Summary
While catering is often touted as a high-margin growth lever for restaurant brands, most are unknowingly letting the opportunity slip away — with up to 95% of catering traffic remaining anonymous and unconverted. The Catering Conversion Scorecard was designed to diagnose that gap, providing a structured self-assessment across five critical areas: identity capture, abandonment recovery, personalization, loyalty, and cross-channel orchestration. The blog offers a candid, witty walkthrough of how most brands are either thriving or hemorrhaging potential revenue, depending on how well they translate digital interest into action. More than just a performance audit, the scorecard reframes conversion as a form of hospitality — one rooted in relevance, timing, and behavioral insight. The real question isn’t whether there’s demand, but whether your systems are attentive enough to catch it before it vanishes.
When I started working on The Catering Conversion Scorecard, I had one goal: to help restaurant brands finally understand how much revenue they’re leaving on the table. (Pun absolutely intended.)
Because let’s be honest — catering is supposed to be your golden goose. High-value customers, repeat business, big-ticket orders. But for most restaurant brands, it’s more like a golden ghost. You know the opportunity’s there, but it keeps vanishing into thin air — or worse, into your competitor’s inbox.
So I built this scorecard to help you measure how well your catering funnel actually captures, converts, and keeps those elusive high-value guests. And the results? Let’s just say some brands are feasting, and others are, well, nibbling at the edges.
The Harsh Reality: 95% of Your Catering Traffic Is Anonymous
Yes, you read that right. Up to 95% of people checking out your catering packages, menus, and pricing are complete strangers. They browse, they click, they dream of mini sliders and charcuterie spreads… and then they vanish.
That’s a lot of invisible potential. And if you’re not identifying them — through smart identity resolution, behavior-based triggers, and a sprinkle of AI personalization — you’re missing out on real, measurable catering revenue.
How the Scorecard Works
Think of it as your catering report card — but one that’s actually useful and doesn’t require pretending you “love group projects.”
You answer questions across five key categories:
- Identity & Data Capture – How well do you recognize your visitors before they disappear?
- Abandonment Recovery – Are you following up when someone bails on a big catering order?
- Personalized Offers – Do your promotions actually feel personal, or are they the digital equivalent of shouting into the void?
- Loyalty & Retention – Are you giving past catering clients a reason to come back (and brag to their office manager friends)?
- Cross-Channel Orchestration – Are your emails, texts, and ads playing nicely together, or stepping on each other’s toes?
You give yourself a score — 0 for “not implemented,” 3 for “sort of,” and 5 for “yes, I’m crushing it.” Add it up, and voilà: your catering conversion IQ.
Your Score Says a Lot About You
- 80–100 points: You’re a Catering Revenue Champion. I bow to you. You’ve nailed the funnel and are likely ready to fine-tune with AI-driven personalization.
- 50–79 points: You’re in Growth Opportunity territory. You’ve got a strong foundation, but anonymous traffic and missed triggers are quietly sabotaging your numbers.
- 0–49 points: Okay, honesty hour: you’re leaking revenue. But don’t panic — it’s fixable, and faster than you’d think.
From Interest to Action: The Secret Sauce
Once you know where you stand, it’s time to close the gap. The Scorecard breaks down five types of intent signals that reveal exactly what your guests want — even before they tell you.
- Identification signals: Who’s browsing?
- Behavioral signals: What are they doing?
- Product signals: What are they obsessed with (hello, brunch menu)?
- Lifecycle signals: Are they a first-timer, loyalist, or lapsed fan?
- Transactional signals: What have they bought before — and what will they buy next?
Get these right, and you can serve up messages that feel like good hospitality — timely, relevant, and human. Because when your guest gets a perfectly placed reminder about that half-finished catering order? That’s not marketing. That’s good manners.
The Numbers Don’t Lie
Here’s what happens when you bring it all together:
- 40%+ increase in first-party ID capture
- 4–6x more revenue from triggered messages
- $1M+ recovered in catering orders (yes, really)
Your score isn’t just a vanity metric — it’s a forecast for future revenue.
Ready to Find Out Where You Stand?
Take The Catering Conversion Scorecard — it’s quick, it’s free, and it might just reveal how much cash is hiding in your anonymous traffic.
Download the full scorecard and find out whether you’re a Banquet Boss or a Buffet Bystander. (Either way, I’ll meet you at the dessert table.)
