CaterZen reviews

Been a user for many years! Very satisfied!

Pluspunten:

Makes accounts receivable so much more manageable Great marketing capabilities. Customer support if fabulous. Very responsive. Allowed me to grow my catering business exponentially over the last 8 years!

Minpunten:

No real cons to speak of. Takes a little getting used to in terms of setting up new menu items. But once you get the hang of it, not bad at all.

This software enables us to get orders in quickly and efficiently and is relatively simple to use.

Opmerkingen: Increase in sales and ease of operating to be productive.

Pluspunten:

I really do love this software and all that it provides!! I like the multi - store use and ease of calendar and that it save all past orders and notes, etc for each client. The invoices are attractive and customers like that. It would be cool if each store could have their own color on the main calendar so that I can differniate which store has orders rather than "ALL" the orders being one color, etc. I like that you can store multiple address, venues, etc. The Support Tickets are responded to with a quick response. MUCH quicker than years ago! I appreciate the acknowledgement and communication that they are working on getting me an answer. I like the Loyalty Program and also knowing that you all are able to send out our certificates for us! I like the new auto fill when you go to put in an address, save a lot of time! (it would be cool if eventually it gave an approximate travel time, like google does rather than just the mileage.. which the miles are always off BTW by 2+ miles). I enjoyed the caterplazooza conference in 2016, and really do look forward to another one being hosted in 2018!!

Minpunten:

I have a hard time understanding the use and benefits of the kitchen production sheets. I think it would really help my team be able to auto calculate the lbs of pork, chicken and sides on a per person buffet if it would display how many lbs needed and updates that report each time the order is revised. I am pretty sure this is an option, but I have only had the demo once and while it was helpful, I found it difficult to continue on my own, therefore I never implemented it. I also have had trouble redeeming the loyalty certificate codes. It only takes off the discount on the actual invoice. We use the order form to ring in the catering orders because that is the sheet that has the CC displayed on it and the order form does not have the certificate deducted on there. Its says "it has been applied" I don't like that when you select someone to pay with a 'house account', that you have to make up a random account # . There is not a way to track those numbers or know if you have duplicated the number we assigned. Under CRM for ex.. you delete a quote under their name, once it deletes it defaults and takes you to a page of all quotes for all customers, rather than staying in that actual customers quote section. If I have an open menu item I have put in on an order, and if I ever have to go revise that order, it duplicates that line item. I rarely catch it, and sometimes the client sees and complains, or we dont catch the error in time and then two of the same menu item

Catering Zen for BBC Smokehouse

Opmerkingen: Overall, my experience has been good. I like the easy navigation through of the software.

Pluspunten:

Being able to store all my contacts in one place. Also, being able to stay on top of billing and the easy navigation for doing so in the software.

Minpunten:

Not being able to delete an invoice if needed and the print our pages sometimes are not clear to understand for other restaurant departments.

Truly a 5 Star Product. We could not run our catering department without it.

Opmerkingen: It literally runs our entire catering, food truck and concessions operation. From scheduling, to invoicing, to prep & pull lists. It handles all my billing and credit card processing and basic accounting. The marketing module is robust and they will help you design and print your "4 walls" marketing pieces as well as email marketing and snail mail marketing. It is not an exaggeration to say that it 100% runs our catering department. And now that they have released the delivery module, our drivers and staff can do their jobs much more efficiently and with greater accountability.

Pluspunten:

1) Ease of use 2) Depth of features 3) Marketing Module 4) Delivery Module 5) Customer Service- They respond rapidly, seek to understand your issue and work until it's resolved. Fortunately I don't have to use them very often.

Minpunten:

It is laser focused on the restaurant catering process, but doesn't offer everything that an offsite caterer needs for complicated events. I respect that RCS knows what they are good at and does not seek to be everything to everybody.

Best decision we ever made for our business. We got organized and we grew sales by 20% year 1!

Opmerkingen: Sales growth, organization, marketing and selling systems. Able to run my business from anywhere.

Pluspunten:

User friendly, calendar view of all caterings, built in invoicing , accounting, rapid order entry and most importantly marketing and sales functions to help as grow our business. I was able to save over an hour a day in paperwork. With quick proposals and the ability to view and edit orders I was able to work on sales, not on running the business. Well worth every penny. You cant put a vaule on this software! I would recommend to anyone that is serious about growing sales, operating more efficently or wanting to market better. Oh, and the customer service is A ++ always there when I needed them. Highly recommend RCS!

Minpunten:

They now have a Selling System...wish they would of had this when we first started. We would of grown even faster!!

