Restaurant And Hospitality News – September 26, 2016
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
In news this week, chatbots are the new trend, with both Dominos and TGIFridays launching their own Facebook Messenger bots; and Google has launched Google Trips to help users plan their vacations.
Google Launches New Travel Planning App Called Google Trips
Google has launched Google Trips, a new mobile application aimed at helping people better plan their vacation and travels. The free app — which is available on Android and iOS — serves as a trip planner and travel guide that is capable of organizing your plane tickets and hotel reservations, offering editorial guides to more than 200 cities, and making personalized recommendations. The app helps users manage information regarding day trips, reservations, points of interest, restaurants, tourist attractions, and more, according to Tech Crunch. The app combines data from Google Maps and crowdsourced reviews and information.
Google calls the new app “a personalized tour guide in your pocket,” and also stresses that the app is available offline, telling users to “simply tap the ‘Download’ button after each trip to save it to your phone.” The app also gathers all your travel reservations automatically from Gmail and organizes them into individual trips, allowing it to compete with Concur’s Tripit and the forthcoming Airbnb Trips app.
Domino’s Launches Facebook Messenger Ordering Platform
Pizza lovers can now order their favorite Domino’s order right from their Facebook Messenger, according to Yahoo! Finance. The latest company to embrace the bot revolution, Domino’s beat out Pizza Hut in launching the pizza-ordering bot for Facebook Messenger, but Venture Beat reports that it “could be smarter.”
Domino’s launched a similar service in the U.K. and Ireland in August, and is now expanding that ability to its US-based customers. In a press release for the U.K. release, the company said that the bot, named Dom, “is an artificially intelligent customer whiz designed to help super fans get their #1 fix of cheesy food heaven simply by messaging the word “PIZZA” to ‘Dom’ via Messenger.”
"We know that customers spend a great deal of time messaging, so we knew the next place we needed to add ordering was via Messenger," said Dennis Maloney, Domino's vice president - chief digital officer. "Messenger allows customers to order conversationally with the help of Domino's bot. We hope this new option will continue to make ordering as simple and as convenient as possible."
The service works by pairing your Facebook account with your Domino’s account, and then typing “PIZZA” to the Messenger bot to place your order.
Nick Dutch, head of digital at Domino’s, stated: “We’re delighted to allow our customers to order direct from Messenger - with 1B monthly active people using Messenger each month – it’s the obvious choice for Domino’s. We want to make ordering our freshly handmade pizza as easy as possible so we’re always on the look-out for new ways in which we can do this. Just message pizza - or send an emoji. It really couldn’t be easier. What’s next? That’d be telling. Pizza on the moon perhaps… Now that would be something!”
While Dom is not highly sophisticated, and allows for no conversational give and take as seen in other examples of bots, Domino’s has beaten Pizza Hut to the punch in rolling out the platform. Pizza Hut unveiled its own chatbot a few months ago, which is scheduled for U.S. launch later this month. The Pizza Hut platform allows Pizza Hut customers to reorder favorite or saved orders, and also reportedly will be able to ask questions about their order or about deals and promotions.
TGIFridays Deploys New Chatbot Feature For Facebook Messenger
TGIFridays has announced the deployment of a new chatbot on Facebook Messenger that will be able to interact with customers, answering questions and offering reservation capabilities, according to a company statement. “Looking ahead to fall 2016, Fridays will work with Conversable to expand its online reservations capabilities and also offer online orders via social media channels, including Facebook, Twitter [Direct Message], and Kik,” said Conversable, maker of the TGI Fridays bot, in a statement.
According to Venture Beat, Since its launch in June, Conversable has made delivery bots for Wingstop and Pizza Hut and a recipe bot for Whole Foods. In late August, Conversable partnered with Olo to bring chat-based lunch ordering to more people. Another company, Chatobook, has also released a Facebook chatbot for restaurants that can offer restaurant information to diners in a personalized, conversational manner.
“Today’s guests live in a digital world, spending large amounts of time interacting with friends and family on social platforms, and we want to meet them in the places they’re already engaging,” Sherif Mityas, TGI Fridays vice president for strategy and brand initiatives, told The Nation’s Restaurant News.
“Chatbot technology will allow us to engage with our guests in a more personal way, providing real-time responses from Fridays, whether they want to get on a reservation list, find the closest restaurant or find out what the most popular cocktail is at their Fridays,” Mityas said.