There’s no doubt that reviews are a huge part of life these days, and catering is a good example. Finding a professional to handle your next catered event is something you do mindfully, in hopes that your event will be as successful as you imagine it. But it doesn’t always work out that way – perhaps because you didn’t read enough reviews!
Knowing what leads to negative reviews is a great way to get a handle on some of the common catering pitfalls, and steer your event away from a mediocre caterer who gives you reasons to complain and write negative reviews. It would be much preferable to have a positive experience and write a positive review about your event. That said, here are three big reasons why catering companies get bad reviews.
1. Poor planning and communication
Everybody who has organized a catered event knows how stressful the experience can actually be. Depending on the nature of the event, you probably have a lot of hopes riding on it. People you know and respect are going to be there, and you want to do everything you can to make it special. When the caterer you hired is not a good communicator and doesn’t make the planning process easier for you, it adds to the amount of stress you’re carrying. This often happens because a catering company is overbooked, but there is no excuse for it. When communication and planning are not done well, negative reviews will almost certainly result. Even of the final result is still good, people will leave comments about the lack of professionalism showed during the planning process.
2. Short-staffed events
This is another symptom of catering companies that are overbooked, understaffed, or both. There are a lot of negative reviews out there pertaining to the event being short-staffed. This is a real impact on the service, and the overall experience for guests. It helps to know up front how many people you can expect to be staffing your event, and whether they are experienced and/or properly trained. If expectations are not met in this regard, negative reviews will almost always result. Catering companies simply cannot cut corners on how they choose staff each individual event.
3. Poor quality food and drink
This is obviously a big one – because if the food and drink isn’t very good, what do all of these other things really matter? There are so many negative reviews out there based on low quality food, and the reasons can be varying. Sometimes, the catering company tried to improve their bottom line by ordering products from cheaper suppliers. Other times, the preparation of the food simply wasn’t up to par. Whatever the reasons, there is no excuse for poor quality food and drink – results like this will rightfully lead to a negative review.
What caterers are operating in your area?
Getting a sense of each catering company in your area, and what kind of reputation they have built in the community, is fairly easy to do online. Once you’ve narrowed your list down to a few options, talking to each of them over the phone, or in person, is a great way to really “zero in” on the best caterer for your event.