An event is six weeks away. The caterer needs final numbers and dietary requirements in twenty days.
The planner has responses from about two thirds of the guest list. She sends a reminder, receives a few more, and begins telephoning people individually.
She spends parts of nine days chasing responses. The dietary information that arrives is vague, three people change their answer, and two requirements reach her the day before the event.
Step 1: set the internal deadline earlier than the real one
The caterer's deadline is not the deadline to give guests. Building in a buffer of at least a week is what makes the real deadline achievable.
Step 2: collect responses in one place
Not across email, messages and conversations. A single channel with a single record is what makes chasing possible rather than chaotic.
Step 3: ask for everything at once
Attendance, dietary requirements, accessibility needs, children and any other detail. Two rounds of collection is twice the chasing for no benefit.
Step 4: ask specific dietary questions
Not any requirements. Named categories plus a free text option, because a guest asked generally says no and then mentions something on the day.
Step 5: distinguish allergy from preference
These are entirely different for a caterer. An allergy is a safety matter requiring specific handling and a preference is a menu choice, and they must be recorded separately.
Step 6: capture how severe an allergy is
Whether contact matters, whether shared preparation is a concern. Caterers need this and generic dietary lists never contain it.
Step 7: chase automatically and repeatedly
On a schedule, with a stated deadline, naming what is outstanding. This is the task that consumes a planner and it needs no judgement at all.
Step 8: tell people what happens if they do not respond
A default, an assumption or no place. A deadline with a stated consequence produces responses and one without does not.
Step 9: handle the late changes deliberately
A cut off after which changes cannot be accommodated, agreed with the caterer and communicated to the client. Without this, changes arrive indefinitely.
Step 10: pass a clean list to every supplier
Caterer, venue, transport and anybody with a headcount. One authoritative list rather than several versions circulating.
Step 11: keep the seating plan connected to the list
Every change affects it, and a seating plan built from an outdated list is rework rather than progress.
Step 12: keep the accessibility requirements visible
Access, seating position, dietary and anything else. These need arranging rather than noting and they are frequently captured and then lost.
Step 13: keep the client informed without involving them in every change
A summary rather than each individual response. Clients want reassurance rather than administration.
Step 14: let something else collect and chase
An assistant that collects attendance, dietary requirements and accessibility needs, chases the outstanding responses on a schedule and maintains one list gives a planner back the nine days she was spending on telephone calls. The supplier side sits in supplier coordination questions clients ask about planners and supplier and venue questions planners answer daily, the catering detail in breakfast time and dietary questions guests ask, and the general case in best ai chatbot for service businesses. See features, start at try, and the sector view sits under event planners.