A catering call doesn’t sound any different when the phone rings. It comes in like every other call, often in the middle of a rush, and it might be the biggest order your store takes all week: a 40-person office lunch, a team dinner or a holiday party. If nobody picks up, that guest usually doesn’t leave a voicemail and wait. They call the next restaurant on their list.
Catering is one of the few places where a single phone call can be worth as much as dozens of regular orders. Yet in most restaurants it runs on the same phone, at the same counter, answered by the same busy team as everything else. This guide covers why catering calls get lost, what every catering call should capture, how to get each request to the right person, how to get ready for holiday catering season and what to look for if you’re considering an AI phone agent to help.
Quick Answer: How Should Restaurants Handle Catering Calls?
- Answer every call, including at peak and after hours, so catering requests never go to voicemail.
- Take the order or take the details: simple orders from your catering menu can be placed on the call; custom or large events need complete details for your catering team.
- Get the request to the right person right away, by phone or email, with everything they need to follow up.
- Keep a record of every catering call, so nothing depends on a sticky note by the register.
- Track catering calls by location, so you can see demand and how fast your team follows up.
Why Catering Calls Get Lost
Most restaurants don’t lose catering business because the food or the price is wrong. They lose it on the phone:
- The timing is bad. Catering calls come in during business hours, when your team is already working the line, the register and the takeout shelf. A long call about headcount and delivery times is hard to take with a line at the counter.
- The right person isn’t there. The catering manager is off, at another store or out on a delivery. Whoever answers jots down a name and number, and the lead goes cold before anyone calls back.
- Details go missing. Date, headcount, delivery address, allergies: if any of it is missing or misheard, someone has to call the guest back, and some guests won’t pick up.
- Events get planned after hours. People plan parties and office lunches in the evening and on weekends, when the store is closed or slammed.
- No one can see it. Corporate rarely knows how many catering calls each location gets, how many turn into orders or how many were never answered.
- The holidays stack it all up. Office parties and family gatherings land in the same weeks your dining room and takeout are busiest.
Two Ways to Handle a Catering Call
1. Take the order on the call
This works for straightforward orders from a set catering menu: party trays, family packs, boxed lunches. The guest picks items and quantities, sets a pickup time and the order is done. It works best when your catering menu has clear packages and prices that whoever answers the phone can find quickly.
2. Collect the details and hand it off
Custom events, very large headcounts, delivery with setup, tastings or anything that needs a quote usually belong with your catering team. Here the job on the call is to capture complete details, get them to the right person fast and tell the guest when they’ll hear back.
Most restaurants need both. Decide where the line is, such as a headcount, a delivery requirement or a custom menu, and make sure whoever answers the phone follows the same rule at every location, whether that’s a person or an AI phone agent.
What Every Catering Call Should Capture
Use this as the checklist for your team, your call script or any phone agent you evaluate:
- Guest name, phone number and email
- Company or organization, for business orders
- Event date and time
- Pickup or delivery, and the delivery address
- Headcount
- What they want: packages, items and quantities
- Dietary needs and allergies
- Which location they’re ordering from
- Budget or price range, for custom requests
- Extras: plates and utensils, setup, serving staff, tax-exempt status
A simple test: if your catering team can’t act on the request without calling the guest back to fill in gaps, the call wasn’t really captured.
Getting the Request to the Right Person
A captured catering request is only worth something if the right person sees it in time. Set these up before the next busy week:
- Decide who owns catering: the store manager, a regional catering manager or a central catering team.
- Send requests where that person will see them: a live transfer during hours, and an email with the full details when they can’t take the call.
- Include the context: a summary and the full call transcript, so nobody has to ask the guest the same questions twice.
- Set a follow-up promise: tell the guest when they’ll hear back, and hold your team to it.
- Plan for after hours: a request that comes in at 9 PM should be waiting in the right inbox the next morning, not on a voicemail nobody checks.
Catering Across Multiple Locations
Multi-unit groups have an extra problem: every store handles catering calls a little differently. Some groups run catering from each store, others from one central team. Either way, the phone should match how you actually run catering:
- Route by location or to a central team, depending on who fulfills the order.
- Set hours and contacts per store, so requests don’t land with someone who’s off that day.
- Ask the same questions everywhere, so every request arrives in the same format.
- Report by store and by brand, so you can see which locations get catering demand and which are missing it.
Getting Ready for Holiday Catering Season
It’s November, and holiday catering season is starting: office parties, Thanksgiving and holiday sides, team lunches and family gatherings. A few things to set up now:
- Holiday menus and cutoff dates: put them where whoever answers the phone can find them, so guests get the right answer the first time.
