Ruiz Family Kitchen

Couldn't afford the staff needed to open a second location

Elena Ruiz had spent six years building Ruiz Family Kitchen into one of Austin's most-loved neighborhood spots. Her food had a waitlist. The catering arm was turning away business. Every sign pointed to opening a second location in South Austin — except one: the phone. Elena's first location ran on three staff members, one of whom spent most of their shift on the phone taking orders. A second location would mean duplicating that setup, but reliable phone staff in Austin had become nearly impossible to hire and retain. Elena did the math and decided it wasn't worth the risk — until a friend told her about Veloci's WhatsApp ordering and AI phone agent.

AI phone ordering + WhatsApp channel to expand without a larger team

Veloci's AI phone agent took over inbound calls at the first Ruiz Family Kitchen location, freeing up Elena's team member who had been phone-anchored. That same staff member was redeployed to help open the South Austin location. Veloci then launched WhatsApp ordering for both sites, capitalising on Ruiz's existing customer base — many of whom were already using WhatsApp daily. Elena's regulars quickly adopted it; within 60 days, more than a third of all orders were coming through WhatsApp, which has zero marginal cost per order versus commission-heavy delivery platforms.