How One Restaurant Used Voice Ordering to Automate Calls for Free

Across the restaurant industry, there are hiring shortages and minimum wage increases.

82% of pizza shops are actively recruiting, but are struggling to fill roles. 26% of restaurants expect staffing shortages to worsen over the next 12 months.

Why Restaurants Are Struggling with Staffing Costs

When phone lines clog up, restaurants get stuck in a lose-lose situation: overwhelmed staff rushing through orders, frustrated customers stuck on hold, and managers constantly reallocating labor to keep up. Every missed call represents a missed ticket — and in high-volume operations, that can stack up to hundreds of dollars per hour in lost revenue.

Many restaurants respond by hiring more front-of-house labor, but today’s labor market isn’t built for that strategy. Operators are being asked to do more with less, and traditional staffing models simply can’t scale anymore.

How Firestone Pizza Co. Automated Takeout Calls with Voice Ordering

Can automating your takeout process with voice ordering solve these problems? The answer is yes, and Firestone Pizza Co. did it for free…and saved over $4,500 in labor costs per month. 

“Before HeyTARA, we just kept hiring people. That got expensive pretty quickly. HeyTARA is super cheap and practically runs in the background. Wish we'd found TARA sooner.” - Owner, Firestone Pizza Co.

Within the first month, HeyTARA answered over 600 calls automatically during peak hours, calls that would have otherwise required staff to stop what they were doing and run to the phone. Order accuracy improved, upsells increased, and customers experienced shorter wait times. The staff stayed focused on operations instead of fighting a ringing phone.

This wasn’t a major transformation that required months of planning, software integrations, or pricey hardware. Firestone simply leveraged technology they already had: a phone line, a menu, and a desire to reduce wasteful labor spend.

How did they do it?

• They had their doubts, so they took 10-minutes to speak to the team at HeyTARA.

• After the conversation, Firestone Pizza Co. decided to sign up for the free plan.

• They made a strategic decision to stick to the free plan indefinitely. 

• Now, they just turn on HeyTARA during their busiest hours.

During slow hours, staff answer the few inbound calls manually. But once the dinner rush hits, the phones flip over to HeyTARA. Labor isn’t stretched thin. Customers still get speedy service. And Firestone pays nothing for those automated calls.

The automation is smart enough to confirm order details, upsell popular add-ons, and even send text confirmations, all without interrupting a single pizza prep.

How Any Restaurant Can Automate Calls Without Spending a Dollar

• Start small. AI doesn’t have to run your business from day one.

• Address problems like takeout first. This will provide the largest ROI out of the gate.

• Talk to customers. Gather their feedback and customize your AI accordingly. 

Try HeyTARA for free and stop spending so much on labor costs.