Why catering leaks worse than anything else
It's a lead, not an order: it needs a menu conversation, a headcount, a date check — a sales process arriving at a counter built for transactions. Nobody owns step two.
And the window is short. The office manager is calling three restaurants this afternoon; the first quote usually wins. If your callback slipped to after close, you were the free bid that made someone else look responsive.
Job one: capture, every time
The minimum viable intake is five fields: date, headcount, pickup or delivery, budget range, callback details. Nomly runs that conversationally on the same line as everything else — at 2pm or 2am.
Nothing lands on receipt paper, and the guest with the big order never waits behind your rush. The agent has no rush.
Jobs two and three: route, then follow up
A 200-person Saturday inquiry should interrupt the owner's afternoon; a ten-person dessert pickup shouldn't. Routing thresholds are boundaries you set — above this headcount, text whoever owns catering immediately.
The inquiry becomes a tracked lead: structured details, a drafted reply ready to approve, and a nudge if it sits four hours. With Gmail connected, emailed inquiries get the same treatment.
One line is enough
A second number splits your identity, forms convert worse than conversations, and a coordinator is payroll for volume you don't have yet. The problem was never the single line — it's that ordinary calls consumed all the attention.
Take orders and hours off your team's hands and the capacity for the big calls appears without hiring anyone. Same line, same number on Google, different outcome.
