Online ordering and what it means to dining customers vs. catering customers

The most important distinction is that when it comes to online ordering, the catering experience is vastly different from the pick-up or in-store dining experience. Operationally, restaurants must treat catering as a separate revenue stream, if not a separate business unit.
Consider that for catering, the relationship between your restaurant and your customer is business-to-business (for the most part) and as such, the right systems, procedures and policies need to be in place to ensure proper execution. Just allowing someone to order online is the easy part; fulfilling the request and delivering satisfaction to the customer requires more attention to detail (it’s not a huge deal if a pick-up order forgets the knife and fork, but it is a HUGE deal if a catered meal for 20 people in an office forgets the cutlery).
The reason why catering must be treated separately is obvious for most operators; that’s why you have catering managers and you don’t rely on store or regional managers to handle it. But additionally, there’s the issue of production management. The kitchen needs to learn how to balance POS orders (whether in-store or online) and catering orders. Catering orders can easily exceed the ticket value of a dine-in or pick-up order by 10 times or more. That’s not something to risk leaving to a 19-year old hostess or line cook.
The crux of it is that traditional online ordering solutions – of which there are many – are designed to satisfy the single-ticket dine-in or pick-up customer, not the catering customer. Catering is a proven revenue stream for casual and fast-casual operations, and must be treated accordingly. Online ordering, while apparently convenient and cutting-edge, hasn’t “put up the numbers” yet.