If you work in the world of events as a caterer, you’ll know all too well how important maintaining client satisfaction is. Happy clients lead to good Google reviews online – and these are vital to secure future business.
Poor reviews or client complaints can seriously impact your future business endeavours, so every event should be treated with the utmost importance and care.
So, you may be asking yourself – what can caterers do to keep everyone happy?
In this article, we discuss what clients expect and a few ways that catering companies can stand out against the crowd to maintain client satisfaction.
What Do Clients Expect?
Hiring event caterers is largely done to save time and effort on behalf of the event organiser or planner.
Whether it’s a wedding, birthday party or corporate event – food is almost always a staple of the proceedings.
Event caterers play a significant role in providing food without hassle or distraction to allow the event to run according to plan in other areas.
Not only this, but clients expect high-quality food, served on time and tailored to the guest list.
These are the foundations of a successful event catering effort, but what other factors help to maintain client satisfaction?
Ask For Dietary Requirements
It’s important as a caterer to ensure your menu is inclusive for all party guests. This may include providing vegan, vegetarian or halal options for example.
The best way to get around this is by sending out a dietary requirement email in advance of the event so that you have updated details on each guest’s specific needs.
Every guest should be catered for equally, otherwise, your client may be less than happy with your service.
Allergy Information
If you’re providing food for people it’s also important to check for any allergies. This should include the severity of them and whether or not cross-contamination is acceptable.
If it isn’t, you must prepare your food at separate stations in order to adhere to the provided allergy requirements adequately. Failure to do so could lead to a lawsuit – never mind a bad review!
Adhere To Food Safety Standards
There are general hygiene and food safety standard that must be adhered to that will prevent anyone from becoming poorly as a result of your food.
Ensure that you store all food at the correct temperatures, whether that’s keeping it hot in the oven or cool in a refrigerator.
Digital thermometers (such as these, for example) are a great way for you to monitor food temperatures, ensuring they stay at the levels they’re supposed to be at.
Any issues with food safety could be disastrous for your catering business, so take extra precautions.
Calculate Your Portions Correctly
There’s nothing worse than there not being enough food to go around. Make sure you calculate your portions correctly so that nobody is left hungry.
In our experience, it’s always best to have too much than too little – so it never hurts to make a little extra! This can also help to cater to anyone who may wish to go in for second helpings.
Deliver Your Food On Time
It’s easy to get behind in the kitchen – especially if you’re catering for a large-scale event. However, there are steps you can take to prevent this.
Ensure you leave yourself enough prep time to get everything washed, chopped and ready to go.
That way, when it comes to cooking, it’s much easier to stay on track as all the prep is complete.
By simply serving your food on time, you can help your catering business to stand out against competitors as a professional and well-organised establishment.
Problem-solving
As with anything in the world, you should always be prepared for something to go wrong.
This is especially true in the world of event planning, where organisers will usually draw up contingency plans to cover many scenarios.
As an event caterer, you too should be prepared for things to go wrong. Handling situations with professionalism and careful attention to detail will certainly improve your standing with your client.
You may be short on a particular ingredient or an accident in the kitchen may throw your timings off – whatever happens, ensure you deal with it quickly and effectively to avoid disrupting the event.
Event catering can be a very satisfying profession, particularly if you can see people enjoying your food.
Care and attention are needed at every stage to ensure that the correct procedures are followed and that issues are dealt with quickly and discreetly.
Are you maintaining client satisfaction with your services?
Ella Marcotte
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