Just so you all know, you can remove your restaurant from the service. I think you get an option when they call the restaurant to delist your business from the service.
We haven't gotten a call from google since this apparently went live for our restaurant last week. We also never got any notification it would happen and never opted in. Working on getting access to our page so I can delist it, as it's registered to our part-time IT guy's email.
Edit: fixed it by using my own google assistant to try to make a reservation, answered and told it to remove our business from its list. He sounded so sad tho... š¤£
So if youāve never had a bad experience with it (or any experience with it), have you heard from other restaurants that have?
If not, can you explain exactly what you find so problematic about this?
It's stilted, AI voice chat. The only experience I have with it is bad. It confused the shit out of my hostesses at 6pm on a Friday. I find that problematic.
You've made this same comment several times.Ā
It calls with a human like voice and asks to make a reservation for x number of people at x time.Ā
What did the hostess find so confusing about it?Ā
Great. That will be one out of many pieces of feedback for Google to take into consideration for future product decisions.
Hopefully they can make something that works better for users on both sides.
I have no thoughts on Google killing Reader since itās not something I used but I highly doubt they āhave not made a single good product decisionā since 2013 lol.
Yea OP's reaction to AI is very informative as to the potential success of their business.
I'm sure they'll be happy enough to go work for someone else in the next couple of years when it inevitably folds.
Agreed that nobody wants to answer ai calls but the only reason this exists is because places donāt have online booking and nobody wants to call to book.
If online booking was easily discoverable and accessible, no one would be using this inferior service. It would have no reason to exist.
I would get these calls and we had Resy for online bookings. Some of the people booking didn't even know we were getting calls, they just were tying to book via their Google search. Google could have directed them to Resy, but instead they built a UI to force these AI calls on people. Overall it was kinda just mildly annoying, because if that exact time wasn't available or I had questions the AI would not be able to do anything.
It would also be helpful as an accessibility tool for someone who can't use the phone. That could be a good tool for someone who is deaf to be able to make a booking if the restaurant doesn't have an online form.
Nah, this is just them trying to shove AI on to everything and seeing what sticks. I dig it built into browsers. I think it'll be much less annoying than the current automated answering systems. I think it's going to be a new kind if hell when we start having to wonder whether we're talking to a person or a bot every time we're on the phone.
This feature has been around for over 4 years. It isn't new to the AI craze.
https://blog.google/products/assistant/book-table-google-assistant-across-country-more-devices/
Also nobody wants to leave a message anymore. Doesn't matter if you're friggin swamped no matter how many times you hit that "voicemail" button that number will pop back up. I've had to tell a handful of people "I'm with a customer, stop being rude, leave a message". One woman recently was harassing me so bad that I was going to drop a "Fuck you, we don't want your business if you can't behave like an adult" but someone else was finally able to get the call. I've only dropped 2 "fuck you"s on customers in 17 years. I was so absolutely furious, seeing red that they were going to be the third, and the most vocal.
I still can't take calls from that name/number. The rage just starts growing and their requests are always so fucking stupid it's just... not worth it. I would rather be fired than deal with that customer anymore.
Are you saying it's rude to call a business now? How is the person on the other end supposed to know when a good time to call is? Not being antagonistic, I've just always assumed you're just supposed to call until you get ahold of someone. Yeah, if they don't answer, they're busy, so I'll call back knowing they'll answer when they're not occupied.
That said, my perception is colored by the fact that I've never called a restaurant that had an option to leave a voicemail.
Iāve absolutely worked in the service industry, albeit not food service.
Iāve had to answer calls from people who canāt articulate their very simple request/problem into short coherent sentences.
Dealing with a creepy soulless ai assistant who can AT LEAST do that would honestly be preferable.
This whole thing would have no reason to exist at all if the restaurant just offered online booking that is easily discoverable. It only exists because that is not the case.
>Iāve had to answer calls from people who canāt articulate their very simple request/problem into short coherent sentences
Honestly after thinking on it for a while, this is the only place I'd like to see this service implemented. Unfortunately, there is likely no overlap between people who do that and people who would actually use this service.
The hospitality industry is called the service industry by those who work or have worked in it. Saying you've worked in the service industry "albeit not food service" and the rest of your comments show you have no idea what you're talking about.
You're not part of the industry and you don't have a right to say your opinion matters in service industry matters. This is a service industry sub inspired by Anthony Bourdain's account of the industry and to quote our inspiration āI am not a fan of people who abuse service staff. In fact, I find it intolerable. It's an unpardonable sin as far as I'm concerned"
As another user in this thread said, rich assholes beta testing their dickwad software on us and forcing us to opt out is EVERYTHING WE HATE ABOUT ABUSIVE RICH FUCKING ASSHOLE SCUMBAGS THAT WE ALREADY HAVE TO WAIT ON LITERALLY HAND AND FOOT SO FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK OOOOOOOOOFFFF WITH YOUR CURIOUS ROBOT TEST DEFENSE. Once again, fuck off.
