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Olga’s Kitchen: Enhancing Customer Experience Through AI-Enabled Ordering

• by Soumya Singh
• November 7, 2023
• Case Studies

Explore the journey of Olga’s Kitchen with VOICEplug AI

Olga’s Kitchen, a renowned restaurant chain known for its Mediterranean-inspired cuisine and signature Olga Bread, recognized the importance of improving customer experience and operational efficiency. In response, they partnered with VOICEplug AI, a leading provider of Voice-AI solutions, to revolutionize their ordering process.

The Challenges

1. Prompt Call Answering: Olga’s Kitchen wanted to ensure that every customer call was answered promptly. This was crucial, as many customers placed orders over the phone while en route to the restaurant. Delayed or unanswered calls could lead to frustrated customers and lost sales.
2. Accurate Order Capture in Noisy Environments: Background noise, such as car radios or noisy surroundings, can make it challenging to capture customer orders accurately. Olga’s Kitchen needed a solution that could overcome these acoustic challenges.
3. Personalized Customer Experience: Olga’s Kitchen has a loyal customer base, and they wanted to offer a personalized ordering experience. Each customer has their own preferences, and the restaurant aimed to tailor interactions to individual profiles.
4. Streamlined Operations: To enhance efficiency, Olga’s Kitchen sought to streamline its order-taking process. This involved minimizing the need for manual intervention and ensuring that orders were seamlessly integrated into the restaurant’s Point of Sale (POS) and kitchen systems.
5. No upselling: Olga’s Kitchen couldn’t actively upsell due to staff and resource limitations, causing a consistent revenue loss by missing opportunities to enhance average transaction values through upselling complementary items or upgrades to customers.

The Solution

1. Immediate Call Pickup: VOICEplug AI’s solution ensured that every customer call was picked up on the first ring. This rapid response time eliminated waiting times and demonstrated the restaurant’s commitment to customer service.
2. Accurate Order Capture in Noisy Environments: The AI technology employed by VOICEplug was equipped to capture orders accurately, even in the presence of background noise. This technology recognized voice signatures and effectively filtered out distractions, ensuring order accuracy.
3. Personalized Customer Interactions: VOICEplug’s AI system provides personalized interactions by recognizing and adapting to each customer’s unique voice signature. This allowed for natural conversations, eliminating the need for customers to follow predefined scripts.
4. Streamlined Operations: VOICEplug AI’s system is seamlessly integrated with Olga’s Kitchen’s operations. Orders captured through the AI system were transmitted directly to the POS and kitchen for immediate processing. This eliminated the need for manual data entry and minimized the risk of errors.
5. Consistent Intelligent Upselling: The VOICEplug Phone AI system can efficiently handle upselling suggestions, personalized recommendations, and order enhancements, allowing the restaurant to maximize its revenue potential while still providing a seamless and customer-friendly experience.

“We are thrilled to partner with VOICEplug AI to streamline our operations and provide our customers with an enhanced and personalized ordering experience.”

Ryan Jones
Vice President of Operations, Olga’s Kitchen

The Result

The implementation of VOICEplug AI’s solution yielded impressive results for Olga’s Kitchen:

1. Order-to-Call Conversion Rate: The restaurant achieved an order-to-call conversion rate of more than 95% on average. This high conversion rate ensured that almost every customer call resulted in a successful order, boosting sales and revenue.
2. Enhanced Operational Efficiency: With the AI system handling a significant portion of order-taking tasks, restaurant employees could focus on providing an elevated level of guest service. This improved efficiency translated to quicker order processing and shorter wait times for customers.
3. Improved Customer Satisfaction: The personalized interactions and efficient order processing led to improved customer satisfaction. Customers could now place orders conveniently and experience a seamless, hassle-free process.
4. Increase in avg. check size: The implementation of VOICEplug AI’s phone ordering system at Olga’s Kitchen has boosted the average check size by 12-15%. This increase is attributed to the system’s personalized and consistent upselling, which tailors recommendations to individual customer preferences, resulting in higher order values and improved customer satisfaction.
5. Improvement in Employee Delight: Since implementing VOICEplug AI, the employees’ satisfaction has surged by 20%. With AI handling routine phone tasks, the restaurant staff can now focus entirely on on-premise customer needs. They have transitioned to a more efficient order-taking process. Moreover, with every customer call being promptly answered and handled without haste, the enhanced efficiency doesn’t just benefit store employees but also contributes to an improved customer experience.
6. Convenient and Efficient Ordering for Customers: Customers appreciated the convenience of interacting with VOICEplug’s AI system using natural voice conversations. They no longer had to adapt to a rigid script, making the ordering process more user-friendly.
7. Dedicated Support: Olga’s Kitchen benefited from a dedicated senior account manager and a 24×7 support team provided by VOICEplug AI, ensuring continuous assistance and quick issue resolution.
8. Expanded Features: The AI system introduced new features, such as text-based follow-ups to convert dropped orders to inbound orders, collect tips through AI based on various parameters, and payment integration with existing processors. These additional features enhanced the overall customer experience.

Our Order numbers have improved and the average cost per order has reduced. Our customers like the personalization and convenience while ordering.

Sandy Reinhardt
CIO, Olga’s Kitchen

VOICEplug AI helps run Olga’s Kitchen better.

Key business outcomes and benefits

Before VOICEplug AI:

• Staff interaction time with customer/order: 5 -6 minutes (Order taking + Receiving Payment + Order handover)
• Insignificant negligible upselling
• Order to call conversion: 75% to 90% on average
• AI handles 40-60% of orders without human intervention

After VOICEplug AI:

• 20% improved in employee satisfaction at implemented locations
• Staff interaction time with customer/order: 30 seconds (Only Order handover as everything else is automated)
• 12~15% increment in Avg. check size
• Order to call conversion: More than 95% on average
• AI handles 85 to 95% of orders without human intervention
• Dedicated senior account manager with 24×7 support
• Text-based follow-up to convert dropped orders to inbound
• Option to collect tips through AI based on percentage of order value, fixed amount, default tip provisioning, etc.
• Payment integration with the restaurant group’s existing payment processor with the option of voice, IVR, or text link-based payment
• No additional costs for integrating new features like text follow-ups, payment, etc.

In summary, the partnership with VOICEplug AI allowed Olga’s Kitchen to address its challenges effectively, resulting in improved efficiency, higher customer satisfaction, and reduced operational costs. The AI-enabled ordering system significantly enhanced the restaurant’s ability to provide personalized, convenient, and efficient service to their customers.