Senior Writer: Supriya Bajaj
Reading Time: 6 MinutesPublished : March 8, 2024Want to seamlessly interact with vendors and employees for smooth restaurant operations? Or looking to take orders and reservations without disrupting customer flow during rush hours? A restaurant phone system can help.
Interestingly, restaurants drive 67% of revenue from orders placed over a call. Phone systems can help you take up these orders with zero hassle.
That’s why we have curated this guide on restaurant phone systems with benefits and the 10 best restaurant phone systems. Let’s get started!
What is a Restaurant Phone System?
A restaurant phone system is a blend of hardware and software that facilitates seamless internal and external restaurant communication with VoIP technology and advanced features.
As this technology transmits calls over the Internet, you will experience enhanced overall flexibility and reduced call costs. Such systems truly transform and streamline your internal communication, adding to staff and customer convenience.
With its features like call forwarding, caller ID, and multiple phone lines, your staff can efficiently cater to customer queries, plan tasks, and take orders. The best part? It offers you an all-in-one platform to manage your restaurant, collaborate on customer interactions, and handle reservations.
Ensure seamless customer interactions and powerful staff collaboration while eliminating inefficient communication with restaurant phone solutions. It handles reservations, orders, and customer queries effortlessly, improving operational efficiency.
Comparison of Top 10 Restaurant Phone Systems
| Brand Name | Key Features | Pricing | Free Trial |
|---|---|---|---|
| DialerHQ |
|
| 10 Days |
| Callhippo |
|
| 10 Days |
| KrispCall |
|
| 14 Days |
| Nextiva |
|
| 10 Days |
| Dialpad |
|
| 14 Days |
| RingCentral |
|
| 14 Days |
| Aircall |
|
| 7 Days |
| GoTo Connect |
|
| 14 Days |
| Grasshopper |
|
| 7 Days |
| Vonage |
|
| 14 Days |
Top 10 Restaurant Phone Systems
The market is flooded with restaurant phone systems that offer exceptional features to automate and manage your restaurant operations. To help you choose the best one for your restaurant, we have curated this buyer’s guide –
1. DialerHQ
DialerHQ is a robust restaurant phone system that allows you to streamline bookings, manage reservations, cater to feedback, respond to guest requests, and more. You can expect to enhance the guest experience with DialerHQ’s inbound call management functionality.
- Smart call forwarding
- Call recording
- Intelligent reports/analytics
- Call barging
- Get insights into customer call progress and staff performance to boost customer service quality.
- Automatically distribute business calls (incoming calls) among relevant restaurant staff members to improve the first call resolution rate.
- Connects callers to the same staff member they connected previously to ensure a smooth customer experience.
- Users have reported dropped calls and lags.
- Some features require third-party integrations to work.
Pricing
As an enterprise-specific solution, DialerHQ caters exclusively to large teams or organizations. Connect with the DialerHQ sales team at [email protected] for personalized quotes, or start a free trial for first-hand experience.
2. CallHippo
CallHippo is an unparalleled restaurant phone system that comes with a myriad of useful features to manage your restaurant well. It helps you streamline your restaurant’s workflows, improve customer service, and monitor staff performance.
- Call conference
- Interactive Voice Response
- On hold music
- Speech analytics
- Extracts trends, insights, and emotions to let you understand customer sentiments, improve service quality, and make informed decisions.
- Transfer active calls to suitable agents to fulfill caller’s needs better, improving customer experience.
- Offers the required information to callers and automatically routes them to appropriate staff members without any human interference for personalized service.
- Doesn’t store call recordings in your CRM.
- The application lags sometimes.
Pricing
- Starter: $18/user/month
- Professional: $30/user/month
- Ultimate: $42/user/month
3. KrispCall
KrispCall is a robust restaurant phone system that empowers you to streamline customer service, boost operational performance, and manage incoming customer calls. Best part? You can easily customize it as per your restaurant’s needs.
- Simultaneous call handling
- Shared number
- Business texting
- Call monitoring
- Has a quick and easy setup, eliminating the chances of any technical issues or configuration complications.
- Handle inbound calls efficiently by routing calls, addressing customer issues, and monitoring call queues, maximizing customer satisfaction.
- Seamlessly communicate and share information with customers even in low network coverage areas via SMS.
- Long-duration calls often get disconnected automatically.
- Support does not offer a quick and accurate response.