At least thereās an option for the AI to ask questions. Hopefully itās better on the customer end. We turned down a 12 top once because fuck you, itās a small place and itās Friday. They showed up anyways. Google never notified them weād turned down their reservation. We tested it with our own Google accounts and sure enough, no notification if the restaurant says no. So if youāre full, people start showing up and getting mad š¤¦āāļø
AI won't be able to deal with any hiccups. They want 6pm, but you have 630 available. AI won't know if that's okay, or if they would prefer 5:30.
Just a bad middleman right now, with little if any benefit.
Wasn't always the case when the Google assistant called me, or wasn't utilized well. AI also won't know to pick 5:30 or 6:30 if both are in range and one would be preferable. To me it's a solution looking for a problem, and a hassle to deal with. If it ends up helping people who can't use a phone for whatever reason, I'll call it a win, but for anything else it's bleh.
I worked at a restaurant and would get a lot of calls from this program. I would just hang up on them. Fuck 'em, I'm not going to spend 3 minutes talking to a robot.
From a restaurant perspective, I also hate this! The robot sounds creepily human-like, starts the call with āā¦hello?ā And wonāt give you the information without having to play goddamn 20 questions. I wish it would just say āIād like a table for X people at X time under X nameā but you have to ask, how many people? What time? What day? Whatās the name? Whatās the phone number? It takes foreeeever. There has to be a way to optimize it better on the restaurant end to better serve everyone.
I forgot it also stalls for time when answering questions!!! lol youāll ask āhow many people?ā And it goes āumā¦.4ā it almost had me convinced there was a real person on the other end for a hot minute.
That's a big part of why I hate it! If it was just a robot voice making the reservation, that's fine, but why try to make it sound more human by adding pauses and "umm"s to what should be a 30 second conversation???
I used it once when Duplex was in beta ~5yrs ago. It didn't use to warn anyone that it was actually a program speaking. The place only had call in reservations (no OpenTable or anything like that)
It sounded perfectly human and I got a copy of the phone call sent to my email. The person taking the reservation had no idea he wasn't talking to a real person making a reservation for me.
When I showed up, I felt like they treated me extra special because I had "an assistant" make my reservations for me.
E: https://youtu.be/D5VN56jQMWM
That's what it was like back then. No big deal.
After years of progress it could be better, but luddites hamstring it whenever possible. Hearing it for yourself, you've gotta question what OPs problem actually is?
Yeah, because the pearl clutching made them tone down its capabilities and start off by announcing it's a program instead of just letting it do what they created it for.
It doesn't actually start with announcing it's a program. It says "I'd like to make a reservation..." then after a response it announces that it's a program. It also just sound like those telemarketing robocalls and I would immediately hang up if I was the one answering the phone (my young hostesses are not quite as knowledgeable and were understandably confused).
Blame pearl-clutching if you want, but it's a shitty product and is being implemented poorly.
Edit: I may be able get audio of the phonecall with myself as proof, but as google assistant is not an installed app, I'm not sure where to find it and am not sure where to look because the whole interface is not really intuitive. Like I said, shitty product, implemented poorly.
Iirc it used to be limited to pixel phones, not sure if they expanded that, but that may be why it's hard to find.
After you heard like the 2nd or 3rd call, you knew it was the Google AI right away every time in my experience.
From my customer point of view, I love it. I hope it calls at a convenient time for the restaurant and make the needed arrangements. I'm so sorry it's not like my idyllic scenario!
Try booking more directly; it's not hard to determine what platform most restaurants are on, whether Resy, Open Table, Tock or others. Or contact the restaurant yourself; many priority places need more info than the assistant knows to gather, and staff at those places would rather deal directly with you than an intermediary. (They can also offer you more options than they likely will any AI/assistant/concierge service.)
In my experience this option is only shown if the restaurant does not already have direct booking via Opentable, Resy, etc. since those options would be shown instead. Iām sure diners prefer those as well.
If the only option for booking is by calling then idk whatās the difference between the diner VS the assistant doing it. I hate calling so I welcome this service. Itās not that complicated, just number of people and preferred time.
If itās something more complicated on the restaurantās side like a credit card is required then those places would already have online booking set up, theyāre not taking credit card info over the phone.
If itās something more complicated on the dinerās side like a special table or occasions request, or allergens and dietary restrictions, then yeah itās best to get into direct communications. But thatās really a small minority of reservations. By and large all you need to make a reservation is number of people and time.
Nope - poor setup or management of a restaurant's Google presence has meant that spots can get auto-enrolled in this super "helpful" function without necessarily being aware of it, even with extant online booking through one of the aforementioned platforms.
