Caterman.
An event-catering company in California, running on a system we built and still run. It started as one integration into the website they already had. It is now where the enquiries, the quotes, the bookings and the staffing live.
The situation.
Catering is won on the reply. An enquiry arrives while the owner is at a tasting, mid-service, or asleep, and the couple planning a wedding message four caterers on the same evening. The one who answers first is usually the one who gets to quote, and the one who quotes same-day is usually the one who gets the booking.
Caterman had the demand and the reputation. What they did not have was a way to catch every enquiry the moment it landed, ask the right questions without a person doing it, and turn a messy brief into a priced proposal the same day. Enquiries went into a shared inbox and competed with the work of actually running events.
It qualifies. The owner closes.
This is the part most people expect to be the other way round, and it is the reason it works for a business that sells on relationships.
It answers in seconds
Every enquiry gets a real reply straight away, at any hour, in the voice of the business rather than a holding message.
It asks what a caterer would ask
Date, guests, venue, service style, what the day is meant to feel like. A few at a time, over as many exchanges as it takes.
It hands over a brief
The owner steps in on the jobs worth their time, with the qualifying already done. Nothing gets asked twice, and the customer never notices the switch.
6
exchanges, typically, before the owner steps in
114
new enquiries handled since it went live in June 2026
7 in 10
handovers where four or more exchanges were already done
Caterman's owner takes over the leads that matter to him, and leaves the rest running. That is how it was meant to be used. The system is not there to replace the person who wins the work, it is there so that person only speaks to enquiries that are worth speaking to, and never loses one to a slow first reply.
What we built.
Added a piece at a time, in production, while the business kept trading. There was no point at which everything stopped for a rebuild.
Enquiry capture on every route
Website forms and the sales inbox all land in one place, read and answered rather than sitting unopened. Nothing arrives somewhere nobody is looking.
Qualification that sounds like them
The questions a caterer would actually ask: date, guest numbers, venue, service style, budget shape. Asked a couple at a time, in their tone, not as a form.
Same-day quoting with e-signature
A messy enquiry becomes a priced, on-brand proposal the client can read and sign in the browser, instead of a document that takes three days to assemble.
US sales tax, calculated properly
Rates resolved per venue address rather than guessed, so the number on the proposal is the number that holds.
A website built around the enquiry
Rebuilt in code on a modern WordPress stack, wired straight into the system behind it, with a searchable menu and real photography.
Content that publishes itself
Search-led articles researched, written and published on a schedule, with a human approval step before anything goes live.
Equipment hire with a client portal
A catalogue the team maintain themselves, and a portal the customer sees, so hire items stop being an email conversation.
Staffing and timesheets
Waiters assigned to events, clocking in and out on site, with the hours landing in a payroll export instead of a paper sheet.
How it was delivered.
The first version was a webhook into the website they already had. It was live in weeks, not months, and it earned the next piece. Everything after that followed the same rule: build the thing that is costing them most, put it in production, then look again.
The website rebuild came later, once the enquiry system was already paying for itself. The equipment catalogue and the staff timesheets came later still, both because the client asked for them. None of it was scoped as a twelve-month project up front, which is why none of it was ever late.
It has been in production since June 2026, and we run it. When something breaks, it is our phone that rings, and the fix ships the same day.
Questions, answered.
Does the system reply to customers on its own? +
It opens the conversation and qualifies, and the owner takes over whenever they want to. On a quote-led business that is usually the point where the money gets discussed. The handover carries the brief across, so nothing has to be asked twice.
How long did it take to go live? +
The first working version was a webhook into their existing website, live within weeks of starting. Everything since has been added a piece at a time while the business kept running. There was never a big rebuild to sign off before anything worked.
Is this a product we can buy, or a bespoke build? +
Both. It is one system we build and run, set up around how a particular business prices, schedules and hands over work. You are not buying a licence to configure it yourself.
We already have a website. Does it have to be replaced? +
No. Caterman started as an integration into the site they already had, and the rebuild came later because they wanted it. The enquiry system does not depend on it.
Who owns it? +
The client owns their data and can export it. The system is run by us, so there is nobody for you to hire to keep it alive.
If you run catering, this is the shape of it.
Every catering business loses work the same way, and the fix is roughly the same each time. A half-hour call is enough to tell you whether it applies to yours.