Increase Catering Sales: Done-for-You Growth for Restaurants

To increase catering sales, make your packages and delivery terms clear, contact nearby office buyers, follow up on open quotes, and make it easy for past customers to order again. Track inquiries, confirmed orders and repeat customers separately so you know which step needs attention.

FlashCater does that work for you, every week, with pricing discussed on a call. No commission, no contract. This page explains exactly what that covers, what we need from you, and what to expect in the first 90 days. If you'd rather run it yourself, the whole playbook is in our guide to growing a catering business. It's the same system.

Choose the first action from your recent orders

Before adding more marketing, review the last four weeks. Count qualified inquiries, quotes sent, orders confirmed and customers who reordered. Record why a quote did not close when the buyer tells you.

For example, suppose a restaurant received 12 qualified inquiries, sent eight quotes and confirmed three orders. This is an illustrative example, not a FlashCater result. First check why four inquiries did not receive quotes and what happened to the five unconfirmed quotes. More traffic would not fix those missed handoffs.

If your team can run this process, our catering growth playbook includes the prospect worksheet and weekly schedule. If you need someone to handle the work, the service below covers outreach, ordering and follow-up.

What the free audit helps you decide

Start with the free catering audit to review your offer, local visibility and ordering path. Use the findings to choose what your team can handle and where you may want help. The audit is free; growth-service scope and pricing are discussed on a call.

For a process you can run yourself, use the restaurant catering growth playbook. The service details below explain the work FlashCater can take on.

What is included

What is not included

• Delivery. You deliver or arrange delivery. We can advise on delivery fees and radius.
• Food, packaging and labor. Obviously, but it matters for the math. Read our ezCater fee breakdown to see how a $500 order shakes out after those costs.

What we need from you

The service works when the restaurant does five things:

1. Approve the offer. Packages, per-person pricing, minimums, lead time and delivery radius. We draft, you approve. Usually one call.
2. Send us the raw material. Your menu, a few photos of real group orders, and your logo.
3. Name one person for handoff. Someone who gets the order details and makes sure the kitchen has them. A manager or the owner.
4. Reply to leads the same day. We respond to every inquiry immediately, but when a buyer wants to talk to the restaurant, that reply has to come from you. Speed wins these.
5. Tell us what happened. A quick note when an order goes out well, or badly. That feeds the follow-up.

If your team can't do those five things, the service won't work and we'll tell you so on the first call.

The first 30 days

Week 1: Setup. We map the businesses near you, build the prospect list, draft your packages and pricing if needed, set up the ordering page or integration, and write the outreach emails, call script and printed menu.

Weeks 2 to 3: Everything goes live. Outreach starts and the in-store materials ship to your restaurant. You'll see the first replies and sampler requests here.

Weeks 3 to 4: First orders and pipeline. We keep working the list and following up. The first new orders usually land in this window. You get your first monthly report: who was contacted, who replied, who ordered, and what's in the pipeline.

What to expect after that

Most restaurants see their first new catering orders within two to four weeks of outreach starting. A steady pipeline of repeat office accounts typically takes two to three months, because it depends on second and third orders, not first ones.

Our focus is accounts that reorder, because a single office ordering a $400 lunch twice a month is worth close to $10,000 a year, and ten of those is a catering business. That's what the follow-up work is for, and it's why we don't charge commission: when your catering grows, all of it's yours.

Who this is for

Restaurants that already do some catering, or want to, and don't have the bandwidth to grow it. Fast-casual, BBQ, Mediterranean, delis, sandwich shops and Mexican restaurants are strong fits because their food travels well and offices order it repeatedly.

It isn't for restaurants that can't fulfill catering orders reliably yet. If delivery, packaging or capacity is the problem, fix that first. Our catering operations guide covers it.

If you are on ezCater today

Keep the marketplace orders that are profitable. We build the direct channel next to it: your own ordering page, your own customer list, and follow-up that brings repeat buyers to you instead of back to the marketplace. Over time, the share of your catering that pays commission goes down. Our guide to reducing ezCater dependence explains how to do that without a revenue gap.

Pricing and terms

Common questions

How much does FlashCater's catering growth service cost?

Discuss service pricing on a call. No commission on orders, no setup fee, month to month, cancel anytime. Multi-location pricing is arranged on a call.

What does the restaurant have to do?

Approve the catering packages and pricing, send us your menu and a few photos, tell us your delivery radius, minimums and lead time, name one person who handles order handoff, and reply to the leads we send you the same day. We do the rest.

How quickly will we see results?

Most restaurants see their first new catering orders within two to four weeks of outreach starting. A steady pipeline of repeat office accounts typically takes two to three months.

We are already on ezCater. Does this replace it?

No. We work alongside marketplaces and build your direct channel next to them. Over time the goal is for repeat orders to come to you directly so you keep the margin and the customer relationship.

Do we need our own online ordering?

No. We can set up a branded catering ordering page for you at no extra cost, or plug into Toast, Square, your website or whatever you already use. Orders reach your kitchen the way they do today.