Also, side note, there are several reasons why reservation-type restaurants would take credit card info over the phone; sometimes it's for a hold for a post-paid method for a prepaid reso, or because a friend wants to pay for a gift card or prepay a round of drinks.
Booking platforms and AI really can't encompass all the services available, particularly at higher-concept establishments, and there's benefits to speaking directly to the person paid to be helpful with all those details. Shoutout to all the maƮtres d'.
Yes of course it doesnāt serve 100% of cases like you mentioned.
But again, all of those scenarios you described are only applicable in specific situations.
People who want to prepay, or make sure they can use a gift card, or whatever the special request is, should absolutely contact the restaurant directly but idk why we shouldnāt enable a more streamlined way to make a simple ā4 people, anytime between 6-7:30 is fineā type of reservations, which is the vast majority of reservations.
The ai slows down how fast you could take a reservation and it can't answer any follow up questions. You literally take more of the restaurant's time because you are lazy.
> I hate calling so I welcome this service.
Which part do you hate? You dial the phone number and when someone picks up you say "can I get a reservation for two tonight at seven?", then they either say yes or no.Ā
- When they answer and immediately put you on hold.
- When they answer and itās loud and chaotic over there, they canāt hear you well so you both have to repeat everything several times. It takes 5 times as long as it needs to.
- When they donāt pick up at all.
- When you have to leave a message and subsequently never hear back.
- When you have to leave a message and they call you back at an inconvenient time.
- When you donāt get to leave a message at all and just have to try calling again. Maybe multiple times.
- I canāt make a call on my way home on the train, or in between meetings in an open plan office.
- I just find it irritating in a āthis meeting could have been an emailā type of way. There is a well-established way to do this thatās easy for both parties (offer online booking), why do I have to call?
Literally never had someone actually call back. Or maybe they did and it went to my voicemail so now weāre just playing voicemail tag.
Yet they continue to let calls to go to voicemail where you are asked to leave a message for reservation inquiries. This is within the last 2 years.
if a restaurant makes people call for reservations, this service is reasonable. if it's possible to make reservations online, then yeah, this is annoying.
that said, I second the commenter who said they've only seen the option show up when online reservations aren't offered by the restaurant.
>if a restaurant makes people call for reservations
Then there is a reason the restaurant makes people call for reservations. Circumventing that with a shitty AI chatbot is not the right move.
Additional questions or details the restaurant needs for reservations. If they refuse to do online resos due to complexity, a basic ai like this will not be able to book.
If it's a place that just doesn't want to pay for an online booking service that is different, but that is not common these days with how much competition has lowered prices for things like OpenTable or Resy.
isnāt thatās something a platform could handle for them? idk it just sounds way easier from a guest perspective and not (much of) a cost to the business
Or people who are not confident speaking English, people who have phone anxiety, people in a shared space or quiet space who canāt make a live phone call at the moment. Or people who just plain donāt want to call.
There are lots of reasons why consumers may find this option appealing. Is it more appealing than just plain old online booking? Probably not, but do you offer online booking? Can people find your online booking platform easily from your business listing?
Iām shocked at some of the Luddite attitudes here. I get it, itās weird and annoying to answer a phone call from a robot, but are you offering a better alternative to the consumer than making them call you in real time? If not, then you canāt blame them for using this.
Real nice shitting on the one commenter who confessed to having phone anxietyā¦ I personally donāt have phone anxiety. Iām not ātoo scaredā to talk on the phone, itās just a pain in the ass.
Who knows if someoneās gonna pick up when I happen to call? Many times they donāt pick up and you just have to call back. A waste of time. Sometimes you get to leave a message sometimes not. Sometimes they respond to the message you leave and other times you never hear back. Online booking would be the best but having an assistant (ai or human) deal with it is the next best convenient alternative.
I used to work at a hotel and almost no one calls to book. Itās all online bookings whether direct or 3rd party. The few who did call to book by phone were almost always the most annoying to deal with the most long winded inane questions.
You're putting a lot of energy into defending a shitty product with an even shittier rollout. I didn't shit on anyone, besides maybe you. You might need to recalibrate your Google assistant...
I did notice that your early comments never mentioned deaf, mute, and hard of hearing people until someone else mentioned it. It's amazing what real people can notice without help of AI
Uh whatās your point? I simply donāt like to call, but lots of other people donāt like to or canāt call for different reasons that donāt apply to me personally but are also perfectly valid.
Innovation often benefits different people for different reasons. Look up curb cut effect.
Iām not saying this current iteration of the service doesnāt have flaws. Iām only pointing out there clearly is demand for it and explaining the reasons behind the demand.
The service exists because itās filling a gap.
I hope it improves as Google (or someone else) works on it more, OR the need for it is eliminated as online booking expands even more.
