A bagel shop's AI phone agent takes about 9,500 orders a year
1 · What happened
At its pace since a July 2026 setup: about 9,500 phone orders a year worth about $125,000, and about 12 hours a week of phone time back for the team. The tool costs $350 a month, so phone sales are about 30 times its cost (sales, not profit). Yearly figures are projected from the shop's pace so far and come from the vendor's own case study.
These numbers come from the builder and haven't been checked independently.
East Norwich Bagels, East Norwich NY (Maple's own case study; spotted on X via @andyhq) · Oct 2026 · Source: maple.inc ↗
2 · How it works, in plain words
East Norwich Bagels on Long Island lets an AI phone agent take its small, constant call-ahead orders and put them straight into its Clover till. Payment stays at the counter, and catering and orders for a later day go to a person.
3 · Setup steps
How to do it yourself
Our suggested steps. The company didn't publish theirs.
- 1
Check that the AI phone tool connects to your till or POS, so orders print like any counter order.
- 2
Write down your rules first: how you take payment, and which orders always go to a person (here catering and orders for another day).
- 3
Place test orders and fix the ticket times. The shop cut a breakfast sandwich quote from 30 minutes to 10.
- 4
Forward your phone line to the agent during busy hours first, then all day once the test orders look right.
- 5
Each week, compare phone orders and phone time with the weeks before.
4 · The prompt
The instructions to give the AI
Paste this into your AI tool, swap the [brackets] for your details, and test it on a few real examples.
This is one part of the setup. It won't connect to your phone, inbox or other apps on its own; the steps above cover that.
Agent instructions (prompt)
You take phone orders for [Shop name] in [town]. Say you are an AI assistant. Take pickup and delivery orders using only the MENU below, repeat the full order back, and give the pickup time from the TIMES list. Payment is taken in store, so never ask for card details. Send catering orders, orders for a later day, and anything not on the menu to a person: take the caller's name and number and say someone will call back. If you are unsure, take a message. MENU [items, sizes, prices, add-ons] TIMES - [item type]: [minutes] - Busy hours [times]: add [minutes]
[Highlighted] = replace with your own details before you run it.
What you should get back: Routine phone orders go straight to the kitchen with the right ticket time, and every catering or future-day order reaches a person.
Written by Quickly and Good, inspired by this case.
More detail: tools, prices and what you'll need
The company used: Maple Pro (AI phone ordering)
You could use: AI phone ordering agent (Maple Pro) + a till/POS it can send orders to (here Clover)
Prices from each tool's own pricing page, checked Oct 2026.
What you'll need
- ☐An AI phone ordering tool
- ☐Your phone line forwarded to it
- ☐A till or POS it can send orders to
- ☐A person who handles catering and callbacks
Can I do this myself?
Yes. Ready-made restaurant phone tools connect to common tills; you set the rules and run test orders yourself.
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