Pizza Today - July 2023 - 27

" There are two functional categories of AI you should be thinking about
when it comes to restaurants. One is discovery, and one is execution. "
- Darien Bates, CEO of Fourtop
which customers respond to discounts,
and which respond to other offers. " If
you set it up correctly, there are systems
out there that connect with ongoing
guest data, and you can track behavior, "
Bates says. " All these elements have to
be built on clean, first party data that
belongs to the restaurant. You have to
have your data house in order. "
There are benefits to using AI generated
messaging. " The most important
thing to keep top of mind is how powerful
this tool is for increasing in-house
efficiency while remaining personalized
from customer to customer, " says
Angela DeFranco, vice president of
product at SevenRooms.
The tool enables pizzeria owners
to analyze customer feedback and
automate responses such as recommendations,
promotions, and reservation
confirmations. That frees up restaurant
staff to perform other tasks, while
customers receive relevant, personalized
offers. People who order wine can be
invited to attend an in-house wine tasting,
or customers with nut allergies can
be excluded from an email announcing
a new pesto pasta dish. " In return, independent
restaurants like pizzerias can
keep up with competitors and see those
return guests waltz back through their
doors for more dining experiences, "
DeFranco says.
Repeat business is important, and
AI can help by organizing massive
amounts of data related to customer
purchases. " You can group customers
into logical segments, " says Zach
Goldstein, founder and CEO of Thanx.
" The family who comes in on Saturdays
is very different from college students
who come in late night Wednesdays. "
The old " buy ten get one free " model
is not effective, Goldstein says, and restaurant
operators can use AI to figure
out what to offer to different customers.
" Data is not valuable unless you are
doing something with it to the benefit
of the customer, " he says. " When done
right you are delivering a value that
could be financial such as a discount, or
it could be an invitation to an event, or
access to a secret menu. "
Pizzeria owners can also use AI
to generate marketing content
including text, images and video.
" Some of the most time-consuming
tasks in marketing are for content
creation, including finding the right
tone, responding quickly and getting a
message across, " says Carl Turner, CEO
and founder of SWIPEBY.
Turner says AI can write text for the
restaurant website, create emotional
social posts to drive people to the pizzeria,
and answer professionally to positive
and negative reviews. AI can write
a script and copy for a TV commercial,
create a video, and chat with customers
that have questions on social media or
their website.
" AI can even create appetizing food
photography that will make a customer
want to order even more than they had
planned, " Turner says. " AI could take
over every part of customer engagement
besides the actual interaction in the
store. " He adds that it can also save money,
as a restaurant might otherwise pay a
social media agency hundreds of dollars a
month to write two posts a week.
One growing area is voice ordering
with AI. People are already talking
to their TV remotes and smart speakers,
and they will discover pizzerias
and place orders directly through voice
AI-enabled smart devices or from their
vehicles. " As we move into a new era of
search, driven by new ChatGPT-style
AI technologies, voice will become the
most natural interface for every consumer, "
says Mike Lauricella, head of
channel partnerships at SoundHound.
" Customer expectations are constantly
rising and, as technology becomes more
sophisticated, people are demanding
experiences that are intuitive, convenient
and fast. "
Independent restaurants can use
voice AI technology to pick up inbound
phone orders, then roll out the technology
to kiosks and other ordering
platforms. The voice assistant can even
upsell and cross-sell menu items, even
if those change frequently. " Voice AI
technology can also provide additional
information about parking and opening
hours, helping any restaurant automate
the basics so your staff can deliver an
exceptional, personal service that keeps
customers coming back for more, "
Lauricella says.
As AI and marketing automation
become mainstream and consumers
receive more personalized offers, operators
must find ways to stand out. One
high-tech way is to put offers in front
of mobile gamers. " We've seen that
56 percent of gamers will likely buy
from a brand that's in their game of
preference, " says Jeff Michaels, vice
president, marketing and sales enablement
for Mobivity. " Without AI and
specific, unique data points like these
to feed into AI, pizzerias are on equal
footing with every other brand marketing
the same thing to the same
consumers. The end result is consumers
tune out. "
NORA CALEY is a freelance writer who
covers small business, finance and lifestyle
topics.
Pizza Today - July 2023

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