How to use Artificial Intelligence to boost your restaurant’s marketing?

We hear more and more about it: Artificial Intelligence. Whether it’s in generating images, texts, or formulas, what is it? Can it be useful in the restaurant industry?

After identifying the most important marketing tasks to boost your restaurant online, these tasks also turn out to be the most time-consuming and quickly neglected. Daily missions that are essential to attract customers and keep them coming back, but also to satisfy algorithms. We’re talking about generating quality content to maintain a regular and engaging presence on Instagram and Facebook, creating optimized posts on Google, and responding to customer reviews to improve customer satisfaction and positioning in search results, as well as analyzing customer feedback.

If we told you that Artificial Intelligence can respond to your reviews in the best way, create effective Instagram and Google posts, or provide you with detailed analyses of your operational performance without any effort on your part?

And yes! To help you save time on the marketing tasks for your restaurant, there are two Artificial Intelligence interfaces: ChatGPT and Dall-E. We’ll explain in this article when and how these two AIs will become your allies.

What is Artificial Intelligence (AI)?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) aims to develop machines capable of simulating human intelligence. This involves the creation of computer systems and programs that can learn, reason, make decisions, and solve problems autonomously, imitating some human abilities. AI relies on complex algorithms and mathematical models that allow machines to analyze large amounts of data, extract patterns and meaningful information, and use them to perform specific tasks.

In the restaurant industry, time and efficiency are crucial factors. From order management to personalizing the dining experience, optimizing operations, improving customer service, and managing online communication: Artificial Intelligence offers solutions that can change the daily routine for restaurant owners in various aspects.

New opportunities for your restaurant’s success, especially through more effective communication. With the ability to automatically generate text, visuals, and analyze content and performance based on the given situation, Artificial Intelligence can now relieve the marketing efforts for your restaurant.

What are ChatGPT and Dall-e?

These two interfaces, developed by OpenAI, address certain needs of restaurant owners in the field of online communication. Let’s introduce them to you:

• ChatGPT understands and generates text based on information learned online, according to your request. The software can answer a variety of questions, provide information, write text, and assist with various linguistic tasks, all using natural language.
• Dall-e creates images from textual descriptions. It works by associating keywords and descriptions with creative images, allowing it to produce unique illustrations in response to given queries. These images can be realistic, artistic, graphic, etc., according to your preferences. Dall-e can then refine the generated images based on requested modifications.

So, how can you use Artificial Intelligence in your daily routine to improve your restaurant’s online visibility and attract more customers?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) helps your restaurant rise in potential customer search results.

Your restaurant’s Google listing is equivalent to its digital storefront. Creating, optimizing, and maintaining this listing helps you become known to many internet users in your area.

Appearing at the top of potential customer search results for your keywords is a significant visibility and traction lever. To achieve this, you must regularly work on your Google listing. In addition to keeping your restaurant’s information up to date on all platforms and defining your most relevant keywords, you need to strategically maintain your Google listing by:

• Publishing attractive and optimized content on your Google listing at least twice a week.
• These posts are strategic locations to include keywords, thus improving your local search ranking.

AI eases your workload!

• No need to think about captions to describe your Google posts anymore. Provide ChatGPT with specific elements of the photo(s) illustrating the post (visual content, dish name, ingredients, etc.), and the software will write your caption. Don’t forget to specify the keywords you want to incorporate into the post’s text, as well as the tone to use (friendly, corporate, etc.).
• Want to attract foreign tourists, especially in anticipation of the 2024 Olympics? We recommend adding English captions to your posts written in French. For translation, you can trust ChatGPT blindly! Just share the text in French with it and ask for a translation into the desired language.

• If you don’t have or aren’t an expert in visual content: Don’t worry. Generate images similar to your offerings with Dall-e. Share the information to be transcribed into an image, and once you receive the first version, ask for adjustments by providing more details. Even if these images don’t exactly represent your restaurant, it matters less on Google because these posts mainly serve to improve your search ranking.

There are other steps to improve your restaurant’s search ranking that AI cannot currently do for you. We detail them HERE.

Artificial Intelligence helps you manage and improve your restaurant’s online reputation.

Your restaurant’s online reputation reflects customer satisfaction. When choosing a restaurant, internet users rely on what they find online, especially customer reviews on Google, TripAdvisor, TheFork, etc. These reviews are what users look at to get an idea of what to expect in the restaurant. Therefore, online reputation is a crucial aspect of your digital communication strategy. To thank past customers, convert new ones, and improve your local search ranking, you must:

• Respond to all customer reviews, both positive and negative, as quickly and personally as possible.
• These responses are strategic locations to include keywords, thus improving your local search ranking.
• Analyze customer feedback to improve on-site operations and customer satisfaction for future customers.

AI lightens your load!

• Don’t have the time or inspiration to respond to customer reviews? No more copy-pasting! Send the reviews left to ChatGPT and ask it to formulate a grateful response, including the author’s name and some of your specified keywords. Be cautious when dealing with negative reviews; take the time to respond yourself as these are generally more delicate situations.
• ChatGPT also helps you analyze customer feedback to draw general conclusions. Such as removing a dish from the menu, adjusting cooking times for a dish, praising a highly appreciated employee, etc. The process is simple: copy recent reviews (in their entirety, without worrying about images, dates, etc. that your mouse selects) and share them with ChatGPT, asking it to “draw conclusions about my restaurant based on the reviews below.” The software then summarizes the content of the reviews for you to adapt your actions according to your customers!

