How Fogo de Chão achieved 95% customer satisfaction with PolyAI
Fogo de Chão is a globally recognized restaurant from Brazil known for delivering warm, high-touch hospitality rooted in the traditions of Southern Brazil.
Challenge
As call volumes and after-hours inquiries increased, Fogo’s teams were pulled away from the dining room to manage phones, resulting in missed calls, a phone experience that didn’t always reflect the brand’s warm hospitality, and no centralized way to scale guest support across locations.
Solution
Fogo partnered with PolyAI to launch a 24/7, multilingual digital concierge that answers every call, manages reservations and guest inquiries, supports loyalty enrolment, scales during peak periods, and integrates seamlessly with OpenTable.
Result
For the first time in company history, Fogo now answers 100% of guest calls while achieving an 88% booking completion rate, a 40% loyalty sign-up rate, and a 95% guest satisfaction score.
Celebrated for its tableside churrasco service and vibrant dining experience, Fogo welcomes guests across its rapidly growing footprint. With a deep commitment to authenticity and guest connection, the brand has become a destination for special occasions, family gatherings, and memorable culinary experiences.
Challenge
As Fogo de Chão continued to expand across the U.S. and internationally, its restaurants were experiencing large volumes of guest phone calls, sometimes with multiple lines ringing continuously from the moment doors opened. This issue was causing bookings and after-hours inquiries to be missed.
Every missed call represented far more than a lost reservation, it reflected just how much demand there was for the Fogo experience. For many guests, especially those planning special celebrations or seeking reassurance around dietary needs and large parties, the phone is often the first meaningful touchpoint with the brand. When calls went unanswered during peak hours, it wasn’t due to a lack of care, but because teams were already focused on delivering exceptional hospitality in the restaurant.
Operators inside the restaurants faced an operational dilemma: whether to prioritize phone coverage or the in-person dining experience. This challenge was felt the most during holidays like Father’s Day and Mother’s Day, when restaurants were packed, and the need for a welcoming experience was even greater.
The first impression starts the moment they pick up the phone. When a call goes unanswered, you're not getting any of that hospitality.
Solution
To address both the operational burden and the inconsistent guest experience, Fogo set out to fulfill its CEO’s long-standing vision of a centralized “digital concierge.” The goal was to create an AI-driven system that could interact with guests in a warm, natural, and reliable way while answering every call, every time.
The agent was named Selma AI in honor of Selma Oliveira, Fogo’s Chief Cultural Officer and long-standing ambassador of Brazilian hospitality. This naming choice helped reinforce the warmth, personality, and cultural authenticity Fogo wanted every guest to feel, even when speaking with their AI agent.
Fogo selected PolyAI as its partner because the technology delivered high-quality conversational experiences and met the brand’s need for speed, safety, and scalability. Within an ambitious two-week window, PolyAI trained and localized the agent, integrated it with OpenTable, and deployed the first pilot in time for Mother’s Day.
Beyond speed, Fogo valued PolyAI’s blend of natural-sounding voice technology and robust factual guardrails, ensuring the agent would stay on-brand and avoid hallucinations. The team also appreciated the hands-on collaboration, with daily standups, shared call reviews, and rapid adaptation as real-world needs emerged.
We wanted Selma to sound genuine with that Southern Brazilian accent that’s part of our brand. PolyAI stood out for their ability to sound human, integrate with OpenTable, and move at our speed.”
Results
100%
Guest calls answered
40%
Loyalty program sign up rate via the AI experience
95%
Guest satisfaction
The results of deploying PolyAI were immediate, measurable, and transformative for both guest experience and operational performance. After a successful pilot and just weeks after the national rollout, Fogo achieved its first-ever month with 100% of calls answered, a truly historic milestone.
With 24/7 coverage in place, staff no longer had to juggle phone calls with in-house hospitality. Hosts and managers got their time back to put toward the dining room, coaching their teams, and giving guests the kind of experience Fogo is known for. During the Mother’s Day Pilot alone, restaurants gained an average of three hours of labor per location.
Guests embraced the experience, too. PolyAI delivered 95% guest satisfaction and a 40% loyalty sign-up rate, with many callers interacting as if they were speaking with a live host. It reinforced what Fogo believed from the start: when you use technology with intention, it can elevate hospitality rather than replace it.
Selma is one of the best hires we’ve ever made. She never calls out, she never misses a shift, and she’s always smiling through the phone. It’s not replacing hospitality, it enables us to be more hospitable.
Future plans
PolyAI is now a part of daily operations at Fogo. The next step is expanding the digital concierge into a fully omnichannel ecosystem. This evolution will enable guests to engage not just over the phone but through SMS and chat at Fogo.com. By spreading the experience across multiple touchpoints, Fogo aims to streamline common guest inquiries, reduce pressure on its guest relations team, and engage with guests on the channel they prefer, providing a more seamless end-to-end journey.
Because Fogo serves a diverse and multilingual audience, the team is also working with PolyAI to enable the agent to speak Portuguese, expanding access and strengthening cultural relevance. Combined with a custom-designed voice inspired by Chief Cultural Officer Selma Oliveira, these enhancements will make the digital concierge feel more authentic and more aligned with Fogo’s brand identity and guest expectations.
We chose PolyAI because they’re the best at delivering natural, human-sounding conversations. From the start, it was clear they could bring our brand voice to life. I’d recommend them to any restaurant looking to elevate guest experience without losing the human touch.”
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