Bensen AI — Helping Restaurants Recapture Customers

Voice software that answers the phone at restaurants so employees don’t have to

The Problem

The problem that Bensen is set out to solve is fundamentally a labor and operational problem. Staffing at restaurants is increasingly difficult, especially as restaurants budgets have tightened due to Covid-19. Phone calls, which happen at every restaurant whether it’s a customer placing an order or someone calling to see if the restaurant is open, ends up being a huge distraction to current staff, pulling them away from their tasks and reducing productivity.

What The Company Does

Bensen uses world class natural language processing technology that is able to speak with customers, understand their requests, and answer every call at a restaurant so that staff doesn’t have to. The company is able to take care of one of the most labor intensive, lower return-on-investment tasks in the restaurant business, which is answering the phone. Additionally, the company allows restaurants to fit the phone into their operational flow. It’s a huge time saver and dramatically increases efficiency in a restaurant’s operations. The technology can divert up to half of a restaurant’s calls, with zero calls missed.

The Market

There are more than 600,000 restaurants in the U.S., representing a $863 billion opportunity, according to the Bensen team.

Business Model

The company charges a monthly subscription fee.

Traction

Bensen is a Y Combinator company and also took part in Harvard Innovation Lab’s LLX program. They have hundreds of restaurant clients around the country who use their software. According to Bensen, clients of theirs are seeing a 30% boost in online sales and recovering more calls that typically go unanswered, and therefore recapturing customers. Bensen has also formed partnerships with LevelUp, Yext, Zuppler, Google, Amazon, Square, and other vendors.

Founding Team Background

CEO David Xiao holds a Ph.D from Princeton University, where he focused on machine learning. COO Adam Sandler previously started and built a restaurant chain.

What They Need Help With

Bensen is trying to spread awareness about its new software product called Greet. Previously reserved for larger restaurant chains, Greet is an artificial intelligence agent that answers the phone at any restaurant and helps a customer order or make a reservation. Connect with the Bensen AI team.

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