Corporate catering is placed by someone with another job. The office manager, the executive assistant, the person who drew the short straw for the board meeting. They remember at six in the evening, for a lunch tomorrow.
Here is that week, before and after.
Monday before
Three enquiries arrive between six and nine in the evening asking whether a buffet can be delivered tomorrow. Nobody sees them until eight the next morning, by which time two have ordered from a chain with online ordering.
Wednesday before
An enquiry arrives at seven for a client lunch on Friday, with dietary requirements and a question about invoicing. It is answered Thursday afternoon. The customer has already booked elsewhere because they needed to confirm with their finance team.
Friday before
A regular customer changes their numbers at eight in the evening for a Monday delivery. Nobody sees it. Monday's order goes out for the original number, short by six.
What changes
The caterer publishes corporate menus with prices per head, minimum order values, delivery windows, the cut-off time for next-day orders and how invoicing works. An assistant answers from those pages and captures orders at any hour.
Office manager: Can we get sandwiches for twelve delivered tomorrow at noon? Assistant: The corporate page shows the buffet and sandwich options with prices per head, the minimum order and the delivery windows available. Orders for next-day delivery are taken up to the cut-off time shown, which has not yet passed. Could you confirm the address, any dietary requirements and whether you would like to order on account?
Monday after
The three evening enquiries are captured with numbers, address and dietary requirements. The kitchen sees them at seven the next morning and confirms all three before nine.
Wednesday after
The client lunch enquiry is captured with the invoicing question flagged, answered first thing and confirmed by mid-morning while the customer is still deciding.
Friday after
The numbers change is captured and reaches the kitchen before Monday's prep. Nobody goes hungry in that meeting.
Delivery windows and setup
Offices run to meeting times, so a delivery that arrives half an hour late has failed even if the food is excellent. Publishing delivery windows, whether food is set up on arrival, whether disposables are included and when everything is collected tells a booker exactly what will happen while their meeting runs.
Account customers are the prize
An office that orders once and is looked after orders every month. Explaining how account ordering works, with invoicing and repeat orders, turns one lunch into a standing arrangement that sustains a catering business through quiet periods.
Dietary requirements are not optional
Corporate bookers are ordering for colleagues whose requirements they may not know. Publishing clearly labelled options, and asking at order, prevents the most visible failure in corporate catering.
Larger events alongside
Bigger functions need a fuller brief, as described in catering quotes that stall without guest numbers and menu tasting requests and how caterers handle them.
Restaurants doing the same work
Restaurants serving business diners face the same patterns, covered in corporate lunch and business dining enquiries, and the broader idea of handling routine work automatically is described in the AI employee for trades and offices.
Getting started
Publish corporate menus, minimums, delivery windows, cut-offs and account terms, then capture orders at any hour. SpideyChat for event and catering businesses answers from your published pages. Try SpideyChat on your own site, or read about capture on the features page.