Why customers still call your restaurant in the age of QR codes

Restaurant phone orders hold up because not every customer has a smartphone in hand at dinnertime, or wants to dig through an app to find your menu. In the US, 98% of adults own a cellphone but 91% own a smartphone, and among adults 65 and older, 14% have a cellphone but no smartphone [1]. To call you, any phone will do. To scan a QR code, you need a smartphone, and you need to be standing in front of the code.

QR codes work well for guests already at your tables. The person who calls is somewhere else: at home, at work, on the way home. Here's who still calls, why, when the phone rings, what those calls are worth, and what Soleir does when nobody can pick up.

Who still orders food by phone?

Few restaurants track it, but the data on who owns which device sketches your callers fairly clearly:

• Older adults, and there are more of them every year. In 2024, 18.0% of Americans were 65 or older (61.2 million people), up from 12.4% in 2004 [2]. Nearly all of them own a cellphone (96%), but only 79% own a smartphone [1]. Apply Pew's 14% (cellphone, no smartphone) to the Census count and you get roughly 8.5 million older Americans who can call you but can't scan a QR code (a rough estimate: the two counts are two years apart).
• People who'd rather skip the app. Owning a smartphone doesn't mean wanting to download one more app, create an account or type in a card number to order dinner. We looked at the tools on the restaurant side in restaurant technology: the table, the counter… and the phone.
• Everyone else, the moment they have a question. Take a 30-year-old who usually orders online: they call when they want to know if you deliver to their street, or whether tonight's special is still available.

In other words, the phone isn't one customer segment. It's the channel for customers with no other easy way to order, and for anyone who wants an answer.

Why do customers call instead of ordering online?

Because calling is still how most Americans want to reach a restaurant. In a 2025 Harris Poll survey of 2,065 US adults, 63% said calling is their preferred way to contact a restaurant, ahead of speaking with staff in person (34%), reservation apps (30%) and messaging through the restaurant's website (29%) [3]. That's stated preference, not order data, but it explains the ringing phone. Callers usually have one of three reasons:

1. A question before ordering. How far do you deliver? How long will it take? What's in the sauce? Are you open tonight? An online menu answers the questions you thought of. On the phone, callers ask their own, and order right after.
2. Price. Ordering direct can cost the customer less than an app with its fees. A 68-year-old diner from Chicago, quoted in a 2025 report built on a Harris Poll survey of 1,500 US diners, puts it this way: once you've paid the service fee, the delivery fee and the driver's tip, you realize “it’s a lot less costly to just order directly through the restaurant and pick it up” [4].
3. Habit. The regular who orders the same thing every Friday doesn't need to scroll through a menu: they say “the usual,” or close to it, and expect you to know them.

None of this works against QR codes. The same guest might scan to pay at your table on Saturday and call for delivery on Tuesday. The phone is simply the channel for the customer who isn't there yet.

When do customers call your restaurant?

Before meals, which means during your rush. In that same survey of 1,500 diners, Saturday between noon and 6 p.m. was the most popular time slot for takeout and delivery orders, and Monday the most popular day for morning orders [4]. Whatever the day, the call comes before the meal.

So the phone rings hardest right when the oven is full, the pickup counter is crowded and drivers are heading out. It rings most when your team can least pick up. And a missed call is hard to win back: calling back a customer who hung up rarely works.

Then come the off-hours calls: before you open, in the afternoon lull, after closing, to ask whether you're open, until when, or whether you deliver to their area. Those end in an unanswered ring or a voicemail. That's where Soleir answers your customers' questions, 24/7.

To find your own peaks, pull up your phone line's call log and count calls per half hour for one week. You'll see your busy times, and the ones when nobody answered.

Are phone orders still worth it for a restaurant?

Yes, for three reasons:

• It's a direct sale. A phone order pays no delivery-app commission; the order-by-order math is in phone orders vs. delivery apps: what your pizzeria keeps.
• The caller has already picked you. It's your number they dialed, and their question is often the last step before ordering: answer it clearly, and the order follows.
• It's a conversation. You can suggest a drink or a dessert, settle a hesitation, confirm an address. An online menu can't hear someone hesitate.

Four simple habits keep this channel working:

1. Show your number everywhere people look for you: your Google listing, the window, bags and boxes, flyers, right next to your QR code.
2. Have answers ready for the questions that keep coming up: hours, delivery area, typical wait, allergens, payment methods. The same answers for everyone on the team.
3. Answer during the rush, since that's when the calls come in.
4. Keep one menu and one set of prices on the phone, online and behind the QR code, so no caller hears a price that differs from the one they read.

The third habit is the hardest to keep mid-rush. It's the one that Soleir, the AI voice agent that takes your phone orders, takes off your plate.

What does Soleir do for customers who call?

Soleir is an AI voice agent for pizzerias, quick-service and takeout restaurants. It answers when your team can't, and your customers have nothing to download or scan: they call the restaurant, as they always have, and talk normally, in English or French.

• It takes the pickup or delivery order from your menu, with options and extras, then reads it back to the caller.
• If a detail isn't clear, it texts the caller a Live Ticket: the order already filled in, to check and confirm.
• It can suggest a drink or a dessert, once, if you want it to (it's set restaurant by restaurant).
• For delivery, it checks the address and your delivery area before confirming (see delivery with Soleir).
• For pickup, it gives the caller the pickup time you set.
• The order reaches you: a ticket prints in your kitchen, and you get a text and email alert.
• It answers customers' questions, 24/7.
• No commission on your orders.

Coming soon: recognizing your regulars (that Friday-night “the usual”), table reservations and a connection to your POS.

And talking to an AI? In the Harris Poll survey of 2,065 adults, commissioned by a company that sells AI phone agents, 89% of Americans said they'd be open to using an AI agent to interact with a restaurant, including 80% of Baby Boomers (ages 61 to 79) [3]. That's stated openness, not behavior, but the signal is clear.

Your QR code keeps its place at the table. Soleir takes care of the person who calls: the older customer without a smartphone, the one with a question before ordering, and the Friday-night regular, while your whole team is at the oven.