Field notes · For restaurants · · 3 minute read

The phone, answered: Helloforward for restaurants

Helloforward is an answering agent for your business line. It is built on AI, it talks like a person, and it does the host-stand work while the host is on the floor: answers, takes the reservation, texts back, leaves a note. Here it is on a restaurant's phone, using an invented place called Osteria Nove.

The phone by the pass rings mid-service

Priya wants a table for four on Friday around seven. Nobody wipes their hands; the line answers. Seven is full, 7:15 is open, it is an anniversary, somewhere quiet please. Booked, noted, confirmed by text.

Home, while a call is on. The number, the clock, and the notes waiting under it.
Home, while a call is on. The number, the clock, and the notes waiting under it.
The transcript. Fifty-eight seconds, four covers, one anniversary noted.
The transcript. Fifty-eight seconds, four covers, one anniversary noted.

It answers the are-you-open call so you don't have to

It answers from what you told it once: hours, the menu, parking, reservations policy, largest party. Then it fills in the columns you asked for.

  • “Are you open on the holiday Monday? And is there parking?”

    Closed Mondays including the holiday; the lot behind the building, free after 6.

  • “We’re twelve people for a birthday, can you do a set menu?”

    Explains your large-party policy, takes the date and number, leaves you a note to call back with the menu.

  • “Buonasera, un tavolo per due domenica alle sei?”

    Answered in Italian, two for Sunday at six, patio if it stays dry.

The call log on a desk. Name, number, party size, a summary. Search finds a guest, a date, or anything said.
The call log on a desk. Name, number, party size, a summary. Search finds a guest, a date, or anything said.

Texts, handled the same way

A text to your line gets the same care: a confirmation when the table is booked, an answer when it is a question, and your own words when it is your menu to send.

Every conversation on the line.
Every conversation on the line.
The birthday party, sorted by text. Gianna sends both set menus herself, notes two vegetarians, in the thread the agent opened.
The birthday party, sorted by text. Gianna sends both set menus herself, notes two vegetarians, in the thread the agent opened.

Ring your own line, and it works for you

The line knows your number. Call the restaurant from your own phone and it becomes your assistant: what came in tonight, remind me to call the produce guy at ten, who asked about the birthday. Text it on the drive home.

Gianna, calling her own line. The night's reservations counted, one reminder set, one name looked up.
Gianna, calling her own line. The night's reservations counted, one reminder set, one name looked up.
The note it made from a call. Where it came from, who it is about, one tap to close it.
The note it made from a call. Where it came from, who it is about, one tap to close it.

An assistant between services

Every business gets an assistant of its own. Ask it in plain words: confirm tomorrow's reservations, what did the birthday guy need, follow up tomorrow afternoon. It reads the calendar and the call log, so it already knows.

Tomorrow's tables confirmed, one party of five nudged, one follow-up set for 2 pm.
Tomorrow's tables confirmed, one party of five nudged, one follow-up set for 2 pm.

Front of house

Add your manager or your host as team members. They see the same book and the same notes, and each has an assistant of their own. Ten dollars a month a person. Bookings sync with Google Calendar if you use it.

The week, as a book. Tonight's tables stacked, Friday's anniversary at 7:15, the birthday pencilled for the 26th, the wine rep blocked.
The week, as a book. Tonight's tables stacked, Friday's anniversary at 7:15, the birthday pencilled for the 26th, the wine rep blocked.
The team. Who the agent can book for, who signs in, who has an assistant.
The team. Who the agent can book for, who signs in, who has an assistant.

Setting it up

I

Forward your line

Keep the restaurant number. Forward the calls nobody picks up, so the pass phone still rings first. Or take a new local number.

II

Describe the place

Hours, menu link, reservations policy, largest party, parking, holidays. A few minutes, once.

III

Call it yourself

Ring the line, book a table, watch it land on the calendar. Change anything from the app.

Forwarding codes for every carrier are in this note. Osteria Nove and everyone in these screens are invented; the screens are the real product.

The next call is taken care of.

Set up in minutes. First month free, no card needed.

Start your free month

Or hear it answer first. It runs a demo plumbing company; yours would answer for your business.

(236) 205-5757 (239) 366-4669

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