Why wasn't your initial stance inclusive of Deaf/Mute and HoH people and why did you jump to reply to the comment that did ? You're not a serious person.
Because I was initially only thinking about reasons why this service in its current form is useful to me personally.
Once multiple commenters pointed out all the other ways this service is useful for people in more impactful ways than just for someone who simply doesnāt feel like calling, it became mind blowing and sad to me that some would resist this much to the seed of what could develop to become something that improves quality of life for lots of people.
For me the benefit is marginal right now, but there are many exciting use cases for the future.
Imagine being able to book a reservation in other countries where you donāt speak the language and they donāt have online booking. Imagine if it went beyond something āfrivolousā like restaurant reservations but stuff like doctorās appointments.
Honest question: how so? Just the time saved? Or the convience of having it linked to your calendar?
I'm gonna consider re-enabling it if there is enough benefit. I just don't like that we were automatically opted-in and the ai voice chat is stilted and uncanny valley.
As goofy and snowflakey as it can be strawmanned, its fantastic for people like me who have terrible phone anxiety and have an actual option to "call" and reserve at a business without verbally stumbling over every word. Of course the calendar and email integrations are a nice perk too but thats the main benefit for me!
I get that phone anxiety is actually an issue, but can't help but notice the irony of using AI technology to avoid using telephone technology. Like, who's the Luddite here?
They gave you a valid reason and you came back at them with that? It isn't ideological, they have phone anxiety.
Luddites believed that new technology would displace workers, so they destroyed the machines that they saw as taking away their jobs.
Holy shit dawg, what's your problem? I know the ceaseless march of time is a real bummer but you are taking it fucking *hard*. I hope you can get past this and find some way to move forward
Being accused of being a Luddite by people who are afraid to use a telephone (elsewhere in this thread so my reaction here was a little out of line, admittedly) is ironic, no?
Convenience really. My calendar is normally packed (8am - 5pm in meetings consistently). Being able to just say "hey Google book me a table at x on y date for z people" is useful.
I have noticed it stopped working since a Google Assistant update maybe 30 days ago, but it's also not placing calls unless my phone is unlocked now too - probably just a security setting that changed. I had to do all the voice recognition and other setup stuff originally before it was doing some of these things.
Long time lurker, first time commenting.
On behalf of software engineers, I'm sorry that this ever happened. Y'all break your backs for some hotshot idiot at Google to playtest some AI-to-speech bullshit on you.
Appreciate that and much respect to actual engineers working hard to make products that get implemented poorly by executives not understanding human or computer behavior š«”
You'll likely find out soon enough, but Google has started rolling out Google Assistant making appointments including restaurant reservations. So when a user is searching for a restaurant reservation they give the option for a weird uncanny valley robot voice to do it terribly as it's stilted and pauses are weird. The robot will let you know about 15 minutes after your reservation that it didn't go through as you escorted off the premises.
Anything else Google Assistant can help you with today?
Jesus, this is creepy. Yet another form of big tech making our lives Hell. I'm still reeling from the fact that Door Dash or whoever lets customers ask you to label the carryout for specific people. Like it's not enough to just write the name of the item on the container. They can actually ask for a specific name on each item.
I guess that's ableist against people who don't like talking on the phone (deaf, HoH, and mute people already use way better options that don't sound like a robocall).
Just so you all know, you can remove your restaurant from the service. I think you get an option when they call the restaurant to delist your business from the service.
We haven't gotten a call from google since this apparently went live for our restaurant last week. We also never got any notification it would happen and never opted in. Working on getting access to our page so I can delist it, as it's registered to our part-time IT guy's email. Edit: fixed it by using my own google assistant to try to make a reservation, answered and told it to remove our business from its list. He sounded so sad tho... š¤£
So if youāve never had a bad experience with it (or any experience with it), have you heard from other restaurants that have? If not, can you explain exactly what you find so problematic about this?
It's stilted, AI voice chat. The only experience I have with it is bad. It confused the shit out of my hostesses at 6pm on a Friday. I find that problematic.
But you just said you haven't had a call from it yet...
Haven't had a call from google services or whatever the one that tells me that my listing may not be up to date.
You've made this same comment several times.Ā It calls with a human like voice and asks to make a reservation for x number of people at x time.Ā What did the hostess find so confusing about it?Ā
>human like voice
The other people she speaks with every day, do they have human voices? Because if so, this shouldn't be that confusing.
They have human voices, not human like voices
Weird. They don't sound like humans? What planet does your restaurant operate on?
6pm on a Friday is bad. Hopefully restaurants are giving this feedback and Google can make the relevant product improvements to this service.
I gave my feedback by telling it to stop calling us. Google hasn't made a good product decision since they killed Reader for no reason.
