See how this Colorado Italian restaurant earned $76k in online ordering revenue in just 3 months

Nestled at the entrance of the Rocky Mountain National Park in Estes Park, CO, Poppy’s Pizza & Grill has delighted diners with sensational Italian food for nearly three decades. While the location brings beautiful views year-round, it also presents some unique challenges: namely operating efficiently during the busy tourist season and driving enough revenue from local patrons during the quieter months. With AI Answering and Boost, Poppy’s is able to tackle these challenges head-on—strengthening overall performance and deepening guest relationships in snow or sun.

In the midst of a nationwide labor shortage—exacerbated by the seasonal nature of labor in Estes Park—Poppy’s faced a significant challenge in staffing their front-of-house positions. This often left gaps in service, like the phone going unanswered, causing a number of missed sales opportunities. Enter Popmenu AI Answering: an automated phone service that harnesses data from Poppy’s website and Google Business Profile to answer recurring guest questions—and directs them toward revenue drivers like online ordering, reservations, or waitlisting. In three months, Popmenu AI Answering fielded 3.6k calls for the restaurant (nearly 40 calls a day!) with 43% of calls tying to revenue activity.

Beyond managing a substantial call volume, AI Answering’s customizable responses empower Poppy’s to deliver better customer service during phone interactions. By crafting tailored responses to various inquiries, the restaurant has cultivated a branded experience for its patrons and guaranteed that they receive the most accurate answers to their questions. Not only has this relieved staff from the pressure of answering phones during high-demand periods, but it also removed the need for them to be trained on a script when answering calls.

“When you’re on the phone and you have a line of people in front of you, you have to be quick and abbreviate. So, when my wife and I were typing up the responses, we could say what we wanted to say and feel confident we communicated properly with our guests. It was kind of fun to set up.”

While Popmenu Answering proved instrumental in handling the surge of calls during the tourist season, Poppy’s Pizza & Grill recognized the need for a strategic approach to keep the locals engaged once the tourists departed. This is where Boost—Popmenu’s marketing consultant service—comes in: partnering with the restaurant to help plan, create, and execute marketing campaigns that ensure the restaurant thrives during the off-season.

Poppy's dedicated client marketing consultant encouraged the pizzeria to launch first-party online ordering to better align the restaurant with modern dining expectations, save them money on third-party commissions, and capture guest data (like their email and phone number) to expand their marketing contact list. To incentivize guest adoption of the new service, Boost worked with Poppy’s to implement and promote a “15% off” offer across social media, text, and email. In the three months since adding the online ordering service, the restaurant has earned over $76k in online ordering revenue, $23k of which can be attributed to the promotional offer.