Best Phone Systems for Restaurants

In fact, such a switch will only have benefits since all business VoIP systems come with enterprise-grade features with which customer requests and general communication between staff members can be handled in a highly professional manner. What’s even more impressive is that VoIP is a relatively cost-friendly solution, meaning that business owners can focus on the most important thing: putting their restaurants on the gastronomical map.

What to look for in a phone system for restaurants

Aside from its straightforwardness and fair pricing, VoIP is best known for offering plenty of enterprise-grade features. They are all pretty useful, but some of these features are particularly important for restaurateurs:

Auto-attendant

In the restaurant industry it’s impossible to answer every incoming call, especially during peak hours. With an auto-attendant, however, not only are callers dealt with in a courteous manner – thanks to the availability of professional greetings that can be played at certain times or dates – but they can also be automatically directed to the right person via an interactive voice response menu.

Call monitoring

While this feature can be complemented by the typically pay-only call recording feature, call monitoring is an optimal way for restaurant owners both for keeping an eye on employees and to use past calls for educating staff members on how to behave with guests on the phone and help to train them to provide the best service.

Extensions and ring groups

Although certain VoIP providers limit the number of extensions per system, in most cases you can create as many extensions as you want. This is particularly important for restaurant chains who, after assigning individual extensions to each establishment, can hook up all restaurants to the same phone system and therefore save significantly on the monthly costs.

Additionally, more advanced VoIP solutions even allow users to create ring groups, which ensures that no matter how many extensions belong to a single establishment, the call will always be answered in the right place by the right staff.

Smartphone apps

All VoIP services come with their own designated apps with which a smartphone can be added as an extension to the phone system. This way employees can move about freely inside the restaurant as if they all had their own handsets, without having to be restricted to a single spot for the landline. However, unlike handsets, these mobile apps allow users to enjoy all the benefits of the cloud phone system outside the limits of the establishment – a feature that can be particularly useful if you provide a food delivery service as well.

Conferencing

If a restaurateur owns multiple restaurants, then it’s important to have a channel through which the staff of each establishment can be connected at once. The conferencing feature that VoIP services offer allow for the creation of a conference bridge dedicated to handling calls between multiple people. It’s worth adding, though, that both audio and audiovisual conferencing are usually pay-only features and they only allow a limited number of participants per conference.

The general rule of thumb for the positioning of phones is to have them at places that are easy for all employees to reach, such as the staff and dining area. However, it’s best to consider adding at least one handset to the system as well, especially in cases when you are mostly outside of your office but want to be ready to answer the phone if needed.