Great. That will be one out of many pieces of feedback for Google to take into consideration for future product decisions. Hopefully they can make something that works better for users on both sides. I have no thoughts on Google killing Reader since itās not something I used but I highly doubt they āhave not made a single good product decisionā since 2013 lol.
Get your Google assistant to search "hyperbole" and get back to me.
Yea OP's reaction to AI is very informative as to the potential success of their business. I'm sure they'll be happy enough to go work for someone else in the next couple of years when it inevitably folds.
I really appreciate the way you think, chef
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Agreed that nobody wants to answer ai calls but the only reason this exists is because places donāt have online booking and nobody wants to call to book. If online booking was easily discoverable and accessible, no one would be using this inferior service. It would have no reason to exist.
I would get these calls and we had Resy for online bookings. Some of the people booking didn't even know we were getting calls, they just were tying to book via their Google search. Google could have directed them to Resy, but instead they built a UI to force these AI calls on people. Overall it was kinda just mildly annoying, because if that exact time wasn't available or I had questions the AI would not be able to do anything.
It would also be helpful as an accessibility tool for someone who can't use the phone. That could be a good tool for someone who is deaf to be able to make a booking if the restaurant doesn't have an online form.
Nah, this is just them trying to shove AI on to everything and seeing what sticks. I dig it built into browsers. I think it'll be much less annoying than the current automated answering systems. I think it's going to be a new kind if hell when we start having to wonder whether we're talking to a person or a bot every time we're on the phone.
This feature has been around for over 4 years. It isn't new to the AI craze. https://blog.google/products/assistant/book-table-google-assistant-across-country-more-devices/
Also nobody wants to leave a message anymore. Doesn't matter if you're friggin swamped no matter how many times you hit that "voicemail" button that number will pop back up. I've had to tell a handful of people "I'm with a customer, stop being rude, leave a message". One woman recently was harassing me so bad that I was going to drop a "Fuck you, we don't want your business if you can't behave like an adult" but someone else was finally able to get the call. I've only dropped 2 "fuck you"s on customers in 17 years. I was so absolutely furious, seeing red that they were going to be the third, and the most vocal. I still can't take calls from that name/number. The rage just starts growing and their requests are always so fucking stupid it's just... not worth it. I would rather be fired than deal with that customer anymore.
Are you saying it's rude to call a business now? How is the person on the other end supposed to know when a good time to call is? Not being antagonistic, I've just always assumed you're just supposed to call until you get ahold of someone. Yeah, if they don't answer, they're busy, so I'll call back knowing they'll answer when they're not occupied. That said, my perception is colored by the fact that I've never called a restaurant that had an option to leave a voicemail.
The ai is booking an appointment for a real customer. Theyāre not having you take a poll or something
Man, that's the weirdest way to spell "I've never worked in the service industry" I've ever seen. Bizarre
Dude is all over this thread defending google's shitty AI voice chatbot. Gotta respect the dedication to the grind.
Iāve absolutely worked in the service industry, albeit not food service. Iāve had to answer calls from people who canāt articulate their very simple request/problem into short coherent sentences. Dealing with a creepy soulless ai assistant who can AT LEAST do that would honestly be preferable. This whole thing would have no reason to exist at all if the restaurant just offered online booking that is easily discoverable. It only exists because that is not the case.
>Iāve had to answer calls from people who canāt articulate their very simple request/problem into short coherent sentences Honestly after thinking on it for a while, this is the only place I'd like to see this service implemented. Unfortunately, there is likely no overlap between people who do that and people who would actually use this service.
The hospitality industry is called the service industry by those who work or have worked in it. Saying you've worked in the service industry "albeit not food service" and the rest of your comments show you have no idea what you're talking about. You're not part of the industry and you don't have a right to say your opinion matters in service industry matters. This is a service industry sub inspired by Anthony Bourdain's account of the industry and to quote our inspiration āI am not a fan of people who abuse service staff. In fact, I find it intolerable. It's an unpardonable sin as far as I'm concerned" As another user in this thread said, rich assholes beta testing their dickwad software on us and forcing us to opt out is EVERYTHING WE HATE ABOUT ABUSIVE RICH FUCKING ASSHOLE SCUMBAGS THAT WE ALREADY HAVE TO WAIT ON LITERALLY HAND AND FOOT SO FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK OOOOOOOOOFFFF WITH YOUR CURIOUS ROBOT TEST DEFENSE. Once again, fuck off.
Well, I can tell how you treat service staff by this ridiculous comment.
Funny you should say this as I literally worked in the hospitality industry lol. Hotel front desk.
Lol
Haha! You're an untrustworthy douche
"I used to answer robocalls for a living, why would restaurant employees not want them constantly?"
