Pizza Hut Has Hired A Chatbot To Take Online Orders Via Twitter, Facebook Messenger Image courtesy of Pizza Hut
If I had a pizza for every time I had a conversation about pizza, no one would see me again because I’d be buried under a pile of pizzas. To capture the essence of that experience, sans pizza burial, Pizza Hut is launching a chatbot that will allow customers to order food in a “conversational” way.
Pizza Hut announced that it’s teamed up with a tech company called Conversable to launch a new social ordering platform, the abovementioned chatbot, that will take orders via its Twitter and Facebook Messenger accounts.
The idea here is, you’re not just ordering food, you’re having a conversation with Pizza Hut, of course: you’ll have to be friends with Pizza Hut on Facebook first if you want to order via chatbot, for example.
Customers will be able to reorder their favorites or place an order they’ve saved previously from any U.S. Pizza Hut location by chatting directly with the Pizza Hut accounts on either social platform, the company says. There’s no extra cost for ordering via chatbot.
Once an order is confirmed, Pizza Hut emails the customer a receipt and an order confirmation number will be sent through the messenger conversation. You can then pick your order up or wait for it to be delivered like you would any other order.
The chatbot will launch first on Facebook, before becoming available across Pizza Hut’s social media accounts this fall, the company says in a press release.
“We are constantly pursuing ways to simplify our ordering experience,” said Baron Concors, Chief Digital Officer, Pizza Hut. “This platform allows our consumers to quickly order or get information where they are already spending a great deal of their time.”
We can’t wait for hilarity to inevitably ensue when someone gets a pizza covered in something horrifying like sprinkles and mayonnaise because the chatbot just doesn’t understand sarcasm.
Pizza Hut appears to be playing a bit of catch-up with Domino’s, which allows customers to order via a “zero-click” ordering app, with a Tweeted emoji, or by asking Alexa.
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