Catering 2.0 Overview
Lunchbox's catering solution was designed to empower catering businesses to streamline their operations, improve customer experiences, and ultimately boost profitability by cutting out unnecessary intermediaries and providing greater control over critical aspects of their business.
Highlighted Features
Branded First-Party Catering Platform: Catering businesses can establish a strong brand presence by offering a dedicated catering platform under their branding. This fosters trust and recognition among customers, enhancing brand loyalty and credibility. Catering is available via our responsive website or our native app.
Menu Management: We make it easy to manage your catering menus directly from your Point of Sale. You can add, edit, or remove menu items, and the Lunchbox system stays in sync with your POS menu.
Customizable Production Sheets: This feature allows you to effectively manage catering packages/items, track usage, and ensure efficient utilization of resources while providing a seamless and customizable catering experience for your clients.
Quote Generation and Management: You can generate and send customer quotes directly through the Call Center Customer Ordering Dashboard. This feature allows you to send a quote, enable the customer to pay, and then turn the quote into an order.
House Accounts: Manage customer accounts and extend credit to your most loyal customers or corporate clients. The house account feature offers convenient payment options and tax exemptions where applicable. Easily export reports for account statements and print or email a customer account invoice. This streamlines the billing process and enhances customer satisfaction.
Ability to Edit Placed Orders: You can change placed orders, accommodating last-minute requests or adjustments. This includes any orders placed through the Call Center or by the Customer.
Reporting and Analytics: The Admin Dashboard provides access to catering-specific reports and analytics, allowing you to track key performance metrics, such as sales volume, order frequency, and customer demographics. This data-driven insight enables informed decision-making and strategic planning.
Suggested Configurations
Configuring catering within a system like Lunchbox typically involves setting up various parameters, menus, options, and settings to tailor the catering functionality to the business's specific needs. Here's a general outline of how you might configure catering within Lunchbox:
System Setup
Set up or access the administration dashboard of the Lunchbox system.
Ensure that the catering module or feature is enabled and accessible.
Menu Configuration
Import catering menus into the system. This may involve adding descriptions and images.
Customize menu options based on dietary preferences, allergens, or special requests.
Use Time Slots to restrict particular items during peak hours
Restrict item availability for delivery providers by using Lunchbox's override tool
House Account Setup
Configure settings related to House Accounts, if applicable. This may include defining credit limits, payment terms, and billing cycles for House Accounts.
Order Settings
Configure order settings such as minimum order amounts, lead times, and delivery or pickup options.
Set up any rules or restrictions for accepting catering orders, such as maximum order capacity or holiday blackout dates.
Payment Options
Define accepted payment methods for catering orders. This may include credit/debit cards, gift cards, cash, or House Accounts.
Customization Options
Customize the ordering process to meet your business's specific needs. This may include adding fields for special instructions, delivery addresses, or event details.
Add a logo, catering email address, and phone number for your receipts
Notification Settings
Configure notifications for catering orders. This may include email confirmations to customers, alerts to staff for new orders, or reminders for upcoming events.
Utilize Lunchbox's Event Logging feature to assess any issues that may arise, such as order/menu-related issues or connectivity issues.
Reporting and Analytics
Set up reporting tools to track catering sales, order volumes, and customer feedback.
Customize reports to monitor key performance indicators and identify areas for improvement.
Utilize Lunchbox's segmentation tools to categorize customers based on various criteria such as order frequency, spending habits, location, preferences, or other relevant factors.
Create and send targeted email campaigns directly from Lunchbox's CRM software. These campaigns can include promotional offers, event invitations, new menu announcements, or other relevant content.
Review Lunchbox's extensive list of partner integrations to identify those that offer data collection capabilities relevant to CRM marketing.
House Account
House Accounts provide organizations with a valuable tool to simplify their catering expenses, improve financial management, and enhance the overall efficiency of their catering operations. With the option to pay using a line of credit and the convenience of designated House Accounts, Lunchbox ensures a seamless experience for businesses, hospitals, and non-profit organizations alike.
