AI phone answering or a human answering service? A plain comparison for restaurants

The short version

A human answering service puts a person on the line who takes a message or follows a script. An AI phone assistant answers the call itself, can book straight into your diary, and passes the call to your team when it should.

Neither is right for every restaurant. This page sets out the differences we can speak to honestly, including where Tableline stops.

Side by side

Cost model: a human service usually charges by the minute, by the call or by a monthly bundle, so check which one applies to you. Tableline is a fixed monthly pack of calls with a one-off set-up fee, and no charge per extra call.

Busy service: a person can only take the calls their line allows, so ask how many calls a service can hold at once and what happens to the rest. Novi answers each call on its own line, and hands anything it should not handle to your team.

Handover: ask both kinds of provider who the call goes to, what they say to the caller, and what your team is told. Novi tells the caller what is happening and passes over who called and what they asked.

Judgement: a trained person copes better with an upset or unusual caller. Novi passes those calls to your team rather than guessing.

What a human answering service does well

A person can handle an unusual or upset caller with real judgement, and some services will transfer a call to you or pass on a message.

The usual trade-offs are that the person on the line often does not see your live table diary, and that you need to check what the service charges and what its hours and limits are. Ask any provider about both before you sign.

What Tableline does differently

Novi, the Tableline assistant, answers the call and books into the same diary and floor plan you use. It can also change or cancel a booking, and answer simple questions from the information you give it, such as opening hours.

Novi does not pretend to be a person. If a caller asks whether it is an AI, it says so straight away.

How the handover to your staff works

You choose which kinds of call always come to your team. When a call needs a person, because Novi is unsure, the request is outside normal bookings, or the caller asks for someone, Novi passes it to someone on your team.

If nobody is free to take it, the caller is told what happens next rather than left in silence.

What Novi will not do

Novi will not claim to be human, and it will not invent an answer it does not have. A question it cannot answer goes to a person.

It also works only with the information and rules you set up with us, so a new policy or a special event is something you need to tell us about.

What happens at the call limit

Each plan includes a set number of calls a month. When you reach it, Novi hands new calls to a person on your team, and we ask whether you would like a bigger plan. There is no charge per extra call.

What it costs

Tableline plans are monthly in US dollars: $249 for 200 calls, $399 for 300 calls or $499 for 500 calls, plus a one-off $250 set-up fee. Taxes are added at checkout where they apply.

You can hear Novi first: use Talk to Novi on any page for a live conversation, then get in touch when you are ready.

How to choose

If most of your calls are bookings and simple questions, an assistant that books straight into your diary may fit. If your calls are mostly sensitive or complex, you may want a person on every call, whichever way you go.

Whichever you pick, ask the same questions: who answers, what they can do, what happens when they cannot help, and what happens when you hit the limit.