Pricing
- Essential: $12/user/month
- Standard: $32/user/month
- Enterprise: Contact sales
4. Nextiva
Nextiva is an intelligent restaurant phone system that offers a roster of call center tools for restaurants to optimize business communications. From tracking customer calls to accessing real-time reports, you can do it all on Nextiva.
- Screen-sharing
- Broadcast texting
- Auto-attendant
- Video conference recording
- Remotely and easily conduct staff training with screen sharing and video conferencing, ensuring staff is equipped to manage the restaurant.
- Get all your restaurant calls on your phone so you never miss vendor, customer, or employee incoming calls.
- Cover a staff shift last minute by sending broadcast messages in minutes, eliminating any interruptions in restaurant operations.
- Doesn’t offer screen recording in lower plans.
- CRM integration is available as an add-on.
Pricing
- Essential: $18.95/user/month
- Professional: $22.95/user/month
- Enterprise: $32.95/user/month
5. Dialpad
Dialpad is an amazing restaurant phone system that offers top-notch communication functionalities in an easy-to-use unified platform. Its third-party integrations are all you need to integrate all your restaurant data and use it to develop powerful strategies.
- Web conferencing
- Spam prevention
- Three-way calling
- Call queues
- Promises a 100% uptime SLA (service level agreement).
- Flip calls between your computer and mobile phone to continue the conversation with customers even when you’re stepping out of the restaurant.
- Leverage conversational AI to automatically understand customer queries and provide contextual responses, enhancing the overall experience.
- Frequently disconnects from CRM.
- Doesn’t send email alerts for missed calls and texts.
Pricing
- Starts at $15/month
6. RingCentral
RingCentral is a smart restaurant phone system that makes all customer touchpoints perfect. This VoIP for restaurants allows you to stay open for business at all times, so there are no unplaced orders or unattended calls.
- Custom caller ID
- AI-based routing
- Personalised SMS alerts
- Auto receptionist
- Send order updates at every stage of the delivery process with SMS, enhancing transparency and customer satisfaction.
- Auto-answer customer calls with call forwarding or pre-recorded information to ensure you never miss a call.
- Evaluate staff performance with integrated analytics and reporting to spot and eliminate inefficiencies.
- Offers third-party integrations at an additional cost.
- Doesn’t have a free trial.
Pricing
- Core: $20/user/month
- Advanced: $25/user/month
- Ultra: $35/user/month
7. Aircall
Aircall is a reputed cloud based phone system for restaurants that your sales and support team will prefer due to its ease of use and advanced features. It brings all the relevant restaurant information to your fingertips, automates admin work, and builds workflows.
- Shared contacts
- Warm transfer
- Ring on speakers
- Business hours
- Set operational hours for your restaurant so you receive calls when you’re open, ensuring fewer unattended calls and reduced customer frustration.
- Forward or route calls to your or your phone so you can cater to your customers even on the go.
- Share your desired contacts with your staff members to ensure no one remains unaware of the restaurant or customer updates.
- The app restarts when you’re on a call, interrupting communication.
- Has some connectivity issues.
Pricing
- Essentials: $30/license
- Professional: $50/license
- Custom: Contact sales
8. GoTo Connect
GoTo is a popular restaurant phone system that offers features to deliver the best service to your customers with the least effort. Using this VoIP for restaurants, you can easily receive customer calls and collaborate with restaurant teams from anywhere in the world.
- Dial plan editor
- Call-routing schedules
- Custom greetings
- Call on hold
- Set call filters to send VIP customers directly to the live staff line, eliminating the need to wait in queues and enhancing customer experience.
- Warmly welcome your callers and automatically share important restaurant updates with the auto attendant at zero effort or human interruption.
- Edit call flows to departments or extensions to ensure your callers always reach the relevant place in seconds, optimizing their experience.
- The web version glitches sometimes.
- Customization options can be confusing.
Pricing
- Basic: $27/user/month
- Standard: $32/user/month
9. Grasshopper
Grasshopper is all you need to manage your restaurant operations and handle customer calls. This phone system for pizza restaurant(s) offers 24/7 support, requires no hardware, and lets you stay connected to your restaurant team on the go.
- Ruby receptionist
- Simultaneous call handling
- Instant response
- Desktop and mobile app
- Automatically send text messages to your customers when you’re unable to take their calls, reducing customer frustration.
- Offer quick replies about important restaurant updates and order progress to customers, enhancing customer satisfaction.
