Virtual Hospitality
Revolutionizing customer experience in dining
Overview
Dine.Direct is a community that gives local partners advanced technology so they can participate in the food delivery economy. The team develops cause-driven food marketplaces with web & app ordering and integrations with local delivery providers.
The pandemic impacted the restaurant-customer relationship, eliminating face-to-face interactions. To address this, we aimed to recreate the personal dining experience in a digital realm. We reintroduced the connection through customizable avatars that engage users during the food ordering process.
🚨 The problem
When the pandemic hit, the relationship between the restaurant and the customer suffered. Now more than ever a phone was between them and this changed the experience of dining in, ordering pickup or just grabbing a coffee to go. No face to face, no conversations, no friendly faces, no human touch.
Thus, we asked:
How might we recreate the face-to-face experience between restaurants and customers within a digital product?
✅ The solution
Just like a person who goes to a restaurant and is welcomed by a waiter or waitress becoming a part of the in-place experience, we wanted to design a way to still have it when you order food from the comfort of your home. We reintroduced this experience through our avatars.
This feature allows the customer to be welcomed and joined by a friendly, cute and fully customizable avatar throughout the ordering process.
I was the main designer working on this feature at the beginning of our product in Spring 2020 with a team of graphic designers, engineers and QA.
The goals
👤 User: Bring back the normal experience in a restaurant but in a virtual way.
💼 Business: Provide avatar illustration and customization, along with their personalities, as an optional add-on service.
📱 Product: Maintain the existing messaging structure while introducing avatar customization and tone as a new feature.
The challenge
While the feature's initial conceptualization proceeded smoothly as a Product Idea, our primary challenge emerged during the avatar creation and the back and forth of the design iterations.
To manage this, we formulated a comprehensive Q&A list for restaurant personnel, serving as the foundation for the initial illustration draft. This questionnaire contained questions such as, "What would the avatar sound like if they could talk?"
Post the approval of the initial draft, the restaurant was entitled to make up to 3 revisions before our graphic design team finalized the remaining personalities for system integration, ensuring that any additional changes beyond this limit incurred supplementary charges.
A very cool awakening
Once we had the feature prototyped and we started to showcase it to restaurants, a few interesting questions came up:
- What if I want to name my avatar?
- Where can I display the name?
- What if I want to make it sound like a cowboy?
- Where can I change the tone and messages?
These questions opened our eyes and we realized it wasn’t only about the cool graphics, but also about how the virtual waiter/waitress would engage with customers. It became apparent that we needed a platform for restaurants to customize messaging if they wished to do so. At the same time, AI played an amazing role: a customer could chat with the virtual waitress/waiter without the need for human intervention.
Creativity madness
The process would be the following:
Did someone say different personalities?
Absolutely! Each of the avatars have up to 10 distinct personalities, tailored for various primary use cases we envisioned. Let's picture one scenario:
Imagine a customer encountering a payment issue where their card isn't accepted. It wouldn't make sense for our avatar to sport a super cheerful smile while delivering this news, would it?
To tackle this, we mapped out key scenarios and then we customized each avatar to suit these specific situations.
Branded it up!
The moment where the restaurant or our menu-building team uploads the personalities and configures the name, messaging and tone is where the magic happens. The before and after is huge and a fun moment for our users and us.
Introduction to the world
One of the key benefits of a tailored avatar is the collateral marketing a restaurant can do with it. This process becomes a valuable tool for generating buzz about the new online experience across social media platforms. Introducing the virtual waiter/waitress as a team member gives a sense of constant availability and support for the customers.
Results
Let me share the incredible impact this feature had (and what I think is the best way to explain the results of this feature):
We have a french restaurant which has Chloe as the virtual waitress -a super cute and stylish French gal. She is so friendly that people actually believe there is a real person behind those conversations. When they swing by the restaurant to grab their food, they’re saying things like “Chloe told me my food is ready”, “Chloe said there’s a problem with my credit card and that I’ll get free fries”.
It was a monumental moment when restaurants began telling us that people genuinely mistook our avatars for real beings.
Oh, and here's another very cool insight: even though we offered free default avatar illustrations, 96% of our users asked for customizations for their avatars.
Key takeaway: Unleashing Creativity Amid Chaos
If you ever worked in the restaurant industry, you’ll know how chaotic it is. If you haven’t, watch “The Bear” TV show and you’ll get it. There are thousands of problems and priorities, leaving little time for anything else.
However, a fun project like having a custom avatar, a character that will represent your brand can make the personnel to pause and take a moment to ponder their mission, tone, and brand identity, all while having a blast brainstorming its representation
Sure, it's just a one-hour diversion from the never-ending to-do list. Yet, this tiny task packs a punch—it sparks joy and becomes a bonding moment among the staff. And the best part? It’s not just an internal thrill. It's a game-changer, amplifying the customer experience in a context of so much fear and uncertainty in a way that’s truly impactful!
