Why your online ordering system is not a catering strategy

The catering industry is large, diverse and complicated. With a constant stream of new technologies and ideas, it’s easy to get lost in the weeds of it all. Is this catering software good enough? Does it cover all my needs? Do I need to handle catering products differently across channels? Do my current delivery mechanisms work at scale? Handling customer data? Third-party catering platforms? Catering experience? Catering sales?

Yikes! There’s an endless number of bases that need to be covered to succeed with catering in this industry. So here’s the real question: How do I build a solid off-premises and catering foundation that will not only let me operate at scale but also continue to grow?

Technology won’t fix everything
Let’s start with what the answer isn’t: catering order management technology. Don’t get me wrong, the tech you choose to power your business is incredibly important; however, technology is there to support an underlying strategy, not the other way around. The success of your restaurant is in understanding the principles that inform every decision you make, from menu decisions to differentiating products across channels, to sales, to, yes, the technological solutions that will enable you to do everything else.

Imagine a business in decline. We’ll call it Company X. Cost-cutting is one of its primary goals, and emotions are running high. Work is piling on, and catering and other projects continue to be underfunded. It’s scary. People are worried about their jobs, leaving you to wonder if anything is even getting done.

Imagine this company had its mission statement plastered on its door. Maybe once upon a time, it was inspiring. Now, day by day, people walk right by and don’t notice the words anymore. The mission is just background noise, invisible, not being lived in any meaningful sense. Leadership isn’t concerned with vision anymore. They don’t care what they set out to do; they just want to bail out a sinking ship. All they see is water splashing around on the deck, not the massive hole in the hull.

In the enterprise restaurant world, it’s easy for people to focus on short-term stock prices over everything else. It’s not even their fault. They’re just trying to feed their families. They abandon what they see as a suffering market and pursue other avenues of growth.

I’ve seen this kind of thing happen before. It’s all too easy to accept that the economy is just bad and that there’s nothing you can do about it.

On the flip side, I’ve seen companies trying hard to fix themselves. Sometimes, they come out of the bad years with leadership dedicated to righting the ship and navigating through the difficult times. Sometimes, it even works.

The success stories have something in common: they are all committed to change in a serious way. When a business is sick, you have two real options: you put it down, or you choose to do things differently. And I mean really differently. There is no superficial fix here; it’s about altering the DNA of a company so that it becomes robust and capable of weathering any storm.

I don’t mean to imply by all this that there are no externalities. Of course, there are. Sometimes, the economy really IS bad. But externalities change; things don’t stay bad. Your company may be in a drought, but the important thing is that you put yourself in a position to leverage the opportunities that will inevitably come along. Being able to leverage these opportunities begins with mindset and best practices. This opportunity is where catering comes in again.

Let’s reimagine Company X again for a second. Yes, times have been tough, ends are barely being met, and margins are thin, but the company vividly remembers its mission statement and is committed to following through on its catering best practices and strategic vision.

Out of the blue, they get a big catering account. It’s rare, but it happens every now and again. Company X closes the sale, and a few days later, they execute the order. The execution is clean. Despite everything, they haven’t cut costs in the key areas. From order receipt to delivery, Company X is a well-oiled machine.

At the end of the day (because Company X is familiar with the 5 stages of Takeout, Delivery, and Catering), Company X follows through with its clients to ensure they’re happy and reminds them that Company X is always looking to cater future events. Turns out the client is happy! And you know what? Now that they think of it, one of their partners needs something catered. Just by following through on best practices, suddenly, it’s not one sale anymore; it’s two. And those two sales will lead to more, as the ball is just getting rolling.

These kinds of things happen all the time in catering. By committing to best practices, investing in key areas, and understanding how a catering strategy can influence your sales and growth, your brand gains a sort of superpower, a force multiplier on every catering opportunity that comes along.

That’s not to imply that it’s simple. There were hundreds of things that went into that one order, but I didn’t mention them here. How did they get the food there in good condition? How did they manage order size? How was everything priced? What about menu construction? Follow-through?

All I’m saying is we have to start somewhere. We need some mechanism to inform the high-level choices we make as off-premises operators. The time to commit to catering is now. If you don’t have a plan, how can you improve? If you don’t invest wisely, how can you succeed? If you don’t have clear benchmarks, how can you know how well your catering channels are doing?

Slow down and dedicate some time to thinking about how catering can positively impact your business.

Thanks for listening. Get catering and grow sales!

If you want to learn how to create a successful off-premise strategy, click here to register for The Restaurant Catering Workshop, Oct. 15-16 in Denver, following the Fast Casual Executive Summit. Dardick and several other catering experts will help attendees develop a catering foundation built for growth.