Little Caesars Pizza AI-enables phone order management
The world’s third-largest pizza chain is expanding its efforts to streamline the processing of customer phone orders.
Following its successful deployment in corporate stores, Little Caesars Pizza is deploying the GoToConnect artificial intelligence-based cloud communications platform from GoTo in franchise locations. The retailer began deploying GoToConnect, which automates the answering and handling of customer phone orders, at corporate restaurants nationwide in 2017.
Little Caesars consolidates its store communications tech stack on GoToConnect and is able to quickly onboard new stores with cloud-based phone system setup which it says minimizes on-site repairs and maintenance.
In addition, the company gains access to call analytics to track trends, performance, and opportunities across locations and says by automating phone orders it frees up store associates to focus on providing in-person customer service.
“We began by rolling out GoTo Connect in our corporate restaurants and then expanded to franchises, and it has transformed how guests connected with our restaurants,” said Lance Shinabarger, CIO, shared technologies and applications, Little Caesars. “We’re successfully handling millions of calls a month. We’ve delivered a better customer experience and reduced costs at the same time.”
In another initiative designed to simplify the ordering process, Little Caesars is rolling out what it calls a first-of-kind capability to order its pizza using the OpenAI generative AI model ChatGPT and functionality from the Little Caesars app across all Little Caesars markets in the U.S. and many restaurants in Mexico and Canada.
[READ MORE: Little Caesars Pizza lets customers start digital orders in ChatGPT]
This new feature lets customers use conversational AI to plan meals, receive personalized recommendations, and customize orders of any size within the ChatGPT environment by leveraging Little Caesars’ existing mobile app infrastructure and deep-linking capabilities to help to ensure a seamless handoff from ChatGPT to the Little Caesars app for checkout and in-store pick up.
The system is designed to understand customer preferences, how many people are being fed, dietary needs, budget constraints and delivery preferences, and then provide personalized meal recommendations instantly.
“Little Caesars is exactly the kind of organization GoTo Connect was built for: high-volume, distributed, and customer-experience driven,” said Damon Covey, GM of unified communications & collaboration, GoTo. “By delivering an excellent phone system and a franchise-ready deployment model, we’re helping Little Caesars scale with consistency, improve visibility across locations, and making it easier for restaurants to onboard, serve their guests and ultimately drive growth.”
Little Caesars was founded as a single, family-owned restaurant in 1959 and is headquartered in Detroit. It is the third-largest pizza chain in the world, with restaurants in each of the 50 U.S. states and more than 30 countries and territories.
