Explore the demo01
Answer from your menus and rules
Point to the boxed-lunch and buffet menus that fit the budget, and share your minimum order, lead time, and downtown delivery fee.
Catering
An AI receptionist for caterers that takes the inquiry while you plate for 200.
Office managers email for next Thursday’s lunch, couples ask about a tasting, and a host calls about gluten-free options for 60 guests. Your assistant answers from your menus, minimums, and lead times, collects every detail your team needs to write the proposal, and flags delivery problems and food safety concerns for staff.
An AI receptionist for catering companies answers calls, emails, texts, and website chat while your team is cooking and serving, using your menus, minimums, and service area. InsertChat’s assistant collects the date, headcount, venue, service style, and dietary needs your team needs to write a proposal, books tastings, and flags day-of delivery problems and food safety concerns for staff.
EXAMPLE WORKFLOW · Email inquiry
Turn an after-hours lunch email into a ready-to-price request
An office manager emails your catering inbox at 8:15 p.m. on a Monday.
“We need lunch for 40 next Thursday at noon, delivered to our downtown office. Six are vegetarian and two are gluten-free. Budget is around $20 a head. Can you do it?”
02
Collect what the quote needs
Confirm the delivery address, setup time, service style, dietary counts, and whether they need plates, utensils, or staff.
03
Hand it to your sales lead
The request waits in the shared inbox with every detail, ready for your team to price and send the proposal in the morning.
Your team sets the boundaries
Your team writes quotes, contracts, and invoices. Allergic reactions, food safety concerns, late or wrong deliveries, and changes inside your cutoff go to staff at once.
Illustrative scenario. Answers depend on your sources; actions depend on your connected tools and permissions.
What it handles for caterers
Answers come from the knowledge you add. Anything on the urgent list follows the handoff rules you set.
Handled by your assistant
Handled by your assistant- Menu, package, and per-person price questions from what you publish
- Minimum orders, lead times, delivery zones, and fees
- Dietary and allergen questions, answered from your allergen chart with a reminder to confirm
- Corporate, wedding, and private party inquiries, saved with the details to quote
- Tasting appointments booked on your calendar
- Rentals, service staff, and bar service questions
Sent straight to your team
- Allergic reactions and food safety concerns
- Late, missing, or wrong deliveries on event day
- Headcount or menu changes inside your cutoff
- Complaints after an event
- Payment, deposit, and refund disputes
What it asks and what it needs to know
Details it collects
- Contact name, company, phone number, and email
- Event date, serving time, and headcount
- Venue or delivery address, with access notes like loading docks
- Service style, from drop-off trays to a plated dinner
- Dietary needs and allergies, with counts
- Budget per person or in total
- Extras such as service staff, rentals, bar service, or cake cutting
What to add to its knowledge
- Menus and packages with per-person prices
- Minimum orders and lead times for each service style
- Delivery zones, fees, and setup windows
- Allergen and dietary information for each dish
- Deposit, cancellation, and final headcount deadlines
- Tasting options and what they cost
Can an AI receptionist give catering quotes?
It collects everything a quote needs, and your team writes the quote. InsertChat doesn’t create quotes or invoices. The assistant shares the per-person prices, minimums, and package inclusions you publish, so a customer gets a realistic range on the first call. The request then lands in the shared inbox with the date, headcount, service style, and dietary counts, ready for your sales lead to price.
How does it handle allergy questions?
It answers only from the allergen information you publish and asks the customer to confirm serious allergies with your team before the order is final. If your kitchen can’t promise a nut-free or gluten-free prep area, write that down and the assistant says so plainly. Allergy counts are saved with the request, and a guest reporting a reaction after an event is marked urgent at once.
Can it answer catering emails automatically?
Yes. Email replies can wait as drafts for your team or send automatically after a delay of up to 10 minutes, and you can limit automatic replies to business hours. Uncertain answers, complaints, upset customers, and payment or legal topics are held back for a person, so a refund request never gets a cheerful automatic reply.
How much does an AI receptionist for caterers cost?
Pro costs $98 a month for one phone number, a monthly credit balance, three team seats, and three AI assistants. A short call about a delivery fee still uses at least one minute of credits, since calls round up to whole minutes. Check the usage estimate on the pricing page against your busiest month of holiday parties and weddings.
Explore the shared workspace
Explore the InsertChat demo ↗
InsertChat / InboxOpen full demo Explore InsertChat’s shared workspace with Northstar Home Services, our fictional demo business.
Features for caterers
AI email responder
Connect Gmail or Outlook. Your assistant drafts or sends replies, and anything sensitive waits for your team in the shared inbox.
Explore AI email responder
Lead capture
Every call, chat, text, and email gets an answer right away. The assistant saves the lead as a contact with its source and tells your team when someone is ready to book or buy.
Explore Lead capture
AI receptionist
InsertChat answers your business calls from your own services, hours, and prices. It books appointments on your calendar and brings in your team, full transcript attached, when a person should follow up.
Explore AI receptionistConnect the calendar and tools you use
All integrations ↗
More hospitality & events industries
Hospitality & events overview ↗- RestaurantsAnswer hours, menu, and reservation calls without pulling staff off the floor.
- Party & event rentalsCollect rental requests with dates, items, and venues while your crew delivers and sets up.
- Hotels & innsAnswer guest calls about rooms, check-in, and parking day and night, and flag guest safety issues to staff.
- Event venuesAnswer date, capacity, and package questions, book venue tours, and route event-day issues to your coordinator.
- PhotographersShare packages, book consult calls and mini-sessions, and keep every shoot inquiry while you’re behind the camera.
- Wedding & event plannersQualify couples by date, budget, and guest count, book discovery calls, and catch wedding-week emergencies.
Yes. Set a tasting length, the days and hours you hold tastings, and buffers between them, and the assistant books into InsertChat’s calendar, Google Calendar, Outlook, Calendly, or Cal.com. Tastings it books can get a reminder by text or email 72 and 24 hours before.
Yes. Use one assistant for the restaurant and another for catering, each with its own menu, hours, and number, or keep both on one assistant if you share a phone line. Pro includes three assistants, and every conversation lands in the same shared inbox.
It records order requests for your team to confirm, and it never takes card numbers on a call or in chat. If you connect Stripe, you can let the assistant create a payment link for a deposit and require a person to approve the action first.
Caterers in the US and Canada keep their number and forward calls to InsertChat, with a verification call to test it. Elsewhere, use a local or toll-free InsertChat number where available. Porting isn’t offered.
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