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Ali Ghassabian is the head of IT at Pizza Guys, a growing pizza franchise with 90 locations. Ali experienced terrible labor problems. No matter how much he paid or who he hired, he could not get enough people to answer the phone. Often, employees provide poor customer service, get orders wrong, or fail to upsell items.
Ghassabian decided to implement AI orders. After talking to multiple companies, he realized none worked effectively for pizza restaurants or were priced way too high. This led him to explore alternative solutions, and seven years ago, he made a pivotal decision to integrate PizzaCloud into his operations at Pizza Guys.
“The big problem with most AI ordering products out there is the companies don’t understand the industry,” says PizzaCloud founder and president John Scully. “Pizza is complicated. There are so many options. People order in so many different ways and constantly make changes while talking. Most people are only building these platforms for generic food ordering. The application works when ordering a sandwich, but does not work well for pizza.”
Additionally, many systems fail to integrate with POS systems, limiting the ability to use customer history and preferences to enhance service and streamline operations.
With years of experience in the pizza industry, Scully and his team created an AI ordering platform specifically designed for pizza restaurants. “We realized the pizza industry had a profound need for the features we offer,” Scully says. “We understand the needs of the pizza industry and that shaped what we’re building.”
PizzaCloud provides advanced hosted PBX services with call recording, call queuing, cellular backup, and POS integration. When customers call the restaurant, they are routed to PizzaCloud’s AI platform. The digital assistant greets the customer and takes the order just as an employee would. The order is then sent to the POS system exactly as it would from a third-party ordering platform.
With PizzaCloud, operators don’t have to worry about employees missing phone calls, making mistakes, or having a bad attitude that reflects badly on the overall business over the phone. PizzaCloud AI assistant always upsells in an intelligent way, a task that busy employees often overlook.
Operators can also save on labor costs. There is no need to have an extra employee on the floor to answer calls. PizzaCloud charges a flat fee per order and nothing for non-order calls
PizzaCloud understands and recognizes all menu items by integrating with existing POS systems. “Through caller ID and past orders, it knows exactly who is ordering and what they might want,” Scully says. “Including combos, specials, coupons, and reward system points.”
Looking to the future, Scully sees AI continuing to play an expanding role in the restaurant industry, especially given labor challenges. “It is an unfortunate fact that moving forward labor is going to be more and more of an issue. Therefore, AI in the front and back of the house will become a larger part of the business.”
If PizzaCloud sounds right for your restaurant, visit pizzacloud.net
By Olivia Schuster
