A panel at the Fast Casual Executive Summit discussed the ins and outs of catering and tech.
Jenn Saunders-Hayes of Subway, consultant Erin Levzow, Max Sheets of Chick N Max and Fox Lisica of Dickey’s Barbecue Pit speak with Nabeel Alamgir of Lunchbox about catering. Photo: Willie Lawless/ Networld Media Group
Delicious food is just the beginning of a restaurant’s catering journey. To truly thrive in today’s competitive landscape, restaurant caterers must embrace technology to optimize every aspect of their business. That includes streamlining operations, optimizing delivery, elevating guest experiences and driving growth.
At a panel discussion at the Fast Casual Executive Summit in Denver, four restaurant executives gathered to discuss their catering techniques. Panelists included Jenn Saunders-Hayes, director of global catering for Subway, Erin Levzow, growth advisor for Batch & Box, Max Sheets, founder and CEO of Chick N Max and Vladivoj “Fox” Lisica, head of global IT for Dickey’s Barbecue Pit. Nabeel Alamgir, founder and CEO ofLunchbox, moderated the panel. Lunchbox also sponsored the panel.
Early catering days
Lisica said his earliest memories of catering included going to a restaurant and making all the arrangements for catering in person or calling by phone and having multiple conversations.
“All of that has changed over the last couple of decades into now, where everything is done and sorted in five clicks online,” he said.
Sheets said catering has changed in terms of how catering orders are initiated — today it’s online or by mobile phone ordering. “Ultimately, the transaction is made with people still,” he said, “and that’s still the most important aspect, in my mind, of catering. What has happened is we’ve use technology to get our word out and to do our messaging.”
Levzow recalls having to choose catering for an event and “having to go to websites and not being able to figure out if a business actually catered or not,” she said.
Saunders-Hayes said her first memory of catering was her aunts bringing food to her grandmother’s house when she was a young girl.
“I think as we have these conversations and the catering experience evolves, that’s the piece we need to remember,” she said. “Catering doesn’t always mean what we want it to mean. It means what our guests want it to mean, and that’s the expectation — that we create that experience your guests remember from whenever they were having food at their family’s home.”
Recognizing catering as a growth opportunity
Saunders-Hayes said there’s more scrutiny on catering today because it has lucrative growth potential for restaurants. Some restaurants struggled with COVID and what catering would look like during the pandemic.
“The trick is it is a business,” she said. “It’s not part of something else, and when you dedicate time, resources and energy to this segment of the business, you make a ton of money. I think people are realizing that and understanding that the investment is necessary to make the money.”
Lisica said catering is currently a “massive” reaction to the economy. Even though it’s been available for decades, as the economy worsens and brands take advantage of purchasing power, the question is how to make catering a better value for guests.
“We offer our daily walk-in business instead to people who have less purchasing power to groups of people who want the catering for their office, for their home, for their party (or) for their event,” he said. “It’s a reaction. Now we’re seeing that as the biggest sales-driving opportunity because the others are dwindling away.”
When Levzow worked in hotel catering, it was hard to get her sales team on board with digital ordering. They wanted to talk to the customers and take orders in person. Suddenly, they saw the value in online ordering. “Now we’re finally meeting (customers) where there at,” she said.
Sheets said catering takes many forms and is used for many reasons, from birthday parties and graduations to offices where “the scheme is if we bring you lunch, you don’t leave your desk,” he said. “We view catering as, of course, its own leg of the business. And there’s nothing better than the day where the first ring on the cash register is a couple thousand bucks because of a catering (order) that you’re putting out at 11 a.m.”
Sheets said Chick N Max also views catering as a great marketing tool for those who haven’t tried the food before. “It’s our opportunity to get in front of them as a new brand with new flavors,” he said. “We use it as a motivator and as a marketing tool as well as a sales tool.”
Levzow said marketing to the catering customer differs from that of the walk-in guest. One of the brands she has worked with catered several funerals and Levow asked why so many. The brand had partnered with the funeral homes, who became marketers for the brand.
Making catering work
Alamgir said some brands see catering as a daunting task and one of the things Lunchbox is trying to do is educate CEOs. He asked the panelists how many people were on their catering teams, and the answers ranged from to two four people. Subway has people at the store level working catering projects.
Many restaurant brands use their marketing teams or IT teams as catering employees, and Levzow said those positions have different skill sets than catering employees need to have. “The same thing happened with how you box catering,” she said. “How do you get hot food hot and cold food cold, and I still think shockingly enough a lot of restaurants have challenges there.”
Mistakes like those make operators scared to lean in to catering.
Saunders-Hayes said being intentional with catering is paramount to success. To get customers to use catering, you must give them something they want.
“You should not be catering everything on your menu,” she warned. “Stick with the items that are most operationally sound so that you can deliver a great product to your guests the right way.”
When brands have small catering teams, they’re unable to be proactive in their catering operations, Levzow added.
At Dickey’s Barbecue Pit, Lisica said he has a four-person corporate catering team, but there are catering teams at the store level for boots-on-the-ground marketing. Half of catering sales come from the corporate catering team and half comes from the store level.
Saunders-Hayes said she trusts her catering team, and as the director of global catering for Subway, the only time she gets involved in sales is when a catering account is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“I’m responsible for strategy, marketing (and) packaging,” she said. “I think it’s also important to see where you are in your (catering) journey. You can set your team up for success. Everybody’s not a salesperson. Everybody is not a strategic person so getting people in their strengths I think is important.”
Sheets said intentionality is key, as Chick N Max has its own catering menu and managers support the catering department. “We are proactive in catering,” he said. “A lot of it is digital, a lot of it comes in that way, but I’m still old school.” He asks his catering team to do guerrilla marketing such as introducing themselves to drug reps and visiting funeral homes.
“We’re going to be hands on about getting the word out,” he said, “and letting people know that they can come to us with intentionality.”
The Fast Casual Executive Summit is owned by Networld Media Group.
Networld Media Group is a leading business-to-business media communications company specializing in digital media, associations and events in the mobile, self-service, digital signage, food service and financial services industries. The next industry event hosted by Networld Media Group will be the Restaurant Franchising and Innovation Summit in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina March 11-13. For more information about the summit, click here.
