_{At ezCater, we’re dedicated to helping restaurants grow a successful catering business. That’s why we’re excited to share this video series featuring insights and lessons from industry experts behind thriving catering programs.}

It’s pretty exciting to see your kitchen tackling a stream of catering orders. When new catering business comes in, it strengthens your restaurant’s bottom line. So if you want a steady flow of catering revenue from a market that’s growing faster than the restaurant industry by 50 percent, it’s time to understandyour catering customers. When you really get how catering customers are different, you can create a knockout catering business. 

In this video, Gracie Prasanson, Director of Off-Premise Sales at Jason’s Deli, shares insights to help you understand the catering customer. Tune in to learn how the expectations of catering customers are unique and discover sales strategies to reach and gain their trust.

Video Takeaways:

• You may need more resources to serve catering customers, who sometimes request help with menu planning and placing orders at the last minute. 
• When pitching to catering customers, give them reasons why they should order catering from you, based on what is important to them. Some of their top concerns are order accuracy, on-time delivery, and last-minute catering options.  
• There’s no quick fix for a bungled catering order, as there would be for a dine-in situation. Even if you remake the catering order, it will need to be delivered, and most customers don’t have time for that. So try to get it right the first time.

Gracie Prasanson is Director of Off-Premise Sales of Jason’s Deli, where she started as a one-woman sales team and rose through the ranks. A 30-year restaurant veteran, she has a passion for building winning sales teams and for developing strategies to help restaurants grow.