We’ve been talking a lot about how important it is to have a well-designed, visually-engaging, and easy-to-navigate restaurant website. This has been true since the Internet-era really took hold, but it is perhaps even more important during the COVID-19 era. With the pandemic, there’s little chance that a guest is just going to happen to walk by your restaurant and be intrigued to enter; currently, most diners are still staying home. So, if you want new guests to find you, you need a strong web presence.

But guests (and your online visitors) are always looking for a unique experience. They want to feel like they mean the most to your business and staff. One way you can make their online visit experience unique is with the use of restaurant chatbots.

“A chatbot is a computer program that's designed to simulate human conversation,” as defined by UC Today. “Users communicate with these tools using a chat interface or via voice, just like they would converse with another person. Chatbots interpret the words given to them by a person and provide a pre-set answer.”

In short: a chatbot on your restaurant’s website can give your site’s visitors that personal touch experience that they’d get if they walked through your doors and into your dining room. But exactly how can your restaurant leverage chatbots? Here are a few ideas to get you started.

Take Table Reservations

No guest wants to play the waiting-game, especially in the middle of a pandemic. Letting your website’s visitors book a table right on your homepage via a chatbot will mean less clicks for them and more guests for your restaurant.

Have “book a reservation” as one of your default chatbot options to get the conversation going with the visitor. You can suggest some day/times (such as suggesting booking during your slowest day/times) while also allowing your visitors to choose a day/time they’d like.

This is also a good opportunity to really make a great first impression. Set up your chatbot to inquire if any of the guests have allergies or food restrictions your staff should know about. You can even let the visitor put in an order for an app or first round of drinks so it’s ready as soon as they sit down.

You’ll want to make sure your restaurant chatbot software can connect to your table reservation software. Don’t be afraid to ask both vendors what systems they work best with so your operation can run smoothly.

Promote Your Restaurant’s Events

Use a restaurant chatbot to promote your bar’s events.

You can also use the chatbot to promote any events your restaurant is hosting in the near future. This info could be given by the chatbot when asked by a visitor or you could use it to start the online convo. Something simple like “Hey there! Did you know we’re hosting an eSports event this weekend?” can pique the interest of your visits when they reach your site.

Another way you can use a restaurant chatbot to promote your events is at the end of a convo. For example, once you book a reservation for a guest via the chatbot you can also let them know of any special events that’s happening while they’re there or another night. This is also a good opportunity to let guests know what games you’ll be showing on your TVs in your bar, too.

Build Your Restaurant’s Contact & Email Lists

Use your restaurant’s website chatbot to build your email list.

This also ties in nicely to the first two ideas. Make sure you have a call-to-action (CTA) request somewhere during the chatbot dialogue to collect email addresses and other contact info. This is important when booking a reservation so you can remind your guests when their visit is coming up, but it also builds your guest contact lists so you can then continue to market your restaurant to them via email or even text messaging.

While social media marketing is a good way of getting in front of new eyes and should be part of your restaurant’s overarching marketing strategy, nothing beats email marketing or text message marketing to get previous guests back into your restaurant. It’s cheaper to keep existing guests coming back than to earn new ones, so building a solid contact list that will allow you to continually communicate with your guests is paramount. So make sure any chatbot program has that built in.

Communicate with Guests the Modern Way

According to recent surveys, 89% of consumers prefer to communicate with businesses via text and 64% of people have positive perceptions of businesses that communicate with customers via text. To translate: modern American consumers want to message back & forth -- not talk. This is especially true for the Millennial generation which grew up with chat and instant messaging platforms as adolescents.

So, by implementing a restaurant chatbot into your website, you’re giving another avenue for your online visitors to get the information they need in the way they want to consume that info. It also lets you get the information you want your guests to have (like events, offers, etc.) in another form.

Build Personalization

Use your restaurant chatbot to build guest personalization messages and offers.

Chatbots have come a low way since the days of basic logic scripts. Now they include the ability to personalize messages to users that even a phone call with your staff would have trouble providing regularly.

For example, when taking an online order or reservation via your restaurant’s chatbot, you can program your chatbot to send a personalized message and offer to the online visitor. Maybe a coupon for a discount dessert or drink with a mouth-watering image and their name attached.

Chatbots can also use previous interactions with an online visitor to make recommendations for their virtual return visit. By using previous purchase information and interaction history, your chatbot can suggest new menu items or ask if they want to book a table on that third Wednesday night of the month for Date Night.

Analyze the Chatbot Interactions

Be sure to analyze the guest interactions with your restaurant’s chatbot regularly for ideas to improve your business.

A restaurant chatbot can also go beyond just another communication form. You can delve into the archives of the chatbot’s interactions with your website’s visitors to see what they’re asking about.

For example: Are you seeing a lot of questions about gluten-free or vegan-friendly menus? If you don’t have one, this is a sure sign that maybe you should. If you do have them, maybe this means you should market that fact to your follows on social and via your email and text messaging lists. Reminders, on occasion, are good.

This combined with big data analytics can give restaurants some serious insight into their strengths and weaknesses.

Resources

Here are some links to other blog posts and companies that can help you set up a chatbot for your restaurant’s website.

Final Thoughts

A lot of these ideas should already be part of your restaurant’s website. Online visitors should be able to book a table, order delivery, get on your mailing list and find your menus and other vital info with ease. However, by using a chatbot, you create some level of a normal interaction and experience they would get by calling your business – all while freeing up your staff to do other important tasks.

Of course, not every visitor to your restaurant’s website is going to want this experience, but for those that do, they’ll appreciate you going the extra mile.