There’s no time like the present to kickstart—or level up—your catering business.
Guest demand is soaring and catering has the potential to represent up to 20% of a restaurant’s total revenue. It can also be an effective marketing tool for boosting brand awareness and guest acquisition. Not to mention, weekly store sales can easily 10x with holiday catering.
As illustrated by leaders from Cracker Barrel and Mendocino Farms during our webinar “Key Strategies for Building a Profitable Catering Program,” what separates a good catering program from a great one is an airtight strategy, an integrated technology platform, and the right operational processes.
We’ve broken down these three focus areas to help you lay the groundwork for a profitable catering business that consistently provides a positive guest experience, order accuracy, and timely delivery.
Whether you’re standing up a catering channel for the first time or optimizing an existing program, start here.
1. Strategy
First, align on the X’s and O’s of your brand’s catering program. At a high level, you want to nail down your menu, pricing, and marketing tactics as part of your overall strategy and competitive positioning. Here’s how to tackle each area.
Menu
Bundle your most popular items so your catering menu highlights your brand and concept while staying true to what you do best. Consider whether your menu lends itself to customization via build-your-own, buffet-style setups or personalization with individual boxed items. Include à la carte options to accommodate those with dietary restrictions.
Pricing
Make it easy for catering guests to know how much to order based on party size, using tiered packages that specify the number of people each package will cover. Having this information readily available on your website will save your teams from having to provide it over the phone.
Ensure your packages pair commonly ordered items together and tier your pricing so guests see the benefit of ordering more. You can add incremental value with drink and dessert options. For transparency, email quotes before guests place an order.
Marketing
Revisit SEO strategies to go after catering keywords. Use promotional banners on your website and mobile app to announce your new catering service to existing guests.
Set up an enhanced redirect integration with Google so your catering offering is discoverable when guests search for options and your catering menu remains accurate on third-party channels.
You can also use your guest engagement platform to target those who have recently placed large orders. Lastly, add catering events to your marketing calendar.
2. Technology
Now that you have an airtight strategy for your catering menu, pricing, and marketing, you can evaluate tech solutions based on whether they’ll equip you with the tools you need to execute catering effectively. The following capabilities are non-negotiable to build a scalable catering program.
POS integration
A digitally optimized catering program hinges on POS integration that can automate order input. This is an important one to get right since the average catering ticket is 10x the average mealtime ticket.
Your top tech priority should be integrating directly into the POS system, eliminating the need for manually re-keying from banquet event orders or handwritten orders. When evaluating solutions, inquire about each provider’s partnership ecosystem to see if they have existing integrations with your POS.
Brian Pearson, CTO“A big part of our catering strategy was upgrading to a platform that could integrate with a lot of POS systems. With Olo Catering+, we don’t have to ring in orders manually, so we’re giving back hours a day to our catering specialists, store operators, accounting team, and technology team.”
Mendocino Farms
Multichannel direct digital ordering
To maximize your reach, choose a partner that can integrate each touchpoint with your mealtime ordering channels and digitize catering orders for better accuracy and streamlined operations. Whether it’s your website, mobile app, physical locations, or call centers, position your brand to take catering orders wherever guests prefer placing them.
Cross-channel order processing software
Configure settings to trigger email notifications immediately whenever a catering order is placed. As a fail-safe, leverage back-of-house order management software that flags large orders alongside mealtime orders to alert kitchen staff when it’s time to start prepping those catering orders.
Marketplace integration
Integrating with popular third-party marketplaces can be a great way to boost brand visibility and drive incremental catering orders. However, you should prioritize your direct ordering channels, which are more profitable and allow you to retain access to guest data for reporting, analysis, and future marketing efforts.
Catering account management and reporting dashboard
You’ll need a centralized dashboard for catering sales managers to easily manage house accounts—lines of credit for VIPs—authenticate tax-exempt status, track leads, run detailed reports, and get a comprehensive view of guest data. This will unlock the ability to drive more business through your catering channel.
Related case study: Discover how Salsarita’s boosted sales and efficiency with Olo Catering+
Payments
Leverage an integrated payments platform purpose-built for restaurants to drive and retain more revenue while offering guests flexibility in payment options. With an average order value of $350, you need a payment processor that instills confidence.
3. Operations
Your next priority should be setting up your back-of-house teams with the right operational processes for catering. Here’s what you’ll need from an operations standpoint to ensure accurate and timely handoffs.
Make time
Catering orders are typically placed far enough in advance (1-4 days on average) that you can plan for them from an inventory and staffing standpoint. Configure catering make times to 24+ hours so orders must be placed at least one day before the requested pickup or delivery time. Keep in mind, that as you grow your restaurant business and scale your catering program, you'll need built-in capacity management tools like order throttling to handle higher volume.
“Olo has helped us grow from occasion-based catering to everyday catering by consolidating orders in one place and allowing us to throttle orders so stores aren’t overwhelmed.”
Diana Lawson, IT Product Owner Online Ordering Systems
Cracker Barrel and Maple Street Biscuit Company
Production sheets
To set your back-of-house team up for success—and prevent hours of manual spreadsheet work—you’ll need a catering system to calculate the quantity of each item, component, and ingredient needed to produce each order. Make sure production sheets are printable, so teams can easily access them during order preparation in the kitchen.
Pack slips
Improve order accuracy by printing pack slips with a clear checklist of everything included. By checking items off as you go and including the slip with the order, you can prevent mishaps when the order arrives at the event.
Labels and packaging
Catering packaging can drive awareness and orders from guests experiencing your food for the first time at an event. Create labels for all boxed lunches, including guest names where applicable. For build-your-own buffets, use labels that denote common allergens. You can reduce waste by using sustainable packaging wherever possible.
Fulfillment and delivery
While most catering orders are delivered, you should still designate an area for catering order pickup for guests who prefer that handoff mode. If your brand doesn’t offer in-house delivery, you can leverage third-party couriers to deliver orders placed on your direct channels without compromising on hefty commission fees.
Next steps
Of course, these focus areas are simply the foundation of a profitable catering business. Here’s an interactive catering checklist of everything you need to build a guest-centric program.
For a detailed breakdown, download our Catering Success Guide. You’ll learn how to assess ROI potential, which elements you’ll need to succeed, and how to hit the ground running—including important considerations for pricing and assembling your catering team.
Discover how Olo’s powerful Catering+ offering can help you implement, optimize, and maintain a digital-first catering program that benefits your guests, teams, and restaurant brand. Request a demo today.
Photo by mixetto at iStock
