The Catering Feed: The Catering Growth Podcast

In this podcast episode, Tom Kaiser, editor and podcast host of Food on Demand and a senior editor at Franchise Times, discusses how to navigate big data trends and focus your strategic goals. Tune in to hear how to expand your catering business and use customer data to improve your marketing.Episode Takeaways:Data allows you to stay competitive. Collecting and translating data can help you develop targeted marketing messages and differentiate yourself from the competition.Set simple goals. Choose one or two strategic marketing opportunities by focusing on the data that matters to your brand.Consider outsourcing. Many new vendors offer specialized marketing and analytics services for restaurant operators. Outsourcing lets you to focus on the customer experience and delivering incredible food.Build partnerships to expand your business. Whenever you work with a new third-party ordering or delivery service there's a chance to expand your customer base.

In this podcast episode, Allison Casey, the Director of Catering for Luke's Lobster, discusses how she expanded catering operations by focusing on the guest experience. Allison shares how a few tweaks to catering packaging, staffing, and loyalty programs can better align your catering business with your restaurant experience and generate major ROI.Episode TakeawaysCreate brand awareness through catering packaging. Put your logo front and center so guests know who prepared their meal.Train your staff to treat catering customers like restaurant guests. Empower everyone on your team to represent your brand to improve the customer experience. This includes your sales people and your delivery drivers.Use catering deliveries as marketing opportunities. Bring print collateral and coupons to highlight new menu items or promotions.Reward loyal catering customers. Design a catering customer program that rewards order frequency. That way guests will think of you for their next big catering order.

In this podcast episode, Grub Burger's Angela Saunders, Director of Talent Management, and Jim Saunders, Chief Operating Officer, share how talent management and operations go hand in hand. Angela and Jim discuss how to find the perfect team members to stay competitive as your catering business grows. Tune in to discover how investing in labor can transform your catering brand.Episode TakeawaysTrain hiring managers to look for personal qualities your brand values, like confidence and friendliness, in addition to experience.Staff for the business you want. Don't make cuts in labor before looking for other ways to improve efficiency.Embrace flexibility in staffing. If you're only hiring managers who can work 50 hours a week, you might be missing out on incredible new hires.Create a strong operations and talent management strategy. Without a strategy in place, off-premises sales can actually hurt your brand.

You already deliver incredible customer service within the four walls of your restaurant. But how do you translate that guest experience to your off-premise sales? The key is to create a digital footprint by using technology and developing your online presence. But, to expand your digital footprint, you need the right operations plan in place.In this podcast episode, Kevin Rychel, the Vice President of Operations for Fuzzy's Tacos, explains that investing in your digital footprint — and the operations to support it — helps attract repeat customers. He discusses how to generate buy-in from stakeholders when launching new technologies, how to support your franchisees as they modernize, and how operations can support your off-premises growth.Episode Takeaways:Apply your existing operational strengths to catering sales. Following up with customers and going above and beyond works every time.Win repeat business with an easy-to-use website, lower lead times, and a great off-site experience.Embrace the power of data. Capture specific customer information to drive sales and conduct more accurate research.Find the right tools and data to increase your digital footprint and support your staff.Kevin Rychel is the Vice President of Operations for Fuzzy's Tacos, where he supports franchisees as they roll out new digital offerings in the catering space. He has more than 20 years of experience in restaurant operations, including roles with Taco Bell and Chili's.For more expert advice on growing your catering business, sign up for CaterUp 2020.

How you build your catering menu impacts your guests' entire experience. From the moment they place their order through delivery. So prioritizing the guest experience as you create, test, and promote your menu can keep guests coming back.In this podcast episode, James Clark, Director of Food and Beverage at Murphy Adams Restaurant Group, discusses how to choose and package your menu for catering success and profit. Tune in to learn how the right menu can help you make a great first impression and drive repeat business.Episode Takeaways:- Catering is a marketing opportunity as well as a revenue stream. Easily recognizable, approachable menu items in excellent packaging say a lot for your brand.- Ease of ordering and catering packages that travel well help you stand out both to the customers ordering and those enjoying the order.- Be flexible and clear about how you design menu items for dietary restrictions. Gluten-free and plant-based diets aren't just fads. Menus that consider dietary needs build brand loyalty.- Negotiate with your distributors. Your mark-up could be as high as 20 percent. Don't be afraid to ask about margins and discounts for your brand.James Clark is Director of Food and Beverage at Murphy Adams Restaurant Group, where he oversees culinary innovation, product selection, purchasing, and distribution. A veteran in both fine and fast casual dining, James has more than 25 years of experience in menu building and operations.For more advice from experts like James, check out Cater Up 2020. Register here.

