Imagine being able to order your favorite dish from your favorite restaurant with the help of voice commands when you are taking a drive in your sedan. How wonderful would that be! The entire experience would be hands-free, hassle-free, and it will get completed in a jiffy.

Today, there are a number of applications which leverage voice technology. According to Capgemini Research Institute, the use of voice assistants will grow to 31 percent of US adults by 2022.

In this article, we are going to discuss the usage of voice technology in food ordering and delivery.

Will customers be eager to order from restaurants using an intelligent voice interface?

A heartening statistic that shows how customers are open to using voice for ordering food- according to a research by Progressive Business Insights, 64% of Americans are interested in ordering food with the help of voice assistants.

With the help of intelligent voice interfaces, what was once a four to five minute exercise (often with some fumbling back and forth between screens and menus), gets completed in a few moments. The demand for a contact-less, fast and accessible food ordering option is gaining more momentum, thanks to the pandemic. COVID has ushered in a wave of digital tools, including voice technology, which makes efficient, touchless, and accurate food ordering a possibility.

The restaurant industry is quite adept at understanding what customers’ want. We will soon see most of them leveraging the full spectrum of voice technology in food ordering and delivery.

The User Experience:

Personalized, humanized voice interactions

An intelligent voice interface for food ordering will be a joy to the user. Just by uttering a few words, the in-app voice assistant is capable of ordering the right menu items including special requests, for example,

“ Can I get the regular veggie sandwich”?

“ And can you please omit the onions”

It can also pull up past favorites and allow the user to quickly reorder dishes, suggest similar dishes based on customer’s preferences or dietary restrictions, communicate ‘Specials of the Day’, and gather feedback from the user on any menu improvements- all in a smooth, interactive manner.

The Restaurateur Experience:

Works with the existing user interface

The voice technology is not a separate app where your customers will be redirected to place the orders. It works seamlessly with the existing app interface of the restaurant and the voice command will be reflected in the app visually, so that the customer knows exactly what’s happening. Moreover, multimodal assistants allow voice in combination with touch and type, giving the customer ample freedom of choice.

Accurate ordering

Incorrectly inputting information or hearing the wrong words can result in errors that will botch up the food orders. It will also result in customer complaints, and such a hit on one’s reputation is very bad news for restaurants. Voice tech that is accurate strives to eliminate manual tasks and reduce errors in ordering food.

Reduction in operational costs

One of the biggest contributors to the expenses of a restaurant business are its overheads. From paying the staff to managing inventories, an issue here or there could lead to a lot of resources wasted. COVID has hit the restaurant industry hard as is highlighted in the article Forbes: Restaurant industry is fighting to stay alive and avenues to reduce costs will be welcomed by restaurant owners.

When voice enabled apps handle the job of taking orders, restaurants can cut costs and only hire the services of experienced staff who will take care of preparing the food. Also, restaurants won’t have to train employees to take orders nor have to invest in systems which do that.

Easy Upsell

As per an article in Forbes, The average ticket size increased by 20–40% when voice enabled apps were used to place a food order. This increase in the size of the order can be attributed to upselling, since the voice interface technology recommends more products based on the past history and customer’s preferences.

Coherent Brand Experience

Using the brand elements at all places consistently is something that every marketer believes in, and for the right reasons. Voice technology is capable of adding a restaurant’s brand elements into the ordering system into every interaction. By doing so, the customer will get the same consistent experience while ordering food from the restaurant’s app. The voice of the voice tech can also be tailored to reflect the personality of your restaurant.

In summary, the restaurant industry has jumped into the voice technology bandwagon as it comes with a host of conveniences for both consumers and restaurateurs. By combining traditional delivery systems with modern voice assistant technology, superior service delivery becomes a cakewalk. It is very likely that voice command-driven food ordering and delivery will become the norm, thanks to its ease and speed.

If you are looking for a voice-based solution for food ordering and delivery that will work with your app’s existing UI and can be deployed in a matter of days, the Alan Platform is the right solution for you.

The team at Alan AI will be more than happy to assist you. Just email us at sales@alan.app