If you’re reading this, you’ve probably seen it already: too many calls ring out, and a missed call can end up at the competition. What’s left is choosing the fix. For a Swiss restaurant, three of them hold up. Here they are, compared honestly.
The answering machine, or the status quo
A caller who reaches voicemail may hang up without leaving a message, then dial the next number. The answering machine records your losses; it doesn’t prevent them. Moving on.
The human answering service
The idea is simple: your calls go to a call answering centre, where operators pick up in your restaurant’s name, take messages and sometimes bookings.
On price, we found no public rate we could check. Ask for a quote, with the price per call or per month and the setup fees.
On the line, a person can handle all kinds of requests, take a detailed message, sort what matters. If your calls need that judgement, it’s a real strength.
The limits come down to two things. Hours first: check that the offer covers lunchtime, evenings and Saturdays, and at what price, because your customers call then too. Cost next: when you pay per call, every call answered is billed. And when the offer stops at a message, you still have to deal with it: call back, plan, follow up. The work isn’t done, it’s written down.
The AI receptionist
An AI receptionist picks up when you can’t and handles the conversation. At Novarim, Aralys puts the booking straight into the bookings diary in your dashboard. Nothing to copy out afterwards.
The price: at Novarim, the Pro plan costs CHF 349 a month and includes 1’200 minutes of calls, about 20 calls a day. Only the time Aralys spends on the line with your customer counts, not the ringing. The bookings diary, the floor plan and the online booking page are included. Beyond that, Aralys still answers: each extra minute costs CHF 0.30, billed with the next monthly payment, and a month never costs more than the plan that would have covered it. Prices are on the pricing page. To get started, leave your details there and we’ll get in touch; after that, you change plan whenever you like. Pay monthly and you stop whenever you like; pay yearly and the period already paid isn’t refunded.
Setting it up costs nothing: no setup fee, for everyone, not just our first customers in the region.
She answers day and night, and also when you’re already on the phone, if your forwarding covers a busy line. The booking lands in the bookings diary on its own, and every call is summarised in the dashboard you open in the morning. The dashboard also shows your usage for the month: you know where you stand before the invoice.
Now the limits, because that’s where the nasty surprises come from. Aralys is built for a restaurant’s bookings. She answers questions with what you’ve entered: your opening hours and, from the Pro plan, the menu and its prices. She doesn’t give quotes. A request that goes beyond a booking is passed to the person you’ve chosen; otherwise Aralys notes it down, and your team calls back.
Side by side
| Answering machine | Human answering service | AI receptionist | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | depends on your provider | quoted individually | CHF 349 a month, 1’200 minutes included |
| Setup | — | quoted individually | No setup fee |
| Hours | day and night | depends on the offer | day and night, weekends included |
| Line already busy | depends on forwarding | depends on the offer | if your forwarding covers it |
| When the call ends | a message, if the caller leaves one | a message, sometimes a booking, depending on the offer | a booking in the bookings diary |
| Follow-up | — | depends on the offer | live dashboard |
| Out of scope | — | as instructed | noted for your team, or passed to the person you’ve chosen |
How to choose
- Your calls need judgement and involve complex cases: a human answering service is still the right choice.
- Your calls are mostly bookings: the AI receptionist does the same job day and night, and the bookings diary fills itself.
Whichever you choose, it starts with call forwarding set up properly: stop losing phone bookings during service.
Novarim, a company based in Evilard, near Biel/Bienne. Public prices, no setup fee, no commitment on a monthly plan. For restaurants only. The database is hosted in Europe; the voice and transcription of each call are processed in the United States.