The catering niche is an extremely competitive industry. It’s a dog-eat-dog sector where gaining every bit of advantage can make the difference between success and going out of business. To get ahead, some services are turning to technology to create a seamless experience for customers. Find out what some of these technologies are to fine-tune your own catering service.
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Catering Software
Streamline the process by using online ordering software designed specifically for the catering service. Catering software comes in multiple pricing plans and options, though even the most basic plan often includes features, such as:
- Creating your own digital menu that customers can view online
- Creating schedule shifts for chefs and staff members
- Creating a secure database of past orders and transactions
- Keeping inventory of food and supply costs
- Allowing viewing and editing privileges to select staffers
- Creating a point-of-sales system that accepts multiple payment options (e.g. credit card, PayPal)
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Going Mobile
Does your service provide customized meals? Create an app that customers can download, which would allow them to personalize their own food. When they’re finished and hit “enter,” the info will automatically be transferred to the chefs in the kitchen who will see the order pop up in an overhead digital screen.
Of course, something like this is more applied in a restaurant setting, but it can also be applied to catering. Customers ordering large quantities of food for an event can use the app to customize their ordering. This includes special requests (e.g. extra spicy, gluten-free) to cater to specific dietary needs of the people that they’ll be serving the food to.
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Create a Personal Ordering Experience
Repeat customers are your most valuable consumers. Give these customers a personal ordering experience. Create a sign-in feature on your company site where members can save their billing information. This way, when they order, all they have to do is select their food and hit enter. You can also personalize the experience by showing recommendations based on what was ordered in the past.
To save time for the customers, you can also allow them to save selected items into a “favorites” list. This is beneficial for customers that typically order the same item from the menu. By allowing customers to add items into a “favorites” list, the items will be right in front of the screen for them to click on and immediately proceed to checkout. This saves them the hassle of having to click the menu icon on the navigation bar and then locating their preferred selection.
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Vehicle Tracking Systems
For catering services, a boom in business almost always occurs during lunch hour. This is also the time of the day when deliverers are frantically commuting from one location to the next to get their meals to the customers on time. The best thing you can do (next to hiring more drivers) is make use of a vehicle tracking system to keep track of deliveries in real time.
This helps you assess whether an order is likely to be delivered on time or whether a last minute order can be made by a deliverer who has a few other drop-offs to make. Keeping track of deliveries in this manner helps you make a better assessment and reduces the likelihood of late deliveries, which can negatively impact customer perception.
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Create Loyalty Rewards
Most individual businesses have their own incentives and tier-based programs for rewarding repeat customers. Catering services often have customers in both the B2C and B2B sector. Both of these areas can also be broken down even further into sub-categories. The point is that there are various demographic groups, and reward programs should be personalized to suit the different consumers. You can create different versions of a user app with different reward systems for both B2C and B2B customers.
With individual B2C customers, the app can simply tally the number of purchases recorded into the system and reward that customer accordingly. A program like “buy 10 get one free” is simple yet effective. For the B2B demographic, you may want to go to greater lengths to nurture the customers since they typically order in large quantities for an event. A reward may include something like free cocktails for a black tie event, or carefully crafted individual meals made by hand for the customer’s VIP guests.
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Catering Services Should Get Tech-Savvy
Industries need to learn to adapt to the technology that their very customers are using, and the catering niche is no exception. Employing the right tools not only streamlines the process but also helps you create a bigger rapport with your demographic audience.
About Our Guest:
Dan McCarthy is an Event Manager at JD Parties, an event management company based in the UK. Dan has 5 years of event project management under his belt. He has worked on many successful events, and currently he shares his knowledge by writing on the company blog. Follow him on Twitter @DanCarthy2.
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