Turn One Catering Order Into A Repeat Client

The best catering client Tim Halls has is one he did not have to go find.

The order came in through ezCater. The food went out, and it was right. The next day Tim picked up the phone, called the customer, and explained something most operators never say out loud: both of us are paying platform fees on every one of these transactions. Would you like to order directly from here on out?

They said yes. Today they are a regular — pharmaceutical reps who book recurring office catering and collect loyalty points they cash in for meals on their days off.

That conversion is not luck, and it is not a one-off. Tim runs it deliberately, and roughly 60% of first-time customers convert to direct clients after that first call. It is not a pitch. It is a conversation about economics, followed by a reason to say yes.

The Call Most Caterers Never Make

Tim calls every new catering client after their first order. Sometimes the same day. Sometimes a day or two later. That single call does three jobs at once.

It confirms the order actually went well, which is the only reliable way to catch a problem before it becomes a lost customer. It opens an honest conversation about fees and the benefits of ordering direct. And — the part operators consistently underestimate — it signals something about how Tim runs his business. He is not a transaction. He is a person who wants the relationship to continue.

Linda Bogach runs her own version of this at Central BBQ. In her case it is less about converting anyone off a platform and more about simply being the caterer who called. Because most caterers do not. The client places the order, the food shows up, the van pulls away, and that is the last they hear from you until they need catering again and go looking — at which point they are just as likely to find somebody else.

Why Referral Is The Real Engine

About 70% of Tim's catering volume comes from word of mouth and direct referral. In a market like Plano — dense with corporate offices, construction firms, pharmaceutical companies, and a steady stream of weddings and private events — that number reflects how catering decisions actually get made.

Nobody chooses a caterer in a vacuum. They ask a colleague. They remember the food at a coworker's retirement party. The HR admin who ordered breakfast for the safety meeting tells the project manager at her next company about the taco bar. Tim has watched pharmaceutical reps change territories and hand him off by name: I am moving, but the person taking over my accounts is going to order from you.

That kind of handoff does not happen because the food is good. The food has to be good — that is what starts the conversation. The handoff happens because the relationship earned it.

That is not a motivational line. It is a description of a compounding system. Every well-executed event produces referrals. Every referral produces another direct account. Every direct account produces more events. The math only works if you treat each event as an investment in the next one.

Every Event Is A Tasting For The Whole Room

Tim brings samples to prospects when he can. When he cannot, he invites them in instead. One wedding he was preparing for started with the parents coming into the restaurant to eat. Then a son. Then the bride and groom. Every one of them paid their own way — and Tim understood exactly what was happening.

He was sampling for 200 people. Guests of wedding age, most of them with their own events somewhere on the horizon.

This is a way of thinking about a catering job that most operators never apply. The guests at any event you cater are prospective catering clients. A breakfast for 250 construction workers is a tasting for 250 people who go home to families that throw graduation parties, retirements and weddings. The pharmaceutical rep lunch is a tasting for everyone in that office, some of whom plan events for a living.

The practical consequence: events are not just revenue. They are your highest-leverage tasting opportunity, and treating them that way — making sure the setup looks right, the food holds temperature, there is enough of it, and the interaction is warm — is what turns a catering day into a referral engine.

Find The Broken Link In Your Own Chain

If your catering growth has stalled at a number you are not happy with, the useful question is not "how do I get more customers." It is which link in this chain is actually broken.

1. First order — are you getting found?

Something has to generate the inquiry: a third-party platform, word of mouth, or conversion from your own restaurant traffic. If the phone rings but volume is low, your bottleneck is here and nothing further down the chain will fix it.

2. Conversion — are you calling every first-time client?

Not an automated email. A call. If roughly 60% of those conversations turn into direct accounts, the return on that fifteen minutes is not a close call. If you are not making the call, you are leaving the relationship wherever it started.

3. Retention — do repeat clients hear from you between events?

Tim's pharmaceutical reps have loyalty points. Dale Lockwood sends a regular email to his list. Linda Bogach tracks who has not ordered in a while and follows up directly. Clients who feel remembered order again without prompting. Clients who feel like a transaction wait until they need catering, then go looking.

4. Referral — are you treating events as tastings?

The guests at your next event are your next clients. They do not know that yet. Your job is to make the food and the experience good enough that the thought occurs to them on their own.

The Hour You Have To Protect

Tim is honest about the stage his business is in. He is still doing most of it himself — running the kitchen, scheduling events, doing the supply runs — and trying to carve out time for business development. His wife has taken on more of the scheduling, which helps.

He knows that showing up at offices with samples is the most effective outreach available to him. He is not doing as much of it as he would like, because the restaurant demands his presence. His workaround, when he can hold to it, is to work from home in the morning — because every time he sets foot in the restaurant, someone pulls him into something and the day disappears.

Michael Attias put the arithmetic to him plainly during their conversation: an hour a day, five days a week, is 250 hours a year spent growing catering sales. The point is not finding a free hour. It is protecting one.

Which brings the whole thing back to where it started. Every first order is an audition for the next one. Operators who treat it that way build something that compounds. Everyone else runs the event, packs the van, and goes looking for a new customer in the morning.

Tim Halls is the co-founder and executive chef of Burnt BBQ N' Tacos in Plano, Texas. Before opening Burnt BBQ N' Tacos he worked in hotel kitchens and food service and served as executive chef at a healthcare facility, and he built his highest-volume catering program at Baker Brothers American Deli — running the smallest restaurant in the chain while producing its highest catering sales. Catering and pop-ups now account for roughly 60% of Burnt BBQ N' Tacos' business.

← All articles