Product
The missed call becomes a conversation.
Ristoflow is a subscription service for restaurants, bars and hotels. It recovers the calls a venue can't take and brings the caller back into a WhatsApp conversation from the restaurant's own number — with a single message and a flow the venue decides. During service, in the afternoon break, and on the days the venue is closed.
The problem
Between 7:30 and 9:30 in the evening a mid-sized restaurant receives most of its daily calls — exactly when nobody can get to the phone. Callers don't leave voicemail: they hang up and call the next place. The restaurant never even notices, because a missed call leaves no trace anyone can act on. And the bill doesn't stop there: to avoid losing those calls the owner ends up tied to the phone at all hours — through the breaks and on the days off too. Today the choice is binary: either you are always reachable, or you lose customers and revenue.
- Nobody notices. An unanswered call appears in no list the floor can consult during service.
- The caller doesn't call back. Someone looking for a table tonight calls the next venue within a minute. The window is very short.
- Calling back by hand doesn't scale. After service nobody has time to go through missed calls, and calling at midnight is pointless.
- Either always answer, or lose. Staying reachable at lunch, at dinner, through the breaks and on the closing day is the only way not to lose revenue. It is a cost that appears on no balance sheet.
What the caller receives
One message per missed call, sent using a Meta-approved service template. No promotional sends, no lists, no unsolicited contact.
How it works
Three steps, no hardware to install. The number stays the restaurant's and staff keep using the WhatsApp Business app exactly as before.
The restaurant forwards unanswered calls
A call-forward-on-no-answer rule is set on the venue's number: if nobody picks up within N rings, the call reaches Ristoflow. The published number remains the restaurant's, and nothing changes for the caller. We install no hardware and replace no phone system.
We answer with an announcement on the venue's behalf
Ristoflow picks up and plays a short announcement — recorded or synthesised, in the language the restaurant chose: the venue is in service and a WhatsApp message is on its way. The call ends in a few seconds, with no voicemail and no hold queue.
The caller receives a message from the restaurant's number
Within seconds a WhatsApp message goes out using a Meta-approved service template, sent from the restaurant's own WhatsApp Business account. The text is the one the venue wrote: it can propose a booking, a link, a menu of options, or simply offer to call back.
The conversation stays with the venue
If the caller replies, the conversation enters the 24-hour customer service window and continues normally: staff can answer by hand from the WhatsApp Business app, or let the configured flow ask the follow-up questions. Call, message and outcome appear in one list that can be checked during service.
Not just the dinner rush
You switch the forwarding on and off whenever you like. Ristoflow covers every moment the venue can't — or doesn't want to — pick up, and in each of them it hands back something a restaurateur never has enough of: time for themselves.
During service
The phone rings while you're at the tables. Nobody has to put down a plate and run for it, and no booking is lost.
In the afternoon break
Between lunch and dinner the venue is shut, but people call anyway. Turn the forwarding on and go home: the bookings keep coming in without you.
On the closing day and on holiday
Mondays, holidays, the week off. Callers get an answer and book for when you reopen, instead of hitting silence and looking for somewhere else.
The point isn't only the booking you recover. It's being able to switch the phone off without losing customers.
What the restaurant gets
Configurable flows
Message text, the hours the service is active, what happens if the caller replies and what happens if they don't: all configured from the panel, without writing code.
WhatsApp menus and buttons
A flow can use WhatsApp's interactive buttons and lists — language choice, party size, time slot — so the caller replies with a tap instead of typing.
A single service log
Every missed call with its message, delivery status and any reply, in a list staff can review between shifts.
Several languages in one venue
Announcement and messages in Italian, German or English, using the language the caller picks at first contact. In South Tyrol that is not a detail.
Customer history
If the restaurant enables it, the system recognises people who have contacted the venue before and keeps their history, so a regular isn't asked the same questions twice.
Roles for staff
Owner, floor manager and staff have separate accounts. WhatsApp account credentials are never visible to operators.
Platform
Built on the WhatsApp Business Platform
Ristoflow sends messages exclusively through Meta's WhatsApp Business Platform (Cloud API). We do not use the consumer WhatsApp app, we do not use unofficial libraries, and we do not circumvent platform limits in any way. Inbound calls and fallback SMS run through Twilio.
One account per restaurant
Each venue has its own WhatsApp Business Account and its own number, connected through Meta's Embedded Signup. Fermich operates on its behalf as the technical provider; the restaurant remains the owner of the account, the templates and the number, and can revoke access at any time.
Service templates only, triggered by an inbound contact
A message goes out only in response to a call the customer placed to the restaurant. We use Meta-approved templates in the correct category and never send promotional content through service templates.
No bulk sending and no purchased lists
Ristoflow does not allow contact lists to be uploaded or campaigns to be sent. One inbound contact produces at most one message, to the number the call came from.
The 24-hour window is respected
Once the customer replies the conversation continues inside the customer service window; after it closes the system does not reopen contact except with a new approved template and a new legitimate reason.
Immediate opt-out
Every conversation lets the recipient ask not to be contacted again. The request is recorded and honoured automatically for subsequent contacts.
Quality actively monitored
We monitor the quality rating and messaging limits of every number we manage, and work with the restaurant before a badly written message damages its account.
How it gets set up
We handle onboarding. The restaurant needs a phone number, a WhatsApp Business account, access to its own Facebook business portfolio, and half an hour.
Verification and connection
The owner goes into their Facebook business portfolio and connects the WhatsApp Business account through Meta's Embedded Signup, using their own credentials. Fermich never asks for or stores passwords: the authorisation happens inside Meta and the restaurant can revoke it at any time.
Writing the messages
We write the phone announcement and the message texts together with the venue, and submit them to Meta for approval in the correct category.
Call forwarding
The restaurant sets forward-on-no-answer with its telephone operator. We verify it together with a test call.
Live trial
For the first few evenings we follow the service with the venue and adjust the wording based on how customers actually reply.
Support
The restaurant gets a direct contact by email and phone, answered during office hours, with on-call cover during evening service for faults that block the service. Planned maintenance is announced in advance. Full conditions are in the terms of service.
How pricing works
Ristoflow is billed as a monthly fee per venue, agreed in writing according to the number of locations and volumes. Conversation costs charged by Meta and telephony costs charged by Twilio are transparent and, where possible, billed directly to the restaurant by those providers: we don't sit in the middle and we don't add a hidden markup. No exit cost: either party can end the relationship with thirty days' notice, and data is returned or deleted.