A restaurant answers every event and catering inquiry by putting one system between the inquiry and the person who books it. Every request lands in one place, gets matched to the right room and package, and has a reply drafted before anyone sits down to look at it. A person still approves what goes out. The difference is that they start from a draft rather than a pile.
The reason inquiries go unanswered is rarely that nobody cares. They arrive at the worst possible time, in the wrong place, and answering one properly takes a while.
Why do event inquiries go unanswered?
They arrive during service. The person who can answer is on the floor, in the kitchen or asleep. The form was filled in at 10 at night by someone planning a holiday party from the couch.
They arrive everywhere. A website form, the general inbox, a location's voicemail, a direct message, a regular asking a server. Each one has a different owner, or none.
A good reply is slow to write. Which location fits the headcount? Is the room free that Friday? What is the minimum in December? Is there a vegan option for a third of the table? The answers exist, but in several places.
Follow-up depends on memory. A proposal goes out and nobody circles back. The event goes elsewhere, and nobody finds out why.
What should happen in the first hour?
The steps are simple. The value is that they happen every time, including at 10 at night.
Catch it
Every form, email and voicemail lands in one pipeline, with the source noted.
Read it
Date, headcount, budget, dietary needs, and whether it is a seated dinner or a drop-off.
Match it
The right location, room or kitchen, by size, address and what is free that day.
Draft it
A reply and a proposal from your real packages and minimums, in your voice.
Ask a person
It waits for the events lead or the manager, who edits a line and says yes.
Follow up
A nudge is drafted on the schedule you set, so a quiet proposal does not disappear.
Anything missing becomes a question in the draft rather than a guess. If the budget and the room do not fit, the draft says so and offers the nearest thing that does.
Where do the rules come from?
From you, written down once. This is the part that makes the drafts good, and it is less work than it sounds. Most restaurants already have an events PDF, a catering menu and a person who knows the exceptions.
The rooms. Capacity standing and seated, what each is good for, and what can be combined.
The money. Minimums by day and season, deposits, service and how the packages are priced. These stay deterministic. A price comes from your table, never from a model's memory.
The exceptions. Dates that are blocked, what the kitchen will not do for a large party, allergens that need a call rather than a note.
The voice. How your restaurant sounds in a reply. A few real examples go further than a style guide.
The routing. Who owns the reply at each location, and who covers when they are away.
What changes once it is running?
- Inquiries in five places, owned by whoever saw them
- Replies written from scratch after service
- Room and minimum checked by asking around
- Proposals forgotten after they go out
- Repeat accounts noticed only when they stop
- One pipeline, by location, date and stage
- A draft waiting, from your packages
- Availability and minimums already applied
- Follow-up drafted on a schedule
- Repeat accounts flagged before they go quiet
The second-order change matters most. Once every inquiry lives in one record, you can finally see the business: which location wins events, which packages sell, what a corporate account is worth over a year, and which weekly order has quietly stopped.
Where should a restaurant start?
Start with one location, or with the one events lead if you have one. Write down the rooms and rules for that location. Measure time to first reply and the share of inquiries that get a proposal for two weeks. Then run it for a few weeks with a person approving every draft.
If it is working, the same rules extend to the next location with its own rooms and minimums. Catering usually follows events, because the shape is the same: an inquiry, a menu, a date, a person who says yes.
We built a working demonstration of this flow on sample data, from an inquiry arriving to the proposal waiting for a yes.