- Lead times: decide how far ahead large orders need to be placed, and say it on every call.
- After-hours coverage: event planners call in the evening and on weekends, and those calls need an answer too.
- Holiday staffing: know who covers catering requests on days your catering manager is off.
- A weekly review: look at every catering call from the past week and check that each one got a follow-up.
Measuring Your Catering Calls
You can’t fix what you can’t see. Track these for each location:
- How many catering calls come in
- How many turn into orders
- How fast your team follows up
- How many catering calls were missed or never returned
When every call is tagged and transcribed, these numbers come straight from your phone data instead of guesswork. To estimate what missed calls cost your stores overall, try our ROI calculator.
Questions to Ask Any AI Phone Agent Vendor About Catering
Whether you’re comparing HeyTARA, Loman AI, Palona AI, SoundHound, Slang AI, ConverseNow or anyone else, ask:
- Can the agent take a catering order on the call, or does it only take a message?
- Can it do both, taking simple orders and handing off large or custom ones?
- Where do catering requests go: a live transfer, email or both? Can that differ by location?
- What details does the agent collect, and can we change the questions?
- Does our team get the full call transcript with each request?
- How does the agent handle holiday and seasonal menus?
- Are catering calls tagged separately in reporting?
- Do you charge a commission on orders, including large catering orders?
That last one matters more for catering than anywhere else: a percentage of a large order is a large fee. Our guide to what AI phone answering costs walks through the pricing models, and the restaurant AI phone agent buyer’s guide has the full checklist.
How HeyTARA Handles Catering Calls
HeyTARA is the hospitality OS for multi-unit restaurants. On the Main Course plan, catering is built in:
- Every call answered: on the first ring, in your brand’s voice, at peak and after hours, including several calls at once.
- Catering orders and escalation: TARA can take a catering order on the call, and/or send catering and large-order requests straight to your catering team by phone or email.
- Warm handoff: before connecting a caller, TARA briefs your team member on why they’re calling.
- Smart call routing: calls go to managers, district managers or specific stores based on what the caller needs.
- Payments by text: TARA texts guests a secure link to pay for their order, so no one reads a card number over the phone.
- Holiday and seasonal menus: TARA recognizes holiday orders and routes them to your seasonal menu.
- Call tagging and transcripts: every call is tagged automatically, including catering, and transcribed for your team.
- Spanish: TARA understands and responds to callers in Spanish.
- Flat pricing, no commissions: $199/month with unlimited calls, and you keep 100% of every order, including your biggest catering orders.
Multi-unit groups can build a custom Chef’s Special plan with location-level settings, custom escalation paths, a multi-location dashboard by brand and store, and guest email collection for promos to your regulars. See how TARA works for casual dining and other restaurant phone answering use cases.
The Bottom Line
Catering calls are rare, valuable and easy to lose. Answer every one, take simple orders on the spot, capture complete details for custom events, get each request to the right person fast and track what happens next. With holiday season starting, now is the time to make sure the next big order doesn’t end up in voicemail.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can an AI phone agent take catering orders?
A good one can. Some only collect a name and number, so ask each vendor whether the agent can take a catering order on the call or only pass along a message. HeyTARA can take a catering order on the call and/or send the catering request straight to your catering team by phone or email, with all the details.
What should a restaurant ask on every catering call?
At minimum: the guest's name, phone number and email, the event date and time, pickup or delivery (and the address), headcount, what they want to order, dietary needs and allergies, and which location they're ordering from. For custom requests, add budget and any setup needs.
How do we stop missing catering calls after hours?
Make sure every call gets answered, including evenings and weekends when many people plan events. An AI phone agent can answer after hours, take the order or collect the details, and have the request waiting for your catering team in the morning instead of sitting on voicemail.
Can catering requests go to different people at different locations?
Yes, if your phone system supports routing rules. HeyTARA's smart call routing sends calls to managers, district managers or specific stores based on what the caller needs, and multi-unit groups on the Chef's Special plan can set escalation contacts and workflows for each location.
Do AI phone agents charge a commission on catering orders?
Some vendors take a percentage of every order, which gets expensive on large catering orders. HeyTARA has no commissions: the Main Course plan is $199/month with unlimited calls, and you keep 100% of every order.
Can an AI phone agent handle holiday catering menus?
It should. Ask how the agent handles seasonal items and holiday cutoff dates. HeyTARA recognizes holiday orders and routes them to your seasonal menu.