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How to Choose an Office Lunch Catering Partner For Your Business

Corporate catering isn’t a new phenomenon. It has been around for quite some time and has served people quite effectively. The most common form of corporate catering is office lunches and events. Employees often finalize their employment decisions on whether or not the employer offers workplace dining provisions. About 38% of people consider food to be one of the three major factors when choosing an employer. An efficient office lunch catering partner can help maintain and boost employee retention.

But what is an office lunch catering partner? What do they do? And how do you choose one for your office’s lunch needs? Worry not, as we’ll take a closer look at these questions in today’s blog. Read along to know more.

What is an office lunch catering partner?

An office lunch catering partner or a catering partner is a catering service provider that serves your organization food and beverages for lunch and corporate events. By partnering with a catering company or service provider, you establish a professional bond between your organization and the caterer. This allows you to meet your workforce’s daily nutritional needs.

As mentioned previously, employees often prefer having a workplace caterer as it saves them time and effort in finding meals during lunch breaks. A typical office lunch catering partner offers food items such as snacks, beverages, and ready-to-eat meals. The ones with a proper budget and cooking facilities offer full-course meals and fast food items.

Benefits of having an office lunch catering partner

An office lunch catering partner solves several issues for you and your employees. Let’s take a look at the prominent benefits:

Having a catering partner allows you to shift your focus towards issues other than employee nutrition since it falls under the catering partner’s responsibilities.
A good office lunch catering partner helps save employers time that can be lost on employees looking for food options outside the office premises.
You can call upon the catering partner for major corporate events, well-planned dinners, and client meetings.
Having a catering partner with good food and rotating menu items helps boost employee retention and even works as a recruitment tool for your company.

An office lunch catering partner’s services should never be taken for granted as they do form an integral part of your company’s daily life experience. The more you nourish this relationship, the better.

What to look for while choosing a capable office lunch catering partner

Now that we’ve covered the benefits of having an office lunch catering company, let’s look at the factors that enable a partnership:

Make sure the catering company offers quality meals

Companies often take the short route while choosing an office lunch catering partner by disregarding the food quality. Their strategy saves them money but compromises their employees’ health and well-being. Do not make the same mistake of choosing cost over food quality. Make sure to check the way the catering company packs its food items.

If the company serves cooked food, ensure that its workers serve the food while keeping hygiene standards in mind. Ensure there are no pests in the food items offered by the company. Food quality is the most crucial standard upon which a food catering company should be gauged.

Check the catering company’s corporate serving experience

Always ensure the viability of the office lunch catering partner’s corporate serving experience. The more events they’ve covered, the better their services will be. Organizations conduct different events, and a portfolio covering such events is a must. Ensure the catering company is on time on the office premises and is ready to serve employees at maximum capacity at any time during the day.

Check for complimentary services

While your office lunch catering partner needs to be well-versed in high-quality food offerings, it should also be capable of offering additional services such as pre and post-serving cleanup. A catering company that also knows site decoration and audio-video planning can save you time, effort, and complexity in planning the next big event.

It isn’t the most crucial aspect of choosing a catering company, but it is certainly viable. Having a catering company that does a bit more than their conventional duties represents the company’s willingness to learn and try out new things. They may not be the best service providers for the added services, but if they’re capable enough to get the job done in record time, then you’ve got a good partner for corporate events.

Excellent communication skills

Another crucial component for finalizing an office lunch catering partner is the company’s communication capabilities. Make sure to check the channels they use and their response speeds for different queries. You can do so by going through their social media accounts on channels such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, etc.

You can also send an introductory mail highlighting your organizational needs and gauge the response quality and time from the same. No company can give meaningful responses instantaneously, but a window of four to six hours is considered ideal. If the catering company shows interest and asks questions seeking details, try giving them the same and check for their quality of responses.

Prior client feedback

Client feedback forms a company’s image in the market. A catering company with a promising list of services but lackluster client feedback will not establish faith in the client’s mind. Always check a catering company’s reviews on platforms such as Google, Trustpilot, Capterra, etc. Also, look for symbols that signify the review’s authenticity, as such platforms can be flooded with manufactured and fake reviews to boost SEO scores and local rankings.

Go for comprehensive reviews that detail the catering company’s services and their impact on a business. If the review has pictures to show alongside the written review, then it is highly likely to be true. Do not be biased toward the positive or negative reviews, as no company is perfect. Only finalize your decision based on your understanding of the services on offer and from the shared experiences of multiple clients.

Why look elsewhere when you have the best office lunch catering partner right here

At lechef, we understand the value of high-quality, healthy, and affordable meals for the everyday employee. That is why our smart fridge and mobile app act as the best ecosystem employees need for their daily dietary needs during office hours.

The lechef smart fridge helps your employees in the following manner:

It serves up to 50 employees via a single fridge and can be scaled up by adding more units to your office’s same or different floors.
It saves up to 11 hours per employee per month on deciding what to eat during lunch hours. It also saves time spent by employees looking for food items outside the office premises.
With over 200 healthy recipes, employees can choose their favorite meals for the coming days and weeks via the lechef mobile app.
Register once on the lechef mobile app and take a meal from the smart fridge by scanning the QR code. The RFID system detects and identifies the user and their meal preference. It also bills them the amount via the payment method they’ve set up. Hence negating further steps.

Give your employees the premium dining experience they deserve with quick, healthy, and wholesome meals with the lechef smart fridge.

Conclusion

Choosing an office lunch catering partner is easier said than done. The internet is full of new emerging companies that offer many services. However, determining their viability on the face value alone isn’t enough. And when it comes to choosing a catering company as a partner, your scrutiny should be as thorough as it can be. Look for the aspects in the aforementioned list, and you’ll find your answer there. Remember, as an employer, it is your duty to finalize a catering service that provides healthy and high quality meals to your workforce. Because the healthier your workforce is, the more engaged and efficient they will be.