Winning catering clients: how to fill your booking calendar

Which clients suit your catering business

Before you advertise, ask yourself an honest question: who do you most enjoy cooking for, and who will pay what your work is worth? Finger food for offices needs different clients than wedding catering with service staff and tableware. If you offer everything to everyone, you look interchangeable. If you focus on two or three client groups, you can tailor your offer, photos and copy precisely to them.

How to build a suitable offer for each of these groups, with quantities, staff and equipment, is covered in the guide Writing and costing catering quotes. This one is about how the enquiries reach you in the first place.

Corporate clients: repeat orders instead of one-off dates

Companies order often and regularly: breakfast for the board meeting, lunch for a two-day training, finger food for a client evening, the Christmas party. Winning a company with 200 employees as a regular client is often worth more than five weddings. What counts is that ordering takes as little effort as possible for the person placing the order. That is usually an assistant or the office manager, rarely the managing director.

• Fixed packages: business breakfast, lunch box, finger food platters, each with a price per person and a minimum order.
• Short lead times: state clearly when orders must be in, for example by 2 pm the day before.
• Clean invoicing: include the company name, cost centre and purchase order number, and send invoices by email.
• One contact person: one phone number and one email address that really get answered.
• Framework agreement: fixed terms for regular clients and easy reordering without a new quote. How to turn this into a fixed subscription with cut-off times and minimum orders is shown in the guide to corporate catering subscriptions.

Weddings and private celebrations

For many caterers, weddings are the dates with the highest turnover, but also the longest lead time. Couples often start searching a year or more ahead, compare several caterers and decide together with family and the venue. They are not just buying food but the certainty that everything will work on their big day. That is why trust, availability and good advice count for more than the lowest price.

Private celebrations such as milestone birthdays, christenings, confirmations and club parties are smaller but numerous and easy to plan. Simple packages with a fixed price per person and a clear minimum number of guests help here. Many of these clients come back when the next family celebration is due.

Event agencies and venues as partners

The most effective route to regular jobs often runs through others: event venues, conference hotels without their own kitchen, castles, wineries, galleries, studios and event agencies. Many venues keep a list of recommended or approved caterers that they pass on with every enquiry. Agencies like to work with a few reliable partners, because they answer to their own clients for the result.

• Visit venues: arrange a meeting and get to know the rooms, kitchen, power supply, access and routines. If you know the venue, you plan better.
• Offer a tasting: invite the venue team to a small tasting.
• Provide materials: a short folder or a page on your website with packages, guide prices, capacity, references and contact details.
• Follow up after the event: ask what went well and what could be better, then act on the feedback.
• Recommend each other: mention the venue on your website and in conversations with couples. Referrals in both directions keep partnerships alive.

A website with an enquiry form

Whether it is a referral, a trade fair or Google: almost every client looks at your website before sending an enquiry. That is where they decide within seconds whether you look professional and suit the occasion. An Instagram page alone is rarely enough, because an enquiry needs facts: what do you offer, for how many guests, within what area and at roughly what price? The content every hospitality website needs is covered in the guide Restaurant website: the content your guests look for.

The enquiry form should only ask for what you need for a first quote: occasion, date, location, number of guests, services required, special dietary needs, contact details and a free text field. The shorter the form, the more enquiries come in. An automatic confirmation saying when you will get back to them provides reassurance. For the data collected through the form you need a matching section in your privacy policy.

References, photos and reviews

Catering is a matter of trust: clients buy something they cannot taste in advance, for a day that must not go wrong. References and good photos remove this uncertainty. After every successful job, ask whether you may name the company or quote them, and keep their consent in writing.

• Photos of real events: buffet, plates, your team at work, set-up at the venue. Clients spot stock photos quickly. Tips for taking pictures are in the guide Food photography.
• Short case studies: “Summer party for 180 employees, barbecue buffet with a vegetarian line, set up in 90 minutes.”
• Logos and names of corporate clients only with permission.
• Reviews: collect them on Google and show them on your website, with the source.

Reviews are a strong signal for caterers too, precisely because many clients do not know you beforehand. Ask for one politely after every job, ideally with a direct link. For the buffet, invoice or thank-you card you can create a QR code for Google reviews that guests simply scan with their phone. How to ask for reviews fairly and respond to criticism is explained in the guide to Google reviews.

Google profile with a service area

Many companies and couples simply search for “catering” plus a town or “catering near me”. To appear there, you need a Google Business Profile. For Google, caterers without premises where guests are received are a service-area business: you can hide your address and enter a service area instead. If you also run a venue with guests, you are a hybrid business and show both your address and your service area.

Trade fairs, networking and direct outreach

Wedding fairs bring you together with many couples in the middle of planning in a short time. A stand costs money and time but pays off if you offer tastings, book tasting appointments and follow up on contacts promptly. Regional business fairs, founders’ meetups and networking events of the Austrian Economic Chamber (WKO) or the German chambers of commerce (IHK) are good places to meet corporate clients. Clubs, sports associations and cultural organisers are also looking for reliable caterers.

• Business cards and flyers with a QR code to your website and enquiry form.
• Tastings in small portions that can be eaten standing up.
• Note contacts straight away: name, occasion, date, number of guests, next steps.
• Follow up within a few days with a short, personal offer.
• Local partners: florists, photographers, DJs and wedding planners happily recommend caterers they work well with.

If you are out at fairs anyway, have a look at public events too: how food trucks and mobile stalls win clients there is covered in Food trucks at events and festivals. Carefully planned transport, cooling and hygiene are the best advertising, more on that in the guide to catering logistics.