistance
Chatbots provide on-demand human-like automated responses to common and most frequently asked questions by customers on web or app which helps in saving brand's time, resources and money and helps in satisfying customers with quick response system. Chatbot developers create scripts by evaluating a large number of possible scenarios, which in turn, can simplify customer interactions.
Voice-Activated Ordering
Voice ordering is gaining popularity after the increased domination of voice assistants like Google Home and Amazon's Alexa.
Starbucks introduced My Starbucks Barista in 2017, putting the coffee giant on the path to voice-activated ordering. Wingstop first unveiled it in 2009, making it one of the first players in the field to offer digital ordering and then later on integrating voice-activated technology in 2017. Pizza delivery chain Domino's also entered the voice-activated mobile ordering scene relatively early.
Kiosks
Quick serve and fast casual restaurants must integrate AI-driven self-service Kiosks to reduce customer waiting time and improve the customer ordering experience.
Automated Advertising
Automated advertising automates your online advertising efforts so you can focus on other important business functions instead of investing your time in social media marketing campaigns.
There are monetary based algorithms and ad-performance based algorithms to monitor it. Monetary based algorithms use your sales and conversion data from your ad campaigns to upscale or downscale bids on campaigns depending on their monetary performance. Ad-performance algorithms use performance data from your ads to optimize the high performing campaigns and stop the low performing ads.
The Final Word:
In this heavily saturated market, more and more companies are succeeding in its mission of optimizing delivery as they have figured out that the only way to stay competitive is by delivering better customer value. And the best way to do it is by adopting the latest technologies. AI has revolutionized the way QSRs and other on-demand food delivery app marketed and scaled their successes. When are you going to adopt it? The trend is here to stay! Be the frontrunner and contact your food delivery app development company now.
Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Anuradha_Badone/2324461
Spurred by the internet penetration and smart use of smartphones resulting in increasing obsession of the consumers to order food online have boosted the food ordering industry, that as a result, witnessed a heated competition where every other food delivery app is vying to attract a bigger chunk of the market.
But to the dismay, the smaller entities in the industry are not harnessing the power of latest technologies to optimize deliveries, streamlining operations and do effective marketing. As a result, they fail to drive their sales up. Artificial Intelligence (AI) comes from the same unutilized family of technology which remains untouched, considering it one of those abstract concept with presumably no real application.
To prove this perceived notion of AI wrong and to help you uplift your brand up by reeling in more consumers here we discuss how a brand can use AI to simplify their marketing efforts.
Predictive Customer Behavior
Understanding what consumers want and need - ideally, before they even do - can help the brand to understand each specific customer and learn their habits which eventually can help them better serve and drive sales.
The simplest way to understand this in action is when you log into any eCommerce app and you are supplied with an array of suggested products to buy. By AI's deep learning technology, brands can predict consumer behavior months in advance and put it at work. The recommendation engine enables consumers to choose meals based on their eating preferences.
Chatbots Assistance
Chatbots provide on-demand human-like automated responses to common and most frequently asked questions by customers on web or app which helps in saving brand's time, resources and money and helps in satisfying customers with quick response system. Chatbot developers create scripts by evaluating a large number of possible scenarios, which in turn, can simplify customer interactions.
Voice-Activated Ordering
Voice ordering is gaining popularity after the increased domination of voice assistants like Google Home and Amazon's Alexa.
Starbucks introduced My Starbucks Barista in 2017, putting the coffee giant on the path to voice-activated ordering. Wingstop first unveiled it in 2009, making it one of the first players in the field to offer digital ordering and then later on integrating voice-activated technology in 2017. Pizza delivery chain Domino's also entered the voice-activated mobile ordering scene relatively early.
Kiosks
Quick serve and fast casual restaurants must integrate AI-driven self-service Kiosks to reduce customer waiting time and improve the customer ordering experience.
Automated Advertising
Automated advertising automates your online advertising efforts so you can focus on other important business functions instead of investing your time in social media marketing campaigns.
There are monetary based algorithms and ad-performance based algorithms to monitor it. Monetary based algorithms use your sales and conversion data from your ad campaigns to upscale or downscale bids on campaigns depending on their monetary performance. Ad-performance algorithms use performance data from your ads to optimize the high performing campaigns and stop the low performing ads.
The Final Word:
In this heavily saturated market, more and more companies are succeeding in its mission of optimizing delivery as they have figured out that the only way to stay competitive is by delivering better customer value. And the best way to do it is by adopting the latest technologies. AI has revolutionized the way QSRs and other on-demand food delivery app marketed and scaled their successes. When are you going to adopt it? The trend is here to stay! Be the frontrunner and contact your food delivery app development company now.
Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Anuradha_Badone/2324461
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