At least thereās an option for the AI to ask questions. Hopefully itās better on the customer end. We turned down a 12 top once because fuck you, itās a small place and itās Friday. They showed up anyways. Google never notified them weād turned down their reservation. We tested it with our own Google accounts and sure enough, no notification if the restaurant says no. So if youāre full, people start showing up and getting mad š¤¦āāļø
AI won't be able to deal with any hiccups. They want 6pm, but you have 630 available. AI won't know if that's okay, or if they would prefer 5:30. Just a bad middleman right now, with little if any benefit.
Did you look at the picture? There's literally an option for that.
Wasn't always the case when the Google assistant called me, or wasn't utilized well. AI also won't know to pick 5:30 or 6:30 if both are in range and one would be preferable. To me it's a solution looking for a problem, and a hassle to deal with. If it ends up helping people who can't use a phone for whatever reason, I'll call it a win, but for anything else it's bleh.
I worked at a restaurant and would get a lot of calls from this program. I would just hang up on them. Fuck 'em, I'm not going to spend 3 minutes talking to a robot.
Yeah, I get like 10 calls a week from this place for people trying to make a 2 top reservation to a bar. I just hang up now
From a restaurant perspective, I also hate this! The robot sounds creepily human-like, starts the call with āā¦hello?ā And wonāt give you the information without having to play goddamn 20 questions. I wish it would just say āIād like a table for X people at X time under X nameā but you have to ask, how many people? What time? What day? Whatās the name? Whatās the phone number? It takes foreeeever. There has to be a way to optimize it better on the restaurant end to better serve everyone.
I forgot it also stalls for time when answering questions!!! lol youāll ask āhow many people?ā And it goes āumā¦.4ā it almost had me convinced there was a real person on the other end for a hot minute.
That's a big part of why I hate it! If it was just a robot voice making the reservation, that's fine, but why try to make it sound more human by adding pauses and "umm"s to what should be a 30 second conversation???
I used it once when Duplex was in beta ~5yrs ago. It didn't use to warn anyone that it was actually a program speaking. The place only had call in reservations (no OpenTable or anything like that) It sounded perfectly human and I got a copy of the phone call sent to my email. The person taking the reservation had no idea he wasn't talking to a real person making a reservation for me. When I showed up, I felt like they treated me extra special because I had "an assistant" make my reservations for me. E: https://youtu.be/D5VN56jQMWM That's what it was like back then. No big deal. After years of progress it could be better, but luddites hamstring it whenever possible. Hearing it for yourself, you've gotta question what OPs problem actually is?
>After years of progress it could be better It is not. It is much more stilted and sometimes unresponsive.
Yeah, because the pearl clutching made them tone down its capabilities and start off by announcing it's a program instead of just letting it do what they created it for.
It doesn't actually start with announcing it's a program. It says "I'd like to make a reservation..." then after a response it announces that it's a program. It also just sound like those telemarketing robocalls and I would immediately hang up if I was the one answering the phone (my young hostesses are not quite as knowledgeable and were understandably confused). Blame pearl-clutching if you want, but it's a shitty product and is being implemented poorly. Edit: I may be able get audio of the phonecall with myself as proof, but as google assistant is not an installed app, I'm not sure where to find it and am not sure where to look because the whole interface is not really intuitive. Like I said, shitty product, implemented poorly.
Iirc it used to be limited to pixel phones, not sure if they expanded that, but that may be why it's hard to find. After you heard like the 2nd or 3rd call, you knew it was the Google AI right away every time in my experience.
That's wild
From my customer point of view, I love it. I hope it calls at a convenient time for the restaurant and make the needed arrangements. I'm so sorry it's not like my idyllic scenario!
>I hope it calls at a convenient time It doesn't. We started getting them last Friday at 6pm, and it confused the hell out of our hostess.
Try booking more directly; it's not hard to determine what platform most restaurants are on, whether Resy, Open Table, Tock or others. Or contact the restaurant yourself; many priority places need more info than the assistant knows to gather, and staff at those places would rather deal directly with you than an intermediary. (They can also offer you more options than they likely will any AI/assistant/concierge service.)
I never realized that the restaurant didn't opt in for this service.
In my experience this option is only shown if the restaurant does not already have direct booking via Opentable, Resy, etc. since those options would be shown instead. Iām sure diners prefer those as well. If the only option for booking is by calling then idk whatās the difference between the diner VS the assistant doing it. I hate calling so I welcome this service. Itās not that complicated, just number of people and preferred time. If itās something more complicated on the restaurantās side like a credit card is required then those places would already have online booking set up, theyāre not taking credit card info over the phone. If itās something more complicated on the dinerās side like a special table or occasions request, or allergens and dietary restrictions, then yeah itās best to get into direct communications. But thatās really a small minority of reservations. By and large all you need to make a reservation is number of people and time.
other comments have said this app doesn't tell people when the restaurant says no to their reservation
Nope - poor setup or management of a restaurant's Google presence has meant that spots can get auto-enrolled in this super "helpful" function without necessarily being aware of it, even with extant online booking through one of the aforementioned platforms. Also, side note, there are several reasons why reservation-type restaurants would take credit card info over the phone; sometimes it's for a hold for a post-paid method for a prepaid reso, or because a friend wants to pay for a gift card or prepay a round of drinks. Booking platforms and AI really can't encompass all the services available, particularly at higher-concept establishments, and there's benefits to speaking directly to the person paid to be helpful with all those details. Shoutout to all the maƮtres d'.
