Your agent, your voice
- You pick Wade and the speaking voice — