A caller wants to place an order. Another needs to discuss a problem with yesterday’s pickup. Both deserve help, but the conversations require different kinds of attention.
Palona Voice AI can handle menu questions and phone ordering while giving callers a way to reach restaurant staff when a person is needed. Transfer behavior can be configured around your operation, including how readily callers reach the team.
A useful setup does two jobs: it gives routine callers assistance and makes the path to staff work when the conversation needs human judgment.
What Happens When Palona Transfers a Call?
Palona Voice AI handles the initial restaurant conversation. It can answer FAQs, explain menu choices, take orders, and send them directly to a supported POS.
When staff assistance is needed, Palona can transfer the call to the restaurant team.
For example, a guest asking about vegetarian options may be able to finish the conversation with the agent. A guest asking a manager to resolve a complaint may need a person.
The distinction is about the caller’s task. A transfer should help the guest reach someone who can make the required decision.
Restaurants can configure how readily transfers happen. That lets you shape the balance between handling routine requests through the agent and making staff available for conversations that need them.
How Does the Restaurant’s Phone Setup Affect Transfers?
The transfer path depends on how guests reach Palona. There are two supported approaches.
Use a dedicated agent number
Palona provides a number for the agent. In the recommended setup, the restaurant publishes that number on its website, Google Maps, and other public listings.
Guests call the agent number. Palona handles the conversation and transfers to the restaurant’s existing number when staff are needed.
The agent number and the staff destination have separate roles. One receives public calls; the other gives the team a place to answer transferred calls.
Keep your public number and forward calls
A restaurant can also keep its existing public number and forward calls to the Palona agent.
In this arrangement, a second staff line from the restaurant’s phone provider is recommended for transfers.
That separate line prevents a loop: if Palona transfers a caller back to the same number that forwards to the agent, the call can return to the AI instead of reaching staff.
Before rollout, your phone provider and Palona team should review the public number, forwarding setup, and number staff will answer.
Decide Which Conversations Should Reach Your Team
Start with the calls employees already handle.
Routine ordering and restaurant questions may be good tasks for Voice AI. Complaints, requests for an exception, and conversations that depend on a manager’s decision deserve a clear staff path.
An illustrative restaurant policy might distinguish:
- A guest asking for the restaurant’s hours.
- A customer placing an order with supported menu modifications.
- A customer requesting a refund for a previous purchase.
- A caller explicitly asking to speak with the manager.
The first two can often be served through the agent’s configured information and ordering capabilities. The latter two are useful cases to discuss when configuring transfers.
These are policy examples, not a claim that every restaurant uses identical triggers. Review the desired behavior with Palona using your actual calls.
Make Sure Someone Can Answer the Transfer
A transfer destination is only useful when the team knows how to handle the calls arriving there.
Identify who will answer the staff line during service. Explain which requests are likely to arrive and which employee can make decisions about complaints or exceptions.
For a restaurant group, check the setup at each location. A correct transfer at one restaurant does not establish that every location’s number and staffing arrangements are ready.
Also discuss what callers should experience if staff are unavailable. Busy-line, unanswered-call, and after-hours behavior should be reviewed for your configuration rather than assumed.
The aim is to make the handoff understandable to both the guest and the employee who answers.
What Should You Test Before Going Live?
Run a short set of calls that covers both the AI experience and the staff path.
First, ask a routine menu question or place a supported order. Confirm that the caller gets help without an unnecessary interruption to staff.
Next, use a scenario that should reach a person, such as a customer asking to discuss a previous order. Verify that the intended restaurant line rings and that staff can answer.
Finally, test the phone arrangement itself. With forwarding, confirm that the destination does not send the caller back to Palona.
Evaluate what actually happened. A recorded transfer is not proof that an employee answered. Our guide to quality control at Palona explains why the guest’s completed task matters.
Give Routine Calls Help and Important Calls a Human Path
Staff transfers are part of the service experience. They let restaurants use AI for everyday conversations while keeping their team available for requests that need judgment and care.
With the right phone setup and clear transfer preferences, Palona Voice AI can help employees stay focused on guests without making callers struggle to reach the restaurant.
Book a Palona demo to review how ordering, restaurant questions, and staff transfers would work with your phone setup.