Operational best practices

Learn how to be a successful partner on our marketplace and keep customers coming back for more!

Be reliable and accountable 

To ensure a seamless experience for our customers, we expect our catering partners are reliable and accountable. If a customer is able to submit an order based on the store parameters you have set (hours of operation, lead time, order minimum, etc). it's an expectation that you’ll be able to accept the catering order promptly, and deliver the order reliably. Rejections and cancellations hurt our customer’s perception of your brand, and affect your overall store ranking, lowering your chances of getting orders on our platform. Please be realistic about your operational capacity and capabilities to ensure customer satisfaction. 

Best Practices:

• Review your store users and store settings. Ensure all the right people have access to ezManage, and are set up with notifications. Make sure your store lead time is set appropriately so your team can accept orders confidently (24 hours or greater to start). Review your hours of operation, store users, and order capacity to make sure everything is set up as expected. 
• Review the operational guidelines with your team and make a game plan on who will be receiving and accepting order notifications to meet the performance metrics. Users can get set up with text, email, or push notification (iOS). 
• Review with your team how your store will be handling the delivery. Will you be delivering ezCater orders yourself, or utilizing ezDispatch? If you plan to deliver yourself, add delivery drivers to the drivers tab of ezManage so you can assign them once orders are submitted to your portal. 
• Designate an area in your restaurant for catering. This will help you organize larger orders, and help streamline your hand off to delivery drivers. 
• Build your own in-store SOPs around ezCater orders. Things like Prep sheets, order guides, catering setup diagrams, labeling systems, and catering logs all help you stay organized and on the same page as your team. 
•  Sign up for a Training webinar to learn all the basics of getting started, or review our ezCater Partner: Standard Operating Procedures to see what new order notifications look like, view a timeline of an order lifecycle, and review automated phone call cadence.

Be responsive

Once orders are submitted to your store, please respond promptly and confirm orders within 15-minutes from order submission (within operating hours).  Being responsive is one of the most important and simplest ways to impress our customers, and naturally grow your store ranking.

• Anyone responsible for catering should have access to ezManage and have notifications turned on. Notifications can be sent by text message, email, or push notification (if using our iOS app).  
• Timely responses not only contribute to a positive customer experience, but will give you a boost in the search results, getting you higher to the top of the page. (your store will also avoid automated phone calls if you accept and reconfirm orders within the 15-minute window). 
• Your response time is a metric that will be shown to customers on your marketplace listing at the bottom of the page, this could potentially play a factor in customer decision making, so take pride in how quickly your team responds to order notifications.
• Please ensure you have multiple users who have access to ezManage and are set up with order notifications to ensure quick response time. Stay alert and make sure to reconfirm any order modifications, and day-before reconfirmations as soon as it's appears in ezManage.

Focus on order accuracy

Our top priority is to provide our customers with a simple and hassle-free ordering experience. Customers expect their order to arrive on time, in full, and as advertised through your marketplace listing. We are dedicated to reducing the occurrence of missing items in orders to ensure that every customer receives exactly what they expect. Maintaining order accuracy is crucial to customer satisfaction, and one of the biggest factors that affect your repeat customer percentage. 

Best Practices:

• It's the restaurant's responsibility to hand off the complete order to the correct driver. Make sure to confirm the 6-digit order number and use the kitchen print-out as a checklist and review with the driver that each item is provided. 
• Ensuring the customer's food matches the item photos and descriptions on your marketplace listing will help with customer satisfaction. Make sure your item packaging matches the photos you’ve provided. Please review our Menu Help center page on photos best practices, or book a free photoshoot with our team. 
• Make a labeling system for all ezCater orders to ensure each item is provided, and any dietary restrictions are clearly labeled. 
• Reconfirm and review all your catering orders 24 hours in advance, and double check orders before handing off to ezdispatch. 
• Designate a place in your restaurant to organize your catering orders, and use the kitchen print out as a checklist, as you’re packing up the order. 

Provide customers piece-of-mind with delivery updates

We prioritize transparency and reliability with our customers and restaurant partners. Customers expect deliveries to arrive on time, delivery tracking alerts not only keeps customers informed about the status of their order, but also instills confidence that the order will be delivered. 

Best Practices:

• Utilize ezDispatch to have customer text message updates provided on every single order you accept. 
• If you plan on handling the delivery yourself, utilize our ezManage delivery management system to enhance the overall customer experience, and provide valuable SMS updates once the food leaves the restaurant, and again once its been delivered.
• Our simple delivery technology provides your drivers with a text message containing all the necessary information to be successful when delivering the order. (one touch navigation, the ability to call the customer, photos of the drop off, etc) 
  
  
• Drivers can download our ezManage driver app on Apple App Store or Google Play to be able to take photos of the order once its been delivered. 

Be punctual

Be proactive in either delivering the food to the customer on time and as expected, or having the order ready by the specified pick-up time to hand off to ezDispatch. This ensures the customer can enjoy their meal without unnecessary delays. Business catering is high stakes, delays can cost people their reputation, money, or even their job. Punctuality reflects positively on your overall reliability, and helps your brand create a positive reputation among our business customers.  

Best Practices:

In house delivery

• For orders you deliver yourself, the delivery contact will be provided on the order print out so you know exactly who to ask for, and call once you arrive on-site. 
• Assigning your own drivers to orders ensures they get text message reminders the morning of the delivery, and will also have all the information they need to deliver the order successfully. (contact name, number, delivery address)

ezDispatch

• Keeping our drivers waiting at the restaurant can affect your “food ready for ezDispatch” metric, Hurting your overall ranking and potentially disqualifying you from our reliability rockstar program. 
• Double check pick-up times, and communicate any updates with your catering staff. (ezDispatch delivery companies are able to update the pick-up time 90 minutes before the event time). 
• Make sure your team has email notifications turned on, and keep an eye out for any delivery updates within the portal- our delivery companies can update pick-up details up until 90- minutes before the event time. 

Monitor your metrics and make ongoing improvements

Strive for excellence on every single ezCater order! Consistently delivering high-quality service and providing exceptional food will help you maintain a positive reputation, and high star-rating on the ezCater platform. 

Best Practices:

•  Regularly access your ezManage account to monitor your operational metrics, check for order issues, rejections, cancellations, and read customer feedback in the reviews section.
•  Aiming high when it comes to reviews will not only boost your credibility, but will also help boost your overall ranking in our search results, contributing to your overall success of the partnership.
•  We encourage attending a weekly training webinar to learn the basics of ezManage, learn how to review your performance, and optimize your store parameters for long-term success. 

For any questions, please email us at partnersuccess@ezcater.com