Maple and SpotOn Team Up to Transform Restaurant Phone Communications
Maple, a voice AI platform built specifically for restaurants, and SpotOn, a restaurant technology and payments provider serving restaurants and small businesses, have announced a strategic partnership designed to modernize how restaurants handle phone calls.
The collaboration will bring Maple’s artificial intelligence-powered voice technology to restaurants using the SpotOn point-of-sale ecosystem, enabling operators to answer customer calls around the clock and manage phone orders, reservations, catering inquiries, frequently asked questions and other guest requests without requiring employees to step away from their primary responsibilities.
The partnership combines SpotOn’s restaurant operating technology with Maple’s specialized voice AI, creating an integrated solution intended to help restaurants capture more phone-based revenue while reducing pressure on busy front-of-house teams.
Missed Calls Continue to Cost Restaurants Revenue
For restaurants, the telephone remains an important channel for customers who want to place orders, ask questions, make reservations or inquire about catering. Yet calls frequently arrive at precisely the moments when restaurant employees have the least time to answer them.
According to industry data cited by Maple, approximately one in three incoming restaurant calls during service goes unanswered. For individual locations, those missed calls can translate into significant lost sales. Maple estimates that a single restaurant can lose more than $30,000 in potential phone-order revenue each year because customers cannot reach the business.
For restaurant groups and multi-unit operators, the financial impact can become even more significant. A missed opportunity at one location can be multiplied across dozens or hundreds of restaurants, creating a substantial revenue gap over time.
The Maple and SpotOn partnership aims to address that challenge by ensuring that incoming calls are answered consistently, regardless of whether a restaurant is experiencing a lunchtime rush, an evening dinner surge, a weekend crowd or an after-hours inquiry.
“Answering phones is a constant challenge for many operators—the phone rings exactly when the team has the least bandwidth to answer it,” said Bryan Solar, Chief Product Officer at SpotOn. He explained that integrating Maple into the SpotOn ecosystem gives restaurants an opportunity to capture more orders while allowing employees to remain focused on guests already inside the restaurant.
AI Voice Technology Integrated Directly With the POS
One of the central features of the partnership is the direct integration between Maple’s voice AI platform and SpotOn’s restaurant operating system.
Rather than functioning as a separate telephone ordering system, Maple connects with restaurant data in SpotOn, allowing the AI to work with current menus, pricing, modifiers and product availability. This creates a more connected ordering experience and reduces the need for restaurant employees to manually transfer information from phone calls into the point-of-sale system.
Phone orders handled by Maple can flow directly into SpotOn’s POS, where they can continue through established restaurant workflows. Orders can be routed to kitchen display systems and kitchen printers alongside orders placed in-store or through digital ordering channels.
The integration is also designed to keep information synchronized. When restaurant operators update menus, change prices, add products or modify available options within SpotOn, those changes can be reflected in Maple.
This live menu mirroring is particularly important for restaurants with frequently changing menus or multiple locations. It helps reduce the risk of customers ordering unavailable products or receiving outdated pricing information.
Designed for Multi-Location Restaurant Operators
The partnership is also aimed at restaurants that operate multiple locations.
Managing phone systems independently at every restaurant can create additional administrative work for operators. Maple’s integration with SpotOn is designed to provide centralized controls, allowing restaurant groups to manage configurations, reporting and customization across their portfolios.
This gives operators greater visibility into phone interactions while providing a more consistent guest experience across locations.
For growing restaurant brands, the ability to deploy the technology across multiple units could be particularly valuable. Instead of developing separate processes for every restaurant, operators can establish a centralized approach to phone ordering and customer communication.
24/7 Call Answering
A major advantage of AI-powered voice technology is its ability to operate continuously.
Maple can answer calls during peak service periods, evenings, weekends and holidays, as well as outside normal restaurant operating hours. This gives customers a consistent point of contact even when restaurant employees are occupied with other tasks.
The technology is not limited to taking food orders. Maple can also handle reservations, catering inquiries, questions about operating hours and directions, and other frequently asked questions.
By handling routine requests automatically, the system can reduce the volume of calls that employees need to manage manually. That allows restaurant teams to spend more time preparing food, serving guests and maintaining operations.
Moving Beyond the Traditional Staffing Model
For years, restaurants have often viewed unanswered calls primarily as a staffing problem. The conventional solution has been to assign employees to telephone duties or ask front-of-house workers to divide their attention between customers in the restaurant and callers on the phone.
However, that approach can be difficult during peak periods, when restaurants are simultaneously dealing with high customer volumes, kitchen demands and incoming calls.
The partnership between Maple and SpotOn presents AI as an alternative way to address this operational challenge. Instead of adding dedicated staff solely to answer phones, restaurants can use voice AI to handle repetitive and transactional interactions while employees focus on higher-value hospitality tasks.
The approach could also help restaurants create a more predictable customer experience. A guest calling during a busy dinner service does not necessarily have to encounter a busy signal, voicemail or an unanswered phone.
Maple’s Growing Restaurant Footprint
Maple has been developing its voice AI technology specifically around the needs of restaurant operators.
Since launching in December 2023, the company says its platform has answered more than 1 million restaurant calls and resolves approximately 96% of those calls without human intervention.
The SpotOn partnership expands the potential reach of that technology by making Maple available to SpotOn’s restaurant customers across the United States.
Aidan Chau, CEO and Founder of Maple, said SpotOn’s operator-focused approach made the companies a natural fit. According to Chau, the integration is designed to provide enterprise-grade voice AI while keeping implementation straightforward for restaurant operators.
The companies say restaurants can deploy the technology in minutes rather than undergoing lengthy implementation processes. Once activated, the AI can begin handling calls and sending orders into the POS workflow.
A More Connected Restaurant Technology Ecosystem
The partnership reflects a broader shift in restaurant technology toward connected platforms that bring ordering, payments, kitchen operations, customer communications and business management together.
For restaurant operators, the value of AI may extend beyond simply reducing the number of unanswered calls. By integrating voice technology directly into the POS environment, businesses can potentially create a more seamless connection between customer conversations and restaurant operations.
Phone ordering becomes part of the same technology ecosystem as in-store and online ordering, while menu information and operational data can remain synchronized.
This could be especially important as restaurants continue searching for ways to improve efficiency without compromising customer service.
Availability
The Maple and SpotOn integration is generally available to SpotOn restaurants in the United States. Restaurants can activate Maple through the SpotOn Dashboard or through Maple’s platform.
For operators, the partnership offers a practical approach to one of the restaurant industry’s persistent challenges: ensuring that every customer has a reliable way to connect with the business.
By combining 24/7 voice AI with direct POS integration, Maple and SpotOn are positioning the restaurant phone as more than a communication channel. They are turning it into an automated sales and service tool designed to capture orders, answer questions and support restaurant teams throughout the day.
As restaurant operators continue to balance labor costs, customer expectations and the need to maximize every sales opportunity, technologies that can automate routine interactions while fitting directly into existing restaurant workflows are likely to become an increasingly important part of the industry’s digital transformation.
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