A €200/month Chatbot Saved Maria's Restaurant 15 Hours a Week

Maria called us skeptical. "I've run this restaurant for 22 years without any fancy tech," she said. Fair point.

Her problem wasn't technology—it was time. Three staff members spent hours every day answering the same questions: "Are you open on Monday?" "Do you have vegan options?" "Can I book for 12 people next Saturday?"

We built her a simple chatbot. Nothing revolutionary. It answers FAQs, handles reservations, and sends her a daily summary. Took us two weeks.

Here's what happened after the first month:

Phone calls dropped by 60%. Her team wasn't running to the phone every five minutes anymore.

Late-night reservations went up. Turns out, people love booking tables at 11 PM when they suddenly remember they need a dinner spot.

Maria's stress went down. Her words: "I didn't realize how much that constant interruption was wearing on me."

The chatbot doesn't replace human connection. When someone asks a complex question or seems frustrated, it hands off to a real person. But for the 80% of questions that are predictable? It handles them instantly.

Cost: €200/month. Time saved: roughly 15 hours per week across the team.

I'm not saying every restaurant needs AI. But if you're drowning in repetitive questions, maybe you don't need to hire—you need to automate the boring stuff so your team can focus on what actually matters: the food and the people.