Creating a House Account
The customer must be a registered user. They can register through the site or can be written by an administrator through the Call Center.
House Account Administrators will then set the customer up with House Account credentials via the House Account tab in the Admin Portal.
Search for the customer and create the house account with the allowed spending limit and beginning balance. Other optional features include applying special discounts, setting up the ability to send invoices and statements, marking customers tax-exempt, and assigning locations where they are authorized to use this credit.
Customer Experience
Placing an Order: After creating the house account, guests can place an order through the Lunchbox system as usual.
Checkout Process: During the checkout process, guests can choose their preferred payment method. In addition to options like "Cash" and "Credit," they will also see "House Account" listed as a payment type.
Selecting House Account: Guests can use their House Account for payment by selecting the "House Account" option during checkout. This indicates that they wish to pay using their designated House Account line of credit.
Order Confirmation: After selecting the House Account payment option, guests can proceed to confirm their order. The system will then process the order and apply the charges to their House Account accordingly.
Invoicing and Statements
Locate the Account: The administrator begins by locating the House Account to which they wish to invoice or send a statement. This can be done by searching for the account using either the email address or name associated with it.
Invoicing:
To generate an invoice, the administrator selects all relevant transactions associated with the House Account.
Once the transactions are selected, they click on the printer symbol, which typically represents the option to print or generate documents.
A pop-up window appears, prompting the administrator to select the option to email the invoice. They enter the recipient's email address and any additional information if necessary.
After confirming the details, the invoice is generated and sent to the specified email address.
Sending Statements:
To send a statement, the administrator navigates to the Account History section within the Lunchbox system.
They export the transactions associated with the House Account into a desired format, such as a spreadsheet or PDF.
Once the transactions are downloaded into the desired format, the administrator can email the statement to the recipient.
Applying for Payments
Locate the Account: The administrator needs to locate the House Account to which they wish to apply for a payment. This can be done by searching for the account using either the email address or name associated with it.
Add House Account Payment: Once the account is located, the administrator selects "Add House Account Payment." This initiates the process of adding a payment to the House Account.
Fill in Payment Details: The administrator fills in the necessary details for the payment, including the payment amount, payment method, transaction reference, and any other relevant information. After entering the details, they click the "Apply Payment" button to proceed.
Select Invoices to Apply Payment: After applying the payment, the administrator selects the specific invoice(s) to which they wish to apply it. This allows them to allocate the payment to the appropriate invoices associated with the House Account.
Deduction and Credit Limit Increase: Once the payment is applied to the selected invoices, the corresponding amount is deducted from the House Account balance. Additionally, the House Account's credit limit increases by the amount paid, reflecting the available credit for future orders.
Call (Command) Center Order
The Call Center module in Lunchbox provides a convenient solution for catering businesses to accept customer phone orders across multiple locations.
Employee Interface
Lunchbox provides a user-friendly interface for employees working in the call center. They can easily navigate the system to place orders on behalf of customers.
Phone Orders
Employees can use the Call Center module to enter the order details directly into Lunchbox when customers call to place an order. This includes items, quantities, special instructions, delivery or pickup preferences, and payment information.
Location Finder
Lunchbox's location finder feature helps employees identify the nearest or most suitable location for the customer based on their address or ZIP code. This ensures orders are routed to the appropriate kitchen or store for fulfillment.
Menu Access
Employees can access the full catering menu within Lunchbox, including any special promotions or offerings. This allows them to provide personalized recommendations and upsell additional items to customers during the ordering process.
Order Management
Once an order is placed through the Call Center, employees can track its status within the Lunchbox using the Call Center Order Dashboard. They can monitor order progress, update customers on estimated delivery or pickup times, handle any modifications or cancellations as needed, and transfer orders to another location.
Customer Accounts
Lunchbox allows employees to access customer accounts and order history, providing insights into past preferences and ordering patterns. This enables a more personalized and efficient ordering experience for repeat customers.