It is easy to use once you know where everything is. A few functions could be simplified.

Pluspunten:

I like the ease of retaining customer information. We have recently discovered a few features that have made it easier for us to keep notes on addresses and it has been making a huge difference.

Minpunten:

It is hard to search for things if you do not have a client name or invoice number. We have recurring offices that want to look up past orders under another (unknown to them) name or reps that want to look up an office that they haven't been before. The rewards program is also a bit confusing with the voucher system. I am learning it as I go but right now it is all a bit fuzzy.

Overall, RCS is very helpful for day-to-day catering orders and large take-out orders

Pluspunten:

I like being able to have a place for customer information and access to past orders, as well as not having to create quotes from scratch.

Minpunten:

Some of the navigation between customer information and quotes and things is a little frustrating. You often have to go through multiple steps to get back to the customers quote, etc. if you accessed it through their customer file instead of the calendar, or vice versa.

If you are trying to grow a corporate catering program, you need RCS

Opmerkingen: We were able to streamline our catering processes so it was easier to create quotes, create checklists for staff, and ensure that items were not overlooked on orders.

Pluspunten:

Easy to train on Creates a professional image to our clients Company is continually adding valuable features The Delivery Manager is great

Minpunten:

Setting up recipes for production reports is a time-consuming, and a little confusing process. It takes a while to wrap your head around the best way of setting things up. However, this is typically the case with any inventory/production system.

RCS really is everything we need for our restaurant to do tons of catering.

Pluspunten:

RCS was built specifically for restaurants that cater. I have yet to find anything out there that does what RCS does better than RCS.

Minpunten:

The customer interface could be better. Sometimes customers have to call to complete their order.

RCS has been the easiest software I have deployed in my 15 years in the restaurant business.

Pluspunten:

Highly intuitive and easy to use yest has extensive functionality that covers every aspect and whole life cycle of the catering business.

Minpunten:

It would be great to have more customizable Catering Sales Management capability especially with customizable sales email blasts to new leads.

A huge time saver and organizer for our catering company.

Opmerkingen: RCS has been a time saver by helping me to organize my company. It's taken all the guess work out of kitchen produce, loading and set up for our catering events. It's increase my sales with the marketing arm of the software. It allows me to set auto reminders to contact customers about jobs, it has email marketing built in with pre design email templates. It's about as close to the perfect catering software I've found.

Pluspunten:

Awesome Customer Support and Training. Easy to use. Complete program from contact manger, online ordering. Load sheets, kitchen prep plus unbelievable marketing system built into one package. Deliver system that allows drivers to notify customer when leaving and arriving at event site with real time tracking by customer.

Minpunten:

Not much to I don't like about the system. The only feature I would like to see added would be a recipe section to store all our recipes.

Restaurant Catering Systems was the best addition I have made to my restaurant and catering business

Pluspunten:

Ease of use, organization of orders, food prep labels, reports, email marketing, order confirmation emails sent to clients the day before the event, review emails sent out the day after the event, pretty much everything this software can do has made my life easier. The best thing I added to my catering was the Drink Pack for per person that rep outlined in a report. That single addition is absolutely brilliant. I barely have to sell drinks anymore, that alone sells itself. Customer service is always quick to respond with questions.

Minpunten:

There is one report I wish would be better. I have asked and maybe they are working on it. It's under Accounting & Sales Journal Report. When you select a date range, all your revenue, taxes and fees are listed and they can be expanded to see to which jobs those account for. But when you export the file it doesn't show the jobs/customers, just the totals. Other than that, no Cons.

Amazing Product

Opmerkingen: This is one of the best "outsourced" experience we have had a company. Their support team is ABSOLUTELY amazing. In addition, they really teach you to be independent with all of the articles and videos they provide when you are trying to do something within the software, but if you get stuck they are there for you - usually within an hour you have an answer,.

Pluspunten:

The best part of CaterZen, initially, is how quickly a company can go from not having a catering system and CRM system to having one. Our company was up and running in 3 weeks. The ease of implementation was incredible, our CEO said - "quickest IT implementation in our company history". Other great features, are that it was able to integrate with our website for guest to order themselves, the prep sheets are perfect for the kitchen operations, and the invoices are clean and easy to read for operations. The driver application is an additional great feature that the guests really appreciate. The CRM and reporting features are excellent and really help you grow your business.

Minpunten:

We have to have patients with feature request, because it has to have value for all end users not just us.

Catering Made Easy

Opmerkingen: Helps us make money!

