Not long ago, busy nights at 786 Degrees’ two pizzerias unfolded to a soundtrack that is probably familiar to many restaurants: the sound of a phone ringing.
Actually, in 786’s case, it was two phones ringing. Because of the volume of calls, owner Haider Ali installed a second phone and had calls forwarded from one to the other. But even that was not enough to ease the backlog.
“The phone just kept on ringing,” Ali said. “We couldn’t even touch it.”
Much has been made of consumers’ (and restaurants’) rapid adoption of online ordering in recent years, particularly during the pandemic. But a significant chunk of people still prefer to interact with restaurants via the old-fashioned phone call.
A recent survey of more than 1,500 consumers by DoorDash, for instance, found that 27% prefer to order delivery by calling a restaurant on the phone, and one-third favor phone calls for ordering pickup.
That’s not to mention the many customers who dial up to simply ask a question about a restaurant’s hours, the menu or something else, without ever placing an order.
All those calls are becoming a challenge for restaurants that are now fielding orders through multiple other channels, including online and in person, while also struggling to maintain a full staff coming out of the pandemic.
“We’ve talked to hundreds of clients about their phone volumes and how do you go about answering it,” said Brendan Sweeney, CEO of restaurant tech provider Popmenu. “Every time we bring it up, they go, ‘Oh my God, it’s a nightmare.’”
“I’m not that person that loves to not have a person answering the phone. But I’m sort of becoming flexible.” —Brian Keyes, Connor Concepts
Answering the phone has never exactly fit snugly into the flow of restaurant operations.
“Unfortunately, at a restaurant, everything happens at the same time,” said Dan Wegiel, board member for tech supplier Onosys and a former EVP for Panera Bread.
He recalled the daily lunch rush at the bakery-cafe chain, when restaurants were flooded with orders at the register. In the middle of all that, the phone would ring, usually with a customer placing a more complicated order on the other end.
“We struggled with it at Panera the entire time I was there,” he said. “You’re gonna staff your cashiers, you’re gonna staff your production ... and you’re gonna man your prep areas. … But you typically don’t staff the phone.”
Add online orders to that equation, along with an overall increase in takeout, and you get a volume that can be overwhelming. That has led some restaurants to try to cut out the phone call, using tools like automated answering, artificial intelligence and even call centers to streamline the process.
Knoxville, Tenn.-based restaurant group Connor Concepts was one of the many that added online ordering and ramped up to-go business during the pandemic. But with the sudden shift to takeout, employees at its two concepts too often found themselves “held hostage on the phone,” said VP of Operations Brian Keyes.
“In the new world, 25% to 30% of all revenue is to go, and that literally is really, really challenging if people want to do their orders by calling,” he said. Prior to the pandemic, only about 5% of Connors’ business was off-premise.
The influx of calls not only ties up staff, but human error can also lead to inaccurate quote times for those orders. So as Connor doubles down on takeout across its 14 units, it’s rolling out an automated system with telecommunications company NEC that will encourage callers to order online rather than be put on hold.
“We’ve even toyed with telling people, ‘Hey, all of our to-go orders are online,’” Keyes said, adding that one restaurant tried it on Father’s Day and received no complaints.
“I’m not that person that loves to not have a person answering the phone,” he said. “But I’m sort of becoming flexible over time that it’s more important than ever.”
“I literally feel like I save one employee’s time.” —Ali Haider, 786 Degrees
786 Degrees has gone a step further, using an automated system to push callers almost entirely to the web.
Like Connor, the Southern California restaurant and its sister concept Sapori added online ordering during the pandemic with great success. But with on-site dining completely shut down, phone orders increased, too, leading to wait times as high as two hours on the weekends, Ali said.
The restaurants use wood-fired ovens to bake their pies lightning fast. But a phone order could take up to 20 minutes to complete, Ali said, between explaining the menu, taking the order and possibly accepting payment before the pizza even hit the oven.
“That’s a lot of time spent, you know, to earn that money,” he said.
So the restaurant partnered with a company called Reachify to automate its phone answering system. Callers are now greeted by Ali’s voice welcoming them to the concept. They’re then invited to use their keypad to learn more or receive a text message with a link to order online.
Since setting up the new system about four months ago, the restaurants now receive virtually no phone orders, Ali said. Wait times are down to around 40 minutes, and the staff is happy because it frees them up to do their primary jobs.
“I literally feel like I save one employee’s time,” he said.
Ali did not have exact metrics around how many callers click through and order, but said the rate is “pretty high” and that he hasn’t heard any complaints.
“My managers are on their knees thanking me for this.” —Andy Freitas, Papa John’s
Large chains that do a lot of takeout are coming up with their own alternatives to picking up the phone. Wingstop said last year that it was testing an AI-driven voice ordering system that uses natural voice processing to manage those orders. And just before the pandemic hit last March, Papa John’s said it would start rolling out a new system called Papa Call, using a call center in the Philippines to shift the burden off of its restaurants. The chain, which has offered online ordering since 2001, said about 30% of its orders still came over the phone.
“Phone answering is almost always a secondary piece of the operating model,” CEO Rob Lynch told Restaurant Business last March. “It can be something that takes away from what a driver is supposed to be doing and it can increase delivery time by a few minutes. Or it may increase the time it takes to get a pizza in the oven. This removes all that.”
Papa John’s franchisee Andy Freitas, who operates 99 restaurants in the Baltimore and Washington, D.C., area, started using Papa Call at 10 units late last year and has since expanded it to all but one location. Customers who call one of those stores can choose to be transferred to the call center or to the restaurant itself.
“We discovered that the satisfaction level of the customer that’s ordering through the call center is greater … because we’re so busy right now,” Freitas said.
Ticket averages on orders placed with Papa Call are higher, he said, and customers are ordering more items, like chicken wings and desserts, because the call center staff have more time to upsell than a busy restaurant worker. Plus, calls are being answered more quickly and not being dropped.
The system has exceeded Freitas’ expectations, and made a big difference in his restaurants.
“My managers are on their knees thanking me for this,” he said. Of all the changes Papa John’s has made during the pandemic, he said, “this is the one that they love the most.”
All 600 of the chain's corporate locations are using Papa Call, and adoption among its 2,700 franchisees is "significant and growing," a representative for the chain said.
At 786, even the busiest nights are a little quieter now thanks to its new setup. In fact, Ali is the only person with the phone number to the actual store, which has given new meaning to that old familiar sound.
“If the phone rings,” he said, “that means it’s from me.”
