Providing lunch for employees is one of the ultimate strategies that you can do as an employee to help increase employees’ productivity level. Thus if you are an employer or a business owner, providing catering might be the chance that you need to do in the year 2023. An improvement that your company might need, to better enhance your business.
But to provide this facility, you will need services from a catering vendor to work with. Choosing the right vendor is very important, thus you should not choose carelessly. Make sure that the catering you provide is not only healthy, but also hygienic, and delicious! This is to help you make sure that the employees not only feel full but are also able to enjoy the food.
In conclusion, you don’t want your investment to go awry just because the food is not delicious and thus employees still prefer to go out and buy their lunch elsewhere. To help you hire the best catering vendor for your company, we have curated the best tips that you can follow!
Know your budget
The budget has an important influence on which vendor you can choose to help provide food for your employees. Thus make sure to calculate everything first, based on how many employees you have. This will help you to figure out how much budget you can spare monthly for employees’ food consumption.
If you have a limited budget, be sure to choose a catering provider that guarantees they can still provide good quality food even at an affordable price. Also, don’t forget to do a comparison between vendors beforehand. Don’t choose the first vendor that you find, even when it is recommended by people closest to you. Do your research first, and compare one vendor service to another – so you can get the best one for your company.
Food selections to served
Check about the menu and food selection the vendor can serve. Don’t let the employees get bored because the food menu is continuously the same or monotonous. You should choose a vendor that can provide food with a delicious taste and provides many menu choices. Thus, employees in the office can have a different menu everyday.
Conduct a tasting survey
Usually, the catering service will allow the company representative to do a tasting survey. You should utilize this, so that you will be able to assess whether the catering service can provide the best service and the food taste you want or not. Because the most important thing about hiring a catering vendor is to make sure that the employee will love the food they provide and not choose to go out to buy other food.
Recommended by people
Catering companies that are recommended by many people usually meet the criteria of being a good catering service provider. The taste of the food is delicious, the price is affordable, and the service is satisfying and professional.
To check for their reviews, you can google them on the internet or check out their social media account. Google reviews and comment sections can be the ultimate way for you to check whether the vendor is yay or nay.
Although this method cannot guarantee 100% measure the quality of the vendor, at least it can be taken into consideration as a first step when you are curating a couple of selections of catering services.
Has been in operation for a long time
You can also prefer to collaborate with businesses that have been established for a long time and are well-known to have adequate quality. It doesn’t mean that a newcomer can not provide you with a good quality service. Many newcomers in the catering world are managed professionally.
However, in terms of experience, the old players might be able to give you more satisfactory results because they have been trained for a long time in the field. But you should still check the first and second points, if they are a longtime player but can’t meet your budget or does, not have a wide selection of delicious food – you should scratch them from the list.
The service is good and satisfying
The criterion for satisfactory service is if it fulfills 4 main requirements, which are speed, accuracy, friendliness, and comfort. These are the things that consumers expect from service providers. If you meet with a vendor that is open to answering as many questions as you have, can be contacted easily, and respond to your request positively – it can be great! Establishing a working relationship with this kind of partner will help to ensure better maintenance in the future.
These are the main criteria that you need to assess for your future catering vendor. You can use this as a benchmark to choose which vendor you should collaborate with.
Aside from food, don’t forget to also provide water at your company to help maintain employees’ hydration. To be more economical, you can buy bulk bottled water and put it in the lunchroom area. Thus, the employee can easily get one after they finish their lunch.