Friday at 6:47pm, the host stand is buried
Three callers hit the takeout queue, hear their place in line, and stay on. Two more roll to voicemail and get an instant text with your online ordering link — and order anyway.
The short version
Netexem is a phone system for restaurants built around the moment your host stand gets buried. One business number splits reservations, takeout, and catering into separate queues, callers who hit voicemail get a text back with your ordering link, and managers answer overflow from a softphone on the floor — nationwide.
From $29.99 per seat, per month — see pricing.
The problem
Here is what makes phones hard for restaurants
Between 5pm and 8pm, the host stand is reading wait times, seating two-tops, and routing servers — and the phone keeps ringing. Most of those calls are people ready to spend money: a reservation, a takeout order, a catering ask, a 'are you still open?' Yet that window is exactly when calls get missed, voicemails pile up, and the phone turns into a stress object instead of a revenue channel.
It gets worse with more than one location. Customers call the wrong store about a reservation at another store. Staff at one address answer questions about a different address. Managers end up running between the floor and a deskphone they can barely hear over the dining room.
You shouldn't need a full-time host just to babysit a ringing phone. You need a phone system that splits the noise, routes the right caller to the right place, and texts people back when no one can pick up — so the line at the door keeps moving and the orders keep landing.
What Netexem gives a restaurant
Built around the way restaurants actually answer the phone.
Multiple things happening at once, hands full, no time to fight a menu tree. The business VoIP platform underneath stays the same — the routing fits restaurant flow.
Multi-level auto attendant for reservations, takeout, delivery, catering
Splits one business number into separate queues so the host stand isn't the catch-all for every type of call. Reservations, takeout, delivery, and catering each land where someone can actually handle them.
Peak-hour call queue with position and wait-time announcements
Callers hear progress instead of dead air. Position-in-line and estimated wait-time prompts keep people on the line during the dinner rush instead of hanging up after two rings.
Multi-location routing under one business number
One number on every menu, every door, every Google listing. Per-store hours, voicemail, and overflow rules route the wrong-store caller to the right store without staff scrambling.
Mobile softphone for managers and owners
Answer takeout overflow from the floor, the office, or the prep line. The softphone runs on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Vision Pro — your business number, not a personal cell number exposed to guests.
Missed-call text-back over SMS
When a call rolls to voicemail, Netexem fires an instant SMS with your online ordering link, reservation link, and address. Missed calls become saved orders instead of lost revenue.
After-hours auto attendant that speaks your hours out loud
When the kitchen is closed, the attendant speaks your hours, address, and menu link — so 'are you open?' calls never need a human. Daypart scheduling shifts the behavior by lunch, dinner, and holiday.
How restaurants actually use it
Five moments where the phone stops being a stress object.
Real shifts, real callers, real outcomes — written from operators who run a host stand at 6:47pm.
A regular dials the wrong store
A guest calls about a reservation at your downtown store but dialed the uptown number. Your auto attendant offers 'press 2 for our downtown location' and routes the call without staff scrambling.
Sunday at 11pm, the kitchen is closing
The after-hours attendant speaks your hours, brunch start time, and address — and texts the caller a link to tomorrow's reservation page. No one had to interrupt the closing checklist.
A catering lead comes in cold
Your catering line rings a small group — the manager, the GM's mobile, and the catering email-to-text. Whoever is free first picks up. The lead doesn't sit in voicemail for two days.
A guest disputes a takeout order
You pull the call recording, confirm what was ordered, and resolve it in under a minute — instead of giving away a $48 meal just to keep the peace.
Plays nice with your stack
Works alongside your POS, your ordering, and your reservations stack
Your restaurant already runs on a stack you didn't pick lightly — Toast, Square, Clover, Resy, OpenTable, Yelp Reservations, DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub. Netexem doesn't try to replace any of it.
What we do is sit cleanly alongside it. Your business number can forward into any of those platforms' phone lines, your auto attendant can route 'press 3 for delivery' straight to your third-party fulfillment line, and your missed-call text-back can drop callers directly into your online ordering link or reservation link.
We're a softphone and business VoIP — not an AI order-taker, not a POS, not a reservations app. So instead of locking you into one ecosystem, we make sure the phone behaves the way your operation actually runs, with whichever tools you've already chosen.
Run the same business number on every IP desk phone in the dining room and on the softphone in every manager pocket.
Pricing
Pricing built for restaurant operators
Netexem is per-user, month-to-month, with US number porting included and no per-minute charges on US calling. The host stand, the bar phone, the manager mobile softphone, and the back office can all share one business number without surprise overage bills at the end of the month.
Compare against the usual restaurant phone vendors on the alternatives page, or jump to the full business VoIP service overview.
FAQ
Answers for restaurant operators, no sales pitch.
Get a quote
Get a written restaurant phone quote
A specialist returns a written quote — usually same business day — covering porting, routing rules for reservations/takeout/catering, and recurring per-seat price.