Ordering solutions that address the complexities of the pizza industry.
Sponsored by PizzaCloud
Artificial intelligence is making a positive impact in the pizza restaurant industry, unlike its challenging roles in other sectors. This is largely due to the efforts of PizzaCloud, a company based in Granville, Ohio.
With over 1,900 customer locations and fielding 1.6 billion calls per week, the business phone solutions provider is now rolling out an AI-ordering digital assistant to increase ticket sales and allow existing staff to navigate the high-volume rush.
“The real problem in the industry is that none of the people working to develop AI ordering have ever worked in a restaurant, never used a point-of-sale system, never taken orders for pizza. They have no idea how complicated it is,” says PizzaCloud founder and president John Scully. “We’ve been working closely with thousands of pizza restaurants for 10 years now, doing text message marketing, handling their phone calls, helping with the recorded calls. I’ve heard thousands of phone calls from people ordering pizza. We came at it from a different viewpoint than everyone else.”
Experiencing countless shortfalls in viable AI options, existing customer Ali Ghassabian,
software engineer at Pizza Guys, turned to Scully to solve an intricately integrated POS and real-time reporting AI system for all its 90 California, Nevada, and Texas franchises.
Only take specific payment methods? Have eleven different-sized pizzas with over 100
topping choices? Run seasonal LTOs? Do you want to use the AI assistant only on Friday
nights? Have ten customers who call a thin crust by five different names? None of that is a
problem with PizzaCloud.
Incoming calls are routed to the AI platform, pulling up an existing customer’s name, number, address, ordering history, and preferences. It offers suggestions for repeat orders and any customized content, such as upselling, combos, coupons, rewards points, and specials. The order is then pushed through to the POS.
One of the biggest challenges to developing the AI system was building out a naturally
conversational human interface to respond to the complexity of orders. “Consumers can say things like—give me a large on double dough with no sausage and make that extra crispy. Add a salad with blue cheese dressing and put grilled chicken on it. Oh wait,
make that steak on the salad instead,” says Scully. PizzaCloud will confirm the complicated
order and ask if they want anything else.
Another deciding factor is accessibility. While competitors are known to charge up to 7 percent of the order, PizzaCloud competes with the lowest price and the highest quality of service. Further, current AI companies only take on large floor sizes—20-plus locations—because building out a menu requires the same legwork for a solo restaurant as a multi-state franchise. “The people with 1, 2, or 3 locations are underserved. That’s like a third of the restaurants out there. Right now, whether PizzaCloud customers have 500 locations or one location, you pay the same price. You have all the same features available. We want to do the same thing on the AI front to eliminate that floor completely. It’s a tough goal, but I believe we will get there this year,” says Scully.
If you think PizzaCloud will help your restaurant, visit its website today.