- Choose your new business number or port your existing one for free to display a professional brand image.
- Call quality is not satisfactory.
- Offers limited scalability.
Pricing
- Solo Plus: $28/month
- Partner: $46/month
- Small business: $80/month
10. Vonage
Vonage is one of the most modern phone systems that has features for small to mid-sized restaurants. From voice and SMS to social media messaging, Vonage brings all the tools together necessary to deliver the best customer service.
- Admin portal
- Call queueing
- Conference calling
- Desktop app
- Manage your entire restaurant’s phone system with a simple-to-use admin portal, improving operational efficiency.
- Record and log all customer-staff calls to refer, make tailored decisions, and improve overall customer experience.
- Quickly answers customer calls, gauges customer needs, and takes relevant action without human interruption to let staff focus on their core tasks.
- There are a lot of voice fluctuations during the call.
- Offers limited analytics options.
Pricing
- Mobile: $13.99/month/extension
- Premium: $20.99/month/extension
- Advanced: $27.99/month/extension
How to Choose the Right Restaurant Phone Systems?
Not choosing the right restaurant phone solutions can disrupt operations, customer service, and overall communication. Here’s how you can make the right choice in a breeze –
1. Look for useful features
List your current and future needs and try to look for the system that fulfills them with its features and functionality. Some common features are call routing, call recording, and caller ID.
2. Run a third-party integration check
Check if your system integrates with your restaurant management and CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tools to reduce manual data entry, boost productivity, and enhance customer satisfaction.
3. Check service reliability
Ensure that your system promises high service reliability and call quality to deliver a great customer experience. Remember to check user reviews of the system on rating platforms like G2 and SoftwareSuggest.
4. Evaluate cost-effectiveness
Determine your system’s upfront costs, maintenance costs, licensing fees, cancellation policy, and pricing plans to ensure it fits your budget and is cost-effective.
5. Prioritise customer support
Right restaurant phone system offers prompt and efficient 24/7 customer support to solve all your technical and generic queries.
How Does a Business Phone System Benefit a Restaurant?
Business phone systems for restaurants are loaded with features to efficiently handle phone calls, enhancing customer experience and staff productivity. Here are some other benefits that the best restaurant phone system brings in for restaurants –
1. Better process management
Business phone systems efficiently manage reservations, organize waitlists, optimize seating, and track guest preferences. How? With automated reservation management and real-time table availability updates.
2. Reduces overall costs
Such systems allow you to place calls over the internet, eliminating the need to invest in hardware, pay long–distance fees, bear installation charges, and incur maintenance costs.
3. Short call queues
Makes multiple devices ring sequentially or simultaneously, and auto-assigns customer calls to staff to ensure timely call handling. Naturally, call queues are bound to shorten when all business calls are catered to as they come in.
4. Elevates customer experience
Manages inbound calls with a menu that can provide information about open hours and restaurant directions. It can also route customers to the office phone to place take-out orders and make reservations.
This functionality ensures customers don’t have to wait for long when your staff is occupied, enhancing customer experience.
Wrapping Up
Restaurant phone systems can significantly improve customer service, enhance communication, and streamline operations for restaurant owners. But to avail of these amazing benefits for your restaurant, you must make a wise choice.
You can compare and choose a reliable phone system from our extensive buyer’s guide. For an easy decision-making journey, refer to our how to choose the right phone system section.
However, if making a choice seems overwhelming, turn to the best phone system like DialerHQ with zero doubts. Its features, reviews, pricing, and functionality are all a restaurant can potentially need for enhanced operations and communication.
Wait no further and start a DialerHQ free trial today!
Frequently Asked Questions
DialerHQ is a recommended phone system for restaurants, offering efficient communication solutions.
Local phone numbers are ideal for restaurants, providing a familiar and accessible contact point for customers.
Yes, DialerHQ and similar systems cater to the needs of both small and large restaurants, offering scalable solutions.
Absolutely, these phone systems allow customization to align with your brand identity and preferences.
Supriya is a highly skilled content writer with over 8 years of experience in the SaaS domain. She believes in curating engaging, informative, and SEO-friendly content to simplify highly technical concepts. With an expansive portfolio of long-format blogs, newsletters, whitepapers, and case studies, Supriya is dedicated to staying in touch with emerging SaaS trends to produce relevant and reliable content.
Updated : March 18, 2024
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