How do you grow your catering business if your brick-and-mortar restaurant isn't designed for delivery? In this podcast episode, Corey Manicone, Founder and CEO of Zuul, reveals how "ghost kitchens" help restaurant brands streamline their catering and delivery services. Listen to learn how a ghost kitchen could help you expand your business by providing custom space and specialized labor for delivery. Episode Takeaways: - Restaurant kitchens aren't always designed to support off-premises dining or delivery logistics. - A well-staffed ghost kitchen helps your brand organize, manage, and optimize labor and logistics for off-premises sales, while minimizing the risks associated with expansion. - Ghost kitchens allow restaurants to focus on what they do best — provide customers with great food and incredible experiences.

What if you could grow your catering business with multiple "virtual restaurants" without leasing another space? In this podcast episode, Kyle Feggins, Founder and CEO of Iron Horse Cafe, shares how he built his wildly successful virtual brands and tripled his sales by marketing those brands through catering apps. Stay tuned to learn how to develop and test a menu for a virtual restaurant and create a streamlined system to grow your catering business.

Customers get upset when they pop open a catering tray and find a cold burger or soggy salad. Especially when the food was meant to impress bigwigs at a meeting. So if you want to fuel your business with the fast-growing catering market—which has jumped 5.4 percent since 2018—it's a good idea to upgrade your packaging. Ordering better packaging is not too difficult, and it can make a huge difference in driving repeat catering business. In this podcast episode, Sabert Corporation's Nicole Buck, Vice President of Food Service, and Susan Beaudry, Senior Director of Marketing, reveal how better packaging improves the customer experience of your catering business. Nicole and Susan discuss how to choose the right packaging for your menu and customers, and why you need a packaging budget for your catering operation. Tune in to learn how a great packaging strategy can help you grow your catering business. Episode Takeaways: - Base your packaging choices on your catering menu. Choose packaging that reflects your food, the size of your orders, and the distance your delivery driver must travel, among other considerations. - Seventy percent of catering orders have leftovers, and only 24 percent of catering orders are eaten right away. So choose packaging that's easy to reseal, reheat, and reuse to ensure your customers get the most out of their catering orders. - One of the top concerns for catering customers is order accuracy. To give them peace of mind, use clear lids, label food, and make a catering drop-off checklist. - You can boost your catering sales by as much as 20 percent if you choose packaging that showcases your food and eases customer pain points.

We know that brands need data to succeed in the catering industry. So we partnered with Technomic to compile data for you to use to grow your catering business. That required looking at millions of ezCater catering transactions, surveying restaurant leaders across the country, and distilling that data into a report on the opportunities in the catering industry. In this podcast episode, Tina McDonough, Partner Marketing Manager at ezCater, discusses the insights from our catering report. Tina dives deep into data, such as the investments brands are making, the common denominators among restaurants with growing catering sales, and much, much more. Tina also explains how you can use these insights to capture more sales and invest in the right resources to grow your catering business. Episode Takeaways: - While many people are more familiar with B2C catering, such as for weddings, 61 percent of the restaurants we surveyed say that their catering sales are coming from the B2B catering market. - Ninety percent of restaurant leaders say that catering is strategically important to growing their catering business. - Restaurants with growing catering sales are investing in people, technology, and marketing. - According to our research, restaurants with online ordering have higher conversion rates than restaurants without. Download our report "The Catering Opportunity: Understanding a $60-Plus Billion Market" at cateringdata.com.

Corporate catering can be a lucrative revenue stream for any restaurant or caterer. After all, what other catering client has a regular stream of meetings that require healthy boxed lunches, piping hot entrées, or decadent dessert platters? But it can be difficult to reach the prospects that will help you grow your business and become the caterer that fills those regular orders. In this podcast episode, we get a behind-the-scenes look at corporate catering from Christina Barbaro, the U.S. Event Manager at Dennemeyer, to find out what prospects really want from their caterers. Christina discusses how to build and establish trust with big businesses, and which special touches make a big difference when it comes to winning—and keeping—catering business.

