Websites for Catering Businesses

The three things an enquiry needs

The date, since catering is date-bound and popular dates go early.

The headcount, which determines almost everything about feasibility and price.

The budget per person, which is how customers actually plan and which most enquiry forms never ask for.

An enquiry missing the third produces a proposal that is either above what they can spend or below what they wanted, and both outcomes waste the work.

Asking for it directly, with a range to choose from rather than a blank field, is more comfortable for the customer than it sounds and it qualifies the enquiry immediately.

Publishing a per-head figure

The change that decides whether you are shortlisted.

Customers budget events by dividing a total across suppliers, and catering is usually the largest single line. Somebody allocating a certain amount per head cannot place a caterer who will not indicate a range.

What to publish: a starting figure per person by service style, since a drop-off buffet and a plated service with staff are different propositions at different prices.

Also the minimum, which is the number that saves the most time. A caterer with a minimum order turning away small enquiries repeatedly is losing hours that a published figure would have saved.

What is included beyond the food

The section that prevents the quote from feeling like a surprise.

• Staff, and how many for what headcount.
• Delivery and setup, and whether takedown is included.
• Equipment, including chafing dishes, serving ware, and whether anything is rented.
• Tableware, which customers routinely assume is included.
• Linens, the same.
• Gratuity or service charge, if applied.
• Taxes, and whether quoted figures include them.

Tableware and linens are the two that generate the most friction, because a customer comparing a food-only quote to an all-inclusive one is comparing two different things without knowing it.

Dietary requirements

Now a primary consideration rather than an afterthought, and a genuine differentiator.

What you accommodate, how much notice you need, whether alternatives are equivalent or an afterthought, and how allergens are handled in your kitchen.

The allergen point needs care and honesty. A kitchen that cannot guarantee an absence of cross-contact should say so plainly rather than implying otherwise, since somebody with a serious allergy is making a decision that matters.

Food safety and labelling requirements are set by provincial and municipal health authorities, so stating that you operate to the applicable standards and naming the authority is more durable than restating rules.

Menus, presented usefully

Not as a downloadable file, for the same reason a restaurant menu should not be.

Menus as text on the page, organised by service style and by price tier, readable on a phone, and searchable.

Also worth stating: how much customisation is possible, whether dishes can be mixed between tiers, and what seasonal availability means for a date months away.

That last one prevents the disappointment where a customer chose a menu in January for an event in July and the ingredients are different.

The event types, separated

Corporate, weddings, private parties, and funerals are different customers with different priorities and different decision processes.

Corporate buys on reliability, invoicing, and repeat arrangements. Weddings buy on tasting, flexibility, and the experience. Funerals need speed and sensitivity and frequently have no time to compare.

Each deserves its own page, and the funeral one in particular is under-served and reaches people who need an answer within a day.

Logistics the customer has not considered

What you need from the venue, which customers frequently cannot answer.

Kitchen access, power, water, refrigeration, parking for loading, and whether the venue has its own restrictions or an approved supplier list.

A page listing what you need to know about a venue is genuinely useful at the planning stage and prevents the booking that turns out to be impossible.

Venue approved-supplier lists are worth mentioning specifically, since a customer who books you for a venue that does not permit outside catering has a problem you both share.

Booking and cancellation

Deposits, the payment schedule, when final numbers are due, and what happens if the headcount drops after that point.

The final numbers deadline is the term that causes most disputes, since customers expect to adjust later than caterers can accommodate. Stating it plainly at the outset prevents it.

Cancellation terms, including a weather clause for outdoor events, belong before booking rather than in a contract sent afterwards.

The rest

Photographs of actual food you have served rather than stock, since presentation is what customers are buying. Tasting arrangements, including whether they are charged and credited. And a response time, since a customer planning an event contacts several caterers in one sitting, which is the same shortlist behaviour described in what a party rental website needs.

Frequently asked questions

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