The best follow up for a corporate lunch request is a same day quote, a text a few hours later if there is no reply, a second text the next morning, and a confirmation the day before. A pipeline in GoHighLevel runs that schedule for every request and stops it when the buyer replies. The bottom line: corporate buyers order fast and compare quickly, so speed and a short, fixed schedule matter more than persuasion.
How fast corporate buyers order
ezCater says 47 percent of its customers need catering within 24 hours and about 14 percent within four hours, and that customers searching for four hour orders see only about ten restaurants per search. A ChowNow guide describes a typical corporate order as placed by an office admin or team lead 24 to 72 hours out, with larger or recurring requests routed through an inquiry form, and warns that a drop off at 12:15 for a 12:00 meeting is a lost account. Owner's help center says guests can order catering 24 hours to 8 days ahead and that request form submissions are inquiries a restaurant can accept or decline. A University of Colorado form asks staff to submit catering requests at least 5 business days ahead and notes that most restaurants need a further 2 business days.
So there are two kinds of corporate request: the quick office lunch, and the planned event. Both want a fast answer with a price.
The follow up schedule
| When | Message |
|---|---|
| Within minutes of the request | Text receipt: we received your request and will send a quote by a stated time |
| When the quote is sent | Text and email with the quote, delivery window, and how to confirm |
| 4 hours later, no reply | Short text asking whether the headcount and time still hold |
| Next morning, no reply | Second text with the last day to confirm |
| Day before the event | Confirmation with delivery time and contact number |
| 2 days after delivery | Thank you and an offer to set up a recurring order |
Build it in GoHighLevel
Opportunity fields: Event date, Headcount, Delivery time, Dietary needs, Quote amount. Stages: Request received, Quote sent, Confirmed, Delivered, Repeat.
- Go to Settings, then Custom Fields, and create the opportunity fields listed above before you build the pipeline.
- Go to Opportunities, then Pipelines, and create the pipeline with the stages listed above.
- Build a catering request form with fields for date, time, headcount, dietary needs, and company, and a consent checkbox for text messages.
- Build a workflow with the Form Submitted trigger, filtered to this form, that creates an opportunity and sends the receipt text and an internal notification.
- Build a second workflow with the Pipeline Stage Changed trigger for Quote sent that sends the quote, waits 4 hours, sends the first text, waits until the next morning, and sends the second text.
- Add a workflow for Confirmed that sends the day before confirmation and a task for the kitchen.
- Add a workflow for Delivered that waits 2 days and sends the thank you and recurring order offer.
- In the workflow's Settings tab, turn on Stop on Response, choose the Timezone, and set a Time Window for weekday business hours.
- Test with your own contact and your own phone, then move a test card through every stage and read the workflow history.
GoHighLevel's Workflow Settings page says Stop on Response removes a contact from the workflow when they respond to a message sent from that workflow, and only for that contact. It says Allow Reentry controls whether a contact can enter again, that Allow multiple Opportunities lets each of a contact's opportunities start its own run (on by default in new workflows), that the Timezone can follow the account or the contact, and that the Time Window restricts when communications go out, uses one window for every day, and does not affect internal actions such as tags, fields, or opportunities. Its Automating Opportunities page lists the Pipeline Stage Changed and Opportunity Status Changed triggers, both filterable by standard and custom opportunity fields, and its Opportunity Changed trigger page adds that this trigger also detects changes to lead value, assignment, and custom fields, with date field filters. A HighLevel agency help center article says opportunity custom fields are created under Settings, then Custom Fields.
What the workload looks like
For example, if a restaurant gets 12 corporate requests a week and a quarter go silent after the quote, that is 3 requests a week (12 times 0.25) that a same day text and a morning text may recover. At an average corporate order of a few hundred dollars, even one recovered order a week is meaningful.
Mistakes to avoid
- Slow quotes. Many corporate orders are needed within 24 hours.
- No delivery window. A late drop off loses the account.
- Texting outside business hours. Use the Time Window.
- Skipping the repeat offer. Recurring orders are the goal.
How this was handled before
Restaurants answered catering requests by phone and email between services, and the answer often came the next day. Marketplaces trained buyers to expect a reply in minutes, and a large share of corporate orders are needed within a day. A pipeline sends the receipt, the quote, and the follow ups on a fixed schedule so the reply time does not depend on a busy kitchen.
Check before you switch it on
US text messages sent from a standard 10 digit number need A2P 10DLC registration. The HighLevel support portal says registration is required for texts to US recipients from 10 digit long code numbers and that toll free numbers do not require it. HighLevel's opt in guidelines also say a person cannot be forced to agree to text messages in order to submit a form, so keep the consent box optional. One compliance guide separates informational texts, which need documented consent, from marketing texts, which need prior express written consent. Ask your attorney which category your reminders fall into. Office buyers place orders on company time, so keep texts short and send them during business hours. This is general information, not legal advice.
Questions people ask
How soon do corporate buyers order?
ezCater says 47 percent of its customers need catering within 24 hours. ChowNow describes typical corporate orders as 24 to 72 hours out.
Should I follow up by text?
Yes, after the quote, and only for people who agreed to text messages on the request form.
What stops the texts?
GoHighLevel's Stop on Response setting removes a contact when they reply to a message from that workflow.
Ready to try it yourself? Start a GoHighLevel account here.
You can also see this in action in our GoHighLevel capabilities demo.