Putting your catering order in someone else’s hands can be stressful. Especially when you’re not sure what they do from the time you order until your food is due to arrive. How do you know your catering order will be there? Here we will show you how ordering with ezCater works, from searching for your meal to the delivery of your receipt, so there’s no reason to stress.
Creating Your ezCater Order
To begin placing your catering order, enter a delivery address at ezCater.com or in the ezCater iPhone app. Adding in an event date and time and selecting from food type filters will then populate your screen with restaurants and caterers who meet your needs. Looking for your favorite Thai food restaurant? You can also search for a caterer name or food type to locate specific caterers or cuisines.
Once you find a caterer with the menu you are looking for, fill up your cart. If you take a moment now to create or log into your ezCater account, your draft order will save to your Orders page – allowing you to pick up where you left off if you want to finish your order later. Start your order Monday morning and finish it Wednesday afternoon, or work on it when you have time throughout the day. Creating an account only requires your name, email address, phone number, and choice of password, a process that takes less than a minute.
Draft orders will continually save your work. Select a caterer from our nationwide caterer network, fill your cart, enter instructions, and your order will update along the way. Draft orders will even remain in your account for 30 days if left unsubmitted. So, prepare your orders in advance, and place them when you’re ready.
Checking Out
After you click “Checkout”, ezCater will compare the selected serving sizes in your order to your headcount and alert you of any discrepancies. If you ordered 10 sandwiches but are feeding 15 people, ezCater will let you know. After all, no one likes being short on food.
The ezCater platform will then ask for delivery and payment information. If you’re ordering after 5 p.m. the evening before your scheduled delivery date, it will also ask for your “Short Notice Choice” – your instructions in the unlikely event that the caterer cannot accept the order due to time constraints. Let ezCater know if you would want to replace your sandwiches with other sandwiches or tacos instead and, if needed, your backup plan will be put in motion.
Just like that, your catering order is ready to be placed. Clicking “Place Your Order” on the final checkout screen changes the draft order into a submitted order. Then there’s nothing left to do but celebrate the time you just got back in your day.
After Your Catering Order Is Submitted
After you have placed your order, the ezCater platform authorizes your payment method, sends you a confirmation email, and audits the order for potential issues. If it finds one, like an invalid delivery address or a conflicting same-day order, it asks an ezCater Customer Service Ninja for help troubleshooting. A Ninja will call, text or email to clear up any issues. Once resolved, the order is transmitted to the caterer.
After a catering order is transmitted, the caterer must accept it. If a transmission goes unanswered, the caterer receives a series of prompts to reply. ezCater Ninjas will call, text and email caterers to make sure your order gets through. Caterers’ response time directly affects their ezCater search ranking, so they act as quickly as possible. The same goes for their order acceptance rate.
From Submitted to Accepted Order
Your submitted order becomes an accepted order when the caterer agrees to fulfill it. This ensures that the caterer can fill your order with what you want when you want. Placed an order for three trays of chicken parmesan for noon on Wednesday? Your caterer will confirm they have the ingredients to make all three trays and that they will be at your location at noon on Wednesday. At this point, ezCater sends you an email notification if your profile indicates that preference. You can then modify or cancel the order online up to 24 hours prior to your event. If something comes up after that, a Ninja can help you make short-notice changes with the caterer’s permission.
If the caterer truly cannot fulfill the order, the submitted order is canceled, and a Ninja contacts you immediately to help replace it.
Reconfirming Your ezCater Order
On the day of your event, the caterer receives phone calls from ezCater to confirm again that your catering order is on track. When they reply that it is, the accepted order becomes reconfirmed and you receive a notification that everything is on track. This step assures that not only did the caterer receive your order, but your order will be delivered. If your caterer said they could make three trays of chicken parmesan, now you will know they are making them and soon they will be on their way. For events at 9 a.m. or later, the caterer arrives 15 minutes before your delivery time to set up the order. When they arrive there’s nothing to sign, so you can stay focused on your meeting or event.
If you’re disappointed for any reason, a quick call or message to ezCater and a Customer Service Ninja will work with the caterer to make things right.
Your Completed ezCater Order
With your catering order delivered, your payment processes and a receipt is emailed to you. If you’ve integrated with Concur, your receipt is automatically uploaded. Either way, you don’t have to worry about remembering to grab a food-soaked paper receipt. Now is also when your ezRewards points are added to your ezCater account.
To earn 100 more ezRewards points, review your order. Your feedback makes future orders and the whole ezCater team smarter and stronger.
Want to see an order in action? Click here to create a new one.
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