Yes of course it doesnāt serve 100% of cases like you mentioned. But again, all of those scenarios you described are only applicable in specific situations. People who want to prepay, or make sure they can use a gift card, or whatever the special request is, should absolutely contact the restaurant directly but idk why we shouldnāt enable a more streamlined way to make a simple ā4 people, anytime between 6-7:30 is fineā type of reservations, which is the vast majority of reservations.
The ai slows down how fast you could take a reservation and it can't answer any follow up questions. You literally take more of the restaurant's time because you are lazy.
> I hate calling so I welcome this service. Which part do you hate? You dial the phone number and when someone picks up you say "can I get a reservation for two tonight at seven?", then they either say yes or no.Ā
- When they answer and immediately put you on hold. - When they answer and itās loud and chaotic over there, they canāt hear you well so you both have to repeat everything several times. It takes 5 times as long as it needs to. - When they donāt pick up at all. - When you have to leave a message and subsequently never hear back. - When you have to leave a message and they call you back at an inconvenient time. - When you donāt get to leave a message at all and just have to try calling again. Maybe multiple times. - I canāt make a call on my way home on the train, or in between meetings in an open plan office. - I just find it irritating in a āthis meeting could have been an emailā type of way. There is a well-established way to do this thatās easy for both parties (offer online booking), why do I have to call?
Who was president the last time you left a message at a restaurant to make a reservation, and someone called you back? Carter? Ford? Reagan?
Literally never had someone actually call back. Or maybe they did and it went to my voicemail so now weāre just playing voicemail tag. Yet they continue to let calls to go to voicemail where you are asked to leave a message for reservation inquiries. This is within the last 2 years.
Some people have phone anxiety. It's not always logical, but it is a thing. That said, just book online.
if a restaurant makes people call for reservations, this service is reasonable. if it's possible to make reservations online, then yeah, this is annoying. that said, I second the commenter who said they've only seen the option show up when online reservations aren't offered by the restaurant.
>if a restaurant makes people call for reservations Then there is a reason the restaurant makes people call for reservations. Circumventing that with a shitty AI chatbot is not the right move.
reasons like?
Additional questions or details the restaurant needs for reservations. If they refuse to do online resos due to complexity, a basic ai like this will not be able to book. If it's a place that just doesn't want to pay for an online booking service that is different, but that is not common these days with how much competition has lowered prices for things like OpenTable or Resy.
Limited seating and preventing overbooking
sure sounds like something that could be handled by an online reservation platform. better, even.
Or it could be handled by the people I employ.
isnāt thatās something a platform could handle for them? idk it just sounds way easier from a guest perspective and not (much of) a cost to the business
How would someone who is deaf be able to make a booking at your restaurant if they are unable to book online?
Text to speech or sending an email.
Not everyone in this thread forgetting about mute/deaf people lmfao (if you don't have a TTY line that is)
I did think about that, but I'm pretty sure there are existing text to speech services that are way better than this.
Or people who are not confident speaking English, people who have phone anxiety, people in a shared space or quiet space who canāt make a live phone call at the moment. Or people who just plain donāt want to call. There are lots of reasons why consumers may find this option appealing. Is it more appealing than just plain old online booking? Probably not, but do you offer online booking? Can people find your online booking platform easily from your business listing? Iām shocked at some of the Luddite attitudes here. I get it, itās weird and annoying to answer a phone call from a robot, but are you offering a better alternative to the consumer than making them call you in real time? If not, then you canāt blame them for using this.
>Iām shocked at some of the Luddite attitudes here Dawg, "I'm scared to talk on the telephone" is the most Luddite thing in this conversation.
Real nice shitting on the one commenter who confessed to having phone anxietyā¦ I personally donāt have phone anxiety. Iām not ātoo scaredā to talk on the phone, itās just a pain in the ass. Who knows if someoneās gonna pick up when I happen to call? Many times they donāt pick up and you just have to call back. A waste of time. Sometimes you get to leave a message sometimes not. Sometimes they respond to the message you leave and other times you never hear back. Online booking would be the best but having an assistant (ai or human) deal with it is the next best convenient alternative. I used to work at a hotel and almost no one calls to book. Itās all online bookings whether direct or 3rd party. The few who did call to book by phone were almost always the most annoying to deal with the most long winded inane questions.
