Technology

SoundHound, ChowNow answering the (restaurant) call

provided by Soundhound

August 29, 2023

SoundHound AI, a provider of voice artificial intelligence, is joining forces with ChowNow, an online ordering and marketing platform, to allow restaurants to answer and respond to every inbound customer call. Using SoundHound's Smart Answering service, all restaurants on ChowNow have the option to add a capability that lets them handle inbound customer queries via a voice assistant or SMS, meaning they won't have to choose between answering the phone and serving in-house customers.

"When we say that we help independent restaurants, we mean more than simply saving them money. We're helping them streamline operations, create more bandwidth, and ultimately, forge stronger connections with their customers," Eric Jaffe, ChowNow co-founder and COO said in a company press relesae. "What we love about SoundHound is how its technology helps achieve all of the above, giving restaurants an accessible, seamless way to increase their order volume so that they can dedicate their energy to building a better customer experience."

How it works
Built on SoundHound's voice AI platform, the Smart Answering system seamlessly uploads and assimilates company website information. It then uses SoundHound's advanced speech recognition and natural language understanding — leveraging Generative AI — to give tailored, conversational responses to customer phone queries about menu items, opening hours and other frequently asked questions.

If customers want to place an order, Smart Answering will send them an SMS that routes them to the restaurant's ChowNow ordering page where they can make their selections — allowing busy restaurant staff to focus during peak periods.

The fully automated agent can also respond using custom answers or actions said responses that facilitate reservations and more by sending a relevant link via SMS, taking a message or routing the call to a member of staff on another number. The service can also handle many calls at once and is available 24/7.

"Smart Answering was specifically developed to help restaurants go from coping to thriving when it comes to inbound calls," James Hom, SoundHound's chief product officer said in the release. "By joining forces with ChowNow, we can help make sure restaurants don't have to let the phone ring out, and that they can capture critical revenue even during peak times when they can't always pick-up."