Punctuality Is (Almost) Everything When It Comes To Catering By Mike Bozzelli

As longtime caterers, we have found that we are not judged so much on the food but whether or not we showed up on time.  It is hard not to feel some disappointment after obsessing about the freshness of the bread for our sandwiches or arduously sifting through a pile of tomatoes for the firmest and no one notices because we are always on time.  After decades of catering various events, from office luncheons to graduation parties, what invariably ranks high on feedback is punctuality. 

Sometimes we are late but we always inform the point of contact we are running behind.  As Washington, D.C. caterers, we give our delivery drivers cushion time like all caterers but you cannot account for when the president decides to take a ride.   Our catering van has had to idle on the highway while the president makes an appearance somewhere.  Cushion time and communication prevents such situations going from bad to awful.  

Since we are well familiar with travel pitfalls locally we tend to always be on time.  This brings us back to my original point, punctuality trumps everything when it comes to catering.  Especially if you are ordering from a caterer you have never called on before.  It may be worthy of anthropological study for a caterer in such a scenario to totally fumble the order and see if the customer notices let alone cares.  The experiment would be structured like this, a law firm would order Italian sub sandwiches and the caterer would deliver penne pasta–but right on time.   You would then wait for the irate call from the customer.  But if history is any indication of the outcome there may be an inquiring call from the customer but no fiery complaint because the food arrived on time.  

As a matter of fact, we have never botched an order in this way.  If a customer orders sandwiches they always get sandwiches.   Another fact is that no one wants their coworkers or guests going hungry if it was your responsibility to hire the caterer.  Therefore, if arrival is early or at least not delayed it is vastly appreciated by catering customers and It is something that has not gone unnoticed by us.  

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