These days customers are buying much more than roller hot dogs and Twinkies at the convenience store. They're also grabbing delicious, freshly prepared breakfast and ordering catering. And it's not only motorists who are shopping, but the local community. Some of the biggest "c-stores," aka convenience stores, are betting that catering can be profitable. With c-stores increasingly tapping into the quick service restaurant (QSR) and catering markets, these appear to be golden years for the c-store industry. In Part 2 of this podcast, we go inside the mind of Frank Beard, an Analyst for the smartphone app GasBuddy, to explore the opportunity for convenience stores to nab a local base of catering customers. Frank shares how gas station and convenience store operators can take their business beyond their stores' walls to capitalize on the booming catering market. Listen to Part 2 above, and if you missed Part 1, you can find it here.

A wave of gas stations and convenience stores is breaking out of the mold of roller-grilled hot dogs and slushies. Taking their cue from restaurants, "c-stores," aka convenience stores, are tapping into a growing demand for convenient feel-good food. In response to the market, some stores are offering freshly prepared meals and catering. This is big news. These stores aren't just blurring the lines between convenience stores and quick-service restaurants—they're also disrupting the catering industry. In Part 1 of this podcast, we go inside the mind of Frank Beard, an Analyst for the smartphone app GasBuddy, to learn about the industry landscape of convenience stores. Frank shares how gas station and convenience store operators are rethinking their business models to be more food-forward and capitalize on the catering opportunity. Listen to Part 1 and stay tuned for Part 2, which will discuss how convenience stores are changing the catering industry.

How do you reach customers, and deliver great old-fashioned hospitality, through a screen? In this podcast, we go inside the mind of digital transformation expert Karin Muscarella to find out. Karin shares ways to digitally transform your catering business, from delivering online hospitality to reconfiguring back-of-house operations. Also, hear her talk about different restaurant technology platforms to keep up with the "consumer experience of the future."

Every restaurant's dream is to build a cult-like following around its food, but how do you make customers feel that deeply about your brand and products? In this podcast, we go inside the mind of Ess-a-Bagel's Chief Operating Officer, Melanie Frost, whose family started the famed bagel company in 1976. Melanie shares ways to grow a loyal customer base for your catering business, from crafting a strong social media presence to using local marketing tactics to create a cult-favorite restaurant. Melanie Frost is Chief Operating Officer of Ess-a-Bagel. Her family started the business in 1976 and Melanie officially took over as COO in 2013.

How does a restaurant vision come to life? In this podcast, we go inside the minds of CoreLife Eatery's President, Scott Davis, and Director of Off-Premise Business, Nicole Jackson. Scott and Nicole talk about the different phases of developing a successful restaurant concept, from creating a menu to engaging customers at different touchpoints. Scott Davis is President of CoreLife Eatery and has spent nearly forty years in the restaurant industry. He formerly served as Chief Concept Officer and Executive Vice President for Panera Bread and also worked at Au Bon Pain and Carrols Corporation, which owns and operates over 800 restaurants under the Burger King brand. Nicole Jackson is CoreLife Eatery's Director of Off-Premise Business. She's spent the past decade leading sales teams and growing the catering business of brands including Boston Market and Panera Bread.

The better you know your customers, the more effectively your sales team will be able to reach them. In this podcast, Gracie Prasanson, Director of Off-Premise Sales of Jason's Deli, shares ways to strengthen customer relationships to grow a catering business. Plus, she answers our questions about what restaurants are doing to retain employees. Gracie Prasanson is Director of Off-Premise Sales of Jason's Deli, where she started as a one-woman sales team and rose to become the company's national director of off-premise sales. A 30-year restaurant veteran, she spent 20 of those years focused on building winning sales teams and developing strategies for growing business.

From designing a successful strategy to the secret to creating a cult-favorite restaurant, ezCater's "The Catering Feed" podcast series explores ways to grow a successful catering business. Host Genevieve Babineau, a decade-long catering and local-restaurant-marketing expert, invites restaurant industry leaders of thriving brands including CoreLife Eatery and Ess-a-Bagel to share business tips, insights, and tactics to help you dip into the $61.5 billion catering market.