Pluspunten:

We have been using Restaurant Catering Systems (RCS) since the day we opened the restaurant (3.5 years). RCA is responsive and accurate. The software works seamlessly and without glitches. We use it every day to streamline operations. Every time I hit a roadblock, the staff at RCS responds the same day. It's rare to find technology that does what it is supposed to. AND, they're regularly adding features that help us increase our productivity and accuracy for delivery high quality products and service. It's rare that I give anything the full rating. Well done my friends!

Minpunten:

Not much honestly. It does everything we need it to do! The only thing that I could see as an added benefit would be an app.

Very simple to use.

Pluspunten:

That it is easy to change your orders. Many customers have last minute request. So it doesn't take forever to update.

Minpunten:

That you have to choose your store every time you log in. It should be saved on there. When you are in a hurry it becomes an inconvenience.

Makes things easy

Pluspunten:

I really like the ease of entering and revising orders. It's helpful too that CaterZen keeps track of our customers orders and information. Looking at the calendar overall is very nice too.

Minpunten:

I don't like how quotes cannot be saved. Sometimes we make a quote for a customer but they decide to do something else or the event is canceled. There is no way to save the quote, we need to delete it or move to a past date as to not confuse our kitchen or scheduling. Though sometimes deleting it is not a good idea in case they want to revisit the quote at a later date.

RCS has been very helpful in growing our catering business and keeping us organized

Pluspunten:

The ability to save information for an individual and previous orders so that it can make the process more seamless instead of getting the same info each time.

Minpunten:

This is very silly, but it seems like we have to change the password a lot during the year instead of being able to keep it the same

CaterZen Review

Opmerkingen: Overall experience is great, but I wish you had a live support option. It takes a lot of time to fix my issues when it was a simple fix.

Pluspunten:

All my client information in the right place.

Minpunten:

It does not adapt to our business model very easily and new cages do not happen very often.

Very User Friendly

Pluspunten:

The Caterzen software is easy to understand and use. Very user friendly for 1st time users. Caterzen has made it a lot easier and faster for our customers to place catering orders online with us. The software has a great calendar function where it is easy to organise and find specific orders.

Minpunten:

The formulas for the Kitchen and Production reports are not quite that suited for all menu types. Not being able to customize colors on Catering Tickets, Quotes, Invoices etc. to fit with the colors of the company's logo which can be added on these documents.

After extensive research this is the best catering software that I found and now using.

Pluspunten:

It is a complete package for all my catering need. Love the marketing Module and the delivery manager.

Minpunten:

Nothing not to like. There are few tweaks I can suggest to improve the software though . Would love to discuss them on the next yearly users meeting.

RCS has quick and accessible customer service

Pluspunten:

I really like the record keeping ability in RCS. I also like the search feature it has built in and it's easy to teach to others.

Minpunten:

I really can't think of anything right now that I would consider a con to the software. It's practically error free.

Hands down the best platform for managing our catering business!!

Opmerkingen: It has streamlined our process for issuing quotes, creating orders, and most importantly has helped us to execute on orders consistently and accurately!

Pluspunten:

Building quotes and converting them to orders takes seconds! Super detailed and custom kitchen reports help us accurately and efficiently get the orders ready every time. The accounting feature is great for keeping track of deposits and outstanding invoices.

Minpunten:

Programming the menus takes a little time, but is very intuitive and pays off 10 fold with the amount of time saved when building orders and calculating quantities.

I have loved RCS from day one. Easy to use and modify to our needs.

Opmerkingen: Catering is more organized and easy.

Pluspunten:

The ease of the program, it is very easy to teach someone how to use RCS. Someone that only uses it once in a blue moon can just jump right in and use it.

Minpunten:

The process to get somethings to show on delivery and production report with each package. We have had to where we notice some things are not showing up and the process just seems time consuming to make sure it shows up with every package. I understand why it is the way it is but having to do each product with each package is a lot.

The support is good. It is not very user friendly at first.

Opmerkingen: It keeps track of my catering orders and I like that it sends out cards to customers.

Pluspunten:

I like that it keeps track of orders, past orders, customers. The customer service is good but you have to schedule an appointment to talk to someone if you have an issue

Minpunten:

It can be a little intimidating to learn all the functions of the program. If you have a quick question about something you have to make an appointment to talk with someone. But I could be wrong because I don't know all the functions of the program.

Super easy to use, customer support is quick to respond

Opmerkingen: Increased our delivery/self service catering order....a HUGE plus!

Pluspunten:

Allows us to create quotes while the customer is on the phone. The simplicity of the entire software!