There are other steps to improve your online reputation that AI cannot currently do for you. We detail them HERE.

AI helps you gain visibility on social media.

The success of Instagram needs no introduction. This social network is now essential to maximize your establishment’s online visibility. To gain new customers, restaurants must exist on social media, and most importantly, they must do so actively, dynamically, and attractively. Social media algorithms focus on various criteria before promoting your account, including the regularity of your posts, content quality, use of available features, hashtags, and engagement from your followers. To become visible to social media users, you should:

• Create and post varied and quality content regularly, including photos and videos that showcase your offerings.
• Write impactful captions for each post.

AI eases your workload!

• To create content for social media, you can use the Dall-e software, as we discussed for Google posts. However, it’s more effective and attractive to share authentic visuals of your restaurant on Instagram, following current trends. We recommend hiring a professional photographer. But you can use images generated by Dall-e for inspiration and as dedicated content for your stories!
• To help create your Reels videos, which are popular on social media, there are other AI software options. Discover them HERE.
• ChatGPT has plenty of inspiration! Don’t hesitate to ask it to write captions for your posts.** If you typically use a “fun” or more sober tone, include this in your request. The same goes for the use of emojis; specify whether you want them or not.

→ → → There are other steps to skyrocket your restaurant’s visibility on social media that AI cannot currently do for you. We’ll detail them for you.

The Limits of Artificial Intelligence

The use of AI for marketing purposes does have certain limitations, such as:

• AI lacks knowledge of your restaurant and its unique characteristics, so you need to specify how you would like things to be presented or imagined each time.
• Since AI is not physically present in your restaurant, it’s essential to verify the information it generates.
• The current version of ChatGPT has data up to 2021, so some information may not be up to date with current expectations.
• Dall-e performs better when spoken to in English.
• ChatGPT’s analysis of customer reviews does not specify the proportion of these reviews, so it’s essential to take them with a grain of salt. For example, you shouldn’t remove a dish from your menu based on a single negative review.
• The number of requests in the free version is limited.

Although AI can create visual content, write captions for social media and Google, respond to customer reviews, and summarize them, it’s more challenging to have it visually represent your restaurant and convey your unique voice, message, identity, and tone, as well as integrate your keywords or hashtags. To get the best results from Artificial Intelligence, it’s necessary to “brief” and train it to match your restaurant, which requires expertise and can become time-consuming.

How Malou’s AI Meets the Specific Needs of Restaurant Owners

We’ve extensively worked on this aspect of Malou, training Artificial Intelligence to be particularly powerful for your restaurant. Here’s how Malou’s AI meets your needs in text generation, addressing the limitations presented by ChatGPT:

🎤 Generate SEO-optimized Google posts in less than 20 seconds with your keywords, etc.

Integrated directly into the all-in-one solution of Malou, our AI understands the SEO strategy of your restaurant. The Google post captions provided by Malou’s AI are optimized to push your Google listing to the top of potential customer search results. You only need to provide key elements of the photo, and your keyword-rich caption is automatically generated.

💌 Generate responses to all your reviews in less than 5 seconds with your usual tone, keywords, etc.

Trained to generate automatic responses to your reviews based on the emotions and sentiments of the author, Malou’s AI allows you to ensure consistent responses that contribute to customer satisfaction. These responses are also optimized according to your keyword strategy, helping you climb in search results. All of this without any effort on your part! With a 100% response rate on all platforms and in record time, you enhance your restaurant’s reputation among internet users and algorithms.

🖼️ Generate social media posts in less than 20 seconds with your usual tone, the topic of your choice, etc.

We’ve trained Artificial Intelligence to ensure that the content it generates automatically respects and adapts to your restaurant’s style, the tone used in your previous posts, and always meets the algorithm’s expectations. As a result, you only need to provide a few key pieces of information about the photo or video to be published. Malou’s AI writes the best possible caption for you, impactful and engaging, with the most relevant hashtags. It’s as if you wrote it yourself but without spending time on it!

📊 Improve your restaurant’s performance with detailed analysis of customer feedback

The semantic analysis integrated into Malou identifies, for each sentence of each review, the major categories referred to by the author: cuisine, ambiance, service, price, and more. The algorithm associates the customer’s sentiment with these categories: positive or negative. All sentiments expressed in each review are then grouped into detailed reports provided by the MalouApp, giving the restaurant an overview of its activity. This allows the restaurant owner to track customer sentiments.

(1) For each category (“cuisine,” “price,” “atmosphere,” etc.), discover the proportion of positive and negative sentiments perceived by your customers, as well as the overall proportion of sentiments across all categories.
(2) In each category, find out the details of what pleased and displeased your customers. For example, if the term “pancake” in the “cuisine” category has been reported positively many times for a brunch restaurant, you should keep it on the menu!
(3) Discover the evolution of positive and negative sentiments for each category over time. For example, you can deduce when reviews were very positive about “Service” or the opposite.

This provides valuable insights for improving your restaurant’s operations and customer satisfaction.