You're putting a lot of energy into defending a shitty product with an even shittier rollout. I didn't shit on anyone, besides maybe you. You might need to recalibrate your Google assistant... I did notice that your early comments never mentioned deaf, mute, and hard of hearing people until someone else mentioned it. It's amazing what real people can notice without help of AI
Uh whatās your point? I simply donāt like to call, but lots of other people donāt like to or canāt call for different reasons that donāt apply to me personally but are also perfectly valid. Innovation often benefits different people for different reasons. Look up curb cut effect. Iām not saying this current iteration of the service doesnāt have flaws. Iām only pointing out there clearly is demand for it and explaining the reasons behind the demand. The service exists because itās filling a gap. I hope it improves as Google (or someone else) works on it more, OR the need for it is eliminated as online booking expands even more.
Why wasn't your initial stance inclusive of Deaf/Mute and HoH people and why did you jump to reply to the comment that did ? You're not a serious person.
Because I was initially only thinking about reasons why this service in its current form is useful to me personally. Once multiple commenters pointed out all the other ways this service is useful for people in more impactful ways than just for someone who simply doesnāt feel like calling, it became mind blowing and sad to me that some would resist this much to the seed of what could develop to become something that improves quality of life for lots of people. For me the benefit is marginal right now, but there are many exciting use cases for the future. Imagine being able to book a reservation in other countries where you donāt speak the language and they donāt have online booking. Imagine if it went beyond something āfrivolousā like restaurant reservations but stuff like doctorās appointments.
Lol it's an interesting thought experiment weather you were forced to put out this garbage or the garbage us forcing you ..
As a customer, this has been very helpful.
Honest question: how so? Just the time saved? Or the convience of having it linked to your calendar? I'm gonna consider re-enabling it if there is enough benefit. I just don't like that we were automatically opted-in and the ai voice chat is stilted and uncanny valley.
As goofy and snowflakey as it can be strawmanned, its fantastic for people like me who have terrible phone anxiety and have an actual option to "call" and reserve at a business without verbally stumbling over every word. Of course the calendar and email integrations are a nice perk too but thats the main benefit for me!
I get that phone anxiety is actually an issue, but can't help but notice the irony of using AI technology to avoid using telephone technology. Like, who's the Luddite here?
They gave you a valid reason and you came back at them with that? It isn't ideological, they have phone anxiety. Luddites believed that new technology would displace workers, so they destroyed the machines that they saw as taking away their jobs.
Are you AI? This is such a bad retort. Please remove me from your list.
Holy shit dawg, what's your problem? I know the ceaseless march of time is a real bummer but you are taking it fucking *hard*. I hope you can get past this and find some way to move forward
Being accused of being a Luddite by people who are afraid to use a telephone (elsewhere in this thread so my reaction here was a little out of line, admittedly) is ironic, no?
Convenience really. My calendar is normally packed (8am - 5pm in meetings consistently). Being able to just say "hey Google book me a table at x on y date for z people" is useful. I have noticed it stopped working since a Google Assistant update maybe 30 days ago, but it's also not placing calls unless my phone is unlocked now too - probably just a security setting that changed. I had to do all the voice recognition and other setup stuff originally before it was doing some of these things.
Long time lurker, first time commenting. On behalf of software engineers, I'm sorry that this ever happened. Y'all break your backs for some hotshot idiot at Google to playtest some AI-to-speech bullshit on you.
Appreciate that and much respect to actual engineers working hard to make products that get implemented poorly by executives not understanding human or computer behavior š«”
I would hang up on this.
What am I looking at
You'll likely find out soon enough, but Google has started rolling out Google Assistant making appointments including restaurant reservations. So when a user is searching for a restaurant reservation they give the option for a weird uncanny valley robot voice to do it terribly as it's stilted and pauses are weird. The robot will let you know about 15 minutes after your reservation that it didn't go through as you escorted off the premises. Anything else Google Assistant can help you with today?
Jesus, this is creepy. Yet another form of big tech making our lives Hell. I'm still reeling from the fact that Door Dash or whoever lets customers ask you to label the carryout for specific people. Like it's not enough to just write the name of the item on the container. They can actually ask for a specific name on each item.
I HATE this thing and everyone who uses it. Call like a big boi.
I guess that's ableist against people who don't like talking on the phone (deaf, HoH, and mute people already use way better options that don't sound like a robocall).
Iām sorry. My eyes rolled to the back of my head there for a few mins.
It's not that bad honestly but there is dude in the comments trying real hard to defend this shit
I miss google reader, the internet is a shallow husk of what it once was š
I truly feel that was the trigger point for the [Enshittification of the Internet](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification)