Denver, Feb. 13, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Valyant AI, a Colorado-based artificial intelligence (AI) company focused on customer service in the quick-serve restaurant industry, today announced the launch of its conversational AI customer service platform. In one of the world’s first commercial retail deployments of enterprise AI, Valyant AI’s customer service platform is currently taking live customer breakfast orders at the drive thru at Good Times Burgers & Frozen Custard located at 2095 S. Broadway in Denver.
Providing digital customer service representatives for the food service industry, Valyant AI’s voice-based assistants allow businesses to streamline the customer experience, improve employee efficiency and help address labor shortages, especially during peak times. To eliminate AI biases and ensure the highest accuracy possible, Valyant’s AI-based voice assistants are built using actual customer recordings and the system is now being refined with live customer orders.
Unlike popular AI assistants Google Home or Alexa — that need to respond to a wide range of requests from weather inquiries to sports scores to a specific music selection — Valyant’s patent-pending system requires a significantly smaller vocabulary of key words to take meal orders. As a result, the accuracy of Valyant AI’s system already exceeds that of Google’s voice assistants for this application.
“We are incredibly excited *to* demonstrate customer service leadership by helping to refine Valyant AI’s software to improve order accuracy and decrease wait times for our customers,” said Scott Lefever, chief operating officer at Good Times. “By freeing employees to spend more time focused on the customer at the window, we’re providing better and faster service to our customers and a more enjoyable experience for our employees.
“Good Times Restaurants are usually staffed with three employees at breakfast. If there is inclement weather, or if an employee doesn’t show up, Valyant’s platform can truly save the morning.”
Most major quick serve restaurants attribute nearly 70% of their business to drive thru customers. As a result, average order times have also increased resulting in slower order speed. According to the Drive-Thru Study, the time between the customer placing an order and receiving it has slowed across the industry, clocking in at an average of 234 seconds. For comparison, in 2003, Wendy’s scored an all-time Drive-Thru Study best of 116 seconds. Labor shortages are also plaguing the quick-serve industry. Dunkin’ Donuts CEO Nigel Travis was recently quoted in Business Insider saying labor shortages and the need to hire and retain workers is the biggest problem facing the fast-food industry. “One franchisee always quotes, 'I can only get 60 percent of the labor I need,'" he said in the article.
“Seconds count in the drive-thru, and if customers see a long line, they’ll often keep driving and look for another restaurant,” said Rob Carpenter, Valyant AI’s founder and CEO, “By improving ordering accuracy and decreasing wait times, our platform improves the customer service experience and allows Good Times to serve more customers more quickly. We’re excited to deliver a customer service experience unlike anything you’ve ever experienced before.”
To ensure accuracy, the Valyant AI system employs human-in-the-loop (HITL) on all orders. This allows guaranteed order accuracy, problem identification and catching opportunities for improving the experience. With Valyant AI, restaurants can now experience industry leading conversational AI to streamline the ordering experience, reduce wait times and improve the employee experience.
For more information about Valyant AI, please visit https://valyant.ai/.
About Valyant AI
Valyant AI provides QSR’s with an upbeat and professional voice-based artificial intelligence (AI) customer service platform that is always ready to assist. One of the world’s first commercial deployments of enterprise AI, Valyant AI can easily be integrated in call-ahead phone systems, restaurant drive-thru’s, mobile apps and more to support customers at every touchpoint, anytime and anywhere. With eventual ability to speak more than 30 languages, Valyant AI can help customers as quickly and enjoyably as possible. Whether helping to address labor shortages or enhancing customer service, Valyant AI delivers an unmatched customer service experience. With Valyant AI, the future of customer service is here. For more information, please visit https://valyant.ai/.
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