An AI voice agent for restaurants: answer every call

These problems usually start with a call nobody took:

• No-shows burn your revenue daily. Empty tables on Friday evening — booked, never showed, no call. 4-5 tables a week = pure lost revenue.
• Guests come once and are never heard from again. A great evening ends at the door. Nobody has their number, nobody follows up, and the table sits empty next Friday.
• Instagram DMs sit unanswered for hours. "Table for 2 tonight?" asked at 6 PM. You reply at 9 PM. They've already eaten elsewhere.

The phone rings hardest exactly when nobody can answer it — during service. Callers who get no answer at 7:30 pm usually book the next place on their list.

Most calls come just before and during service: "Do you have a table at 8?", "Are you open on Monday?", "Can I order for pickup?". The host is seating guests, the manager is on the floor, and the phone rings out. Regulars and older guests call more than they message, and a call that goes unanswered at 7:30 pm usually becomes a booking somewhere else.

Vajra, Reputoo's voice agent, runs the same workflows over the phone that the WhatsApp agent runs in chat:

1. Customer books via WhatsApp — Bot checks availability and confirms instantly — no calls, no staff needed.
2. 24hr & 2hr reminders sent — WhatsApp reminder with booking details and one-tap confirm or cancel.
3. Post-meal win-back timer — 45 mins after the reservation, the guest is tagged for an automatic win-back if they do not return in 30 days.
4. 30-day win-back for lapsed guests — Guests who haven't returned in 30 days get a personalised "We miss you" offer.

After each call the caller can get a WhatsApp message with the details, and staff see the call in the call log.

• 36 languages, switching to the caller's — useful where customers mix languages in one sentence.
• After hours it takes the booking or the message instead of letting the call ring out.
• Live transfer to a staff member when the caller asks for one or the call needs a person.
• Outbound calls for reminders and follow-ups, within the calling hours you set. Confirmations belong the moment a table is booked and reminders a few hours before service. Offers do best mid-afternoon, when people are deciding where to eat — never during the rush you are trying to fill.

What stays with your staff: Allergies, large-party deposits, complaints about a meal, and anything about a private event should reach the manager, not a script.

The agent can take takeaway orders from the menu, confirm each item and any modifications, read back the order and total, give a pickup time, and send the order to the kitchen and the confirmation to the caller's WhatsApp. Complicated orders or special requests it cannot place are passed to staff with what it has so far.

• Severe allergies — the agent notes them and passes the call or a message to the manager.
• Large groups and private events — it collects the essentials and books a callback.
• Complaints — it apologises, takes the details and passes them on.
• Anyone who asks for the manager by name.

A monthly voice add-on of ₹1,999 (or $29) on top of your Reputoo plan, plus call minutes billed from a prepaid wallet at ₹4–12 a minute depending on the number and route.

Compare that with the cost of the calls going unanswered, or with the hours staff spend on routine calls, and decide from your own call volume.

Forward only unanswered calls to the agent, or only during service hours. Regulars who call in the quiet afternoon still reach the host; the calls that used to ring out during the rush are answered and booked. On fully booked nights the agent offers nearby times, another night, or the waitlist, instead of just saying no.

Within the hours you set, the agent can call to confirm large or deposit-backed bookings the day before, or call waitlisted guests when a table frees. Keep outbound calls to guests with a booking or a waitlist request.

A restaurant taking 40 calls a day at about two minutes each uses around 90 minutes a day with longer calls included — roughly 2,700 minutes a month. At ₹4–12 a minute from the prepaid wallet that is ₹10,800–₹32,400 a month in minutes, plus the ₹1,999 monthly add-on. Forwarding only unanswered calls brings it down. Set it against the covers lost to unanswered calls on a busy night.

1. Connect the reservation book and add the menu, timings, booking rules and practical details.
2. Add dish names the way callers say them, in every language you hear.
3. Choose forwarding: unanswered, during service, or after hours.
4. Test a booking, a full-night request, a takeaway order, an allergy question and a large group.

Callers ask "do you have vegetarian options?", "is the food very spicy?", "do you serve alcohol?". The agent answers from the menu and the practical details, mentions dietary tags where relevant, and offers to send the menu to the caller's WhatsApp. Severe allergy questions are the exception: the agent notes them and passes them to the manager, and says so honestly.

Guests who need to cancel often feel awkward calling, and some simply do not turn up. The agent makes changing or cancelling as easy as booking: it finds the booking by the caller's number, offers a new time or cancels, and releases the table for the waitlist. Late cancellations of deposit-backed bookings are taken as a message for the manager.

Callers use the language they are comfortable in and switch mid-sentence. The agent follows the caller's language and confirms the booking back in the same language, then sends the written confirmation to WhatsApp. Add dish names the way callers say them to the menu so every version is recognised.

Answer with the restaurant's name and say the caller is speaking to the restaurant's assistant, with a person available if they want one. End every booking by repeating the time and party size and saying the confirmation is on its way to WhatsApp. Clear endings prevent the "just checking my booking" call two hours later.

The agent does not confirm whether a named person has a booking or share another guest's details. A caller asking "is my husband's table booked for tonight?" is offered a message to the number on the booking instead. It is a small friction that protects every guest.

Compare a month before and after: calls that rang out during service, bookings made by phone, and interruptions at the host stand. Read call summaries weekly for patterns — a dish the agent mishears, a question it hands over that one line in the knowledge base would answer — and fix them. The aim is a host who spends service with guests, not on the phone.

Many calls come after closing or on the day the restaurant is shut, from people planning a dinner later in the week. The agent books them into open dates so the next service starts with reservations, not a list of missed calls to return. On closed days it says so plainly and offers the next open evening.

Some callers ask for the manager or the owner by name — a regular, a supplier, a guest with a complaint. The agent transfers them when the manager is free, or takes a message and a callback time. It never leaves a caller who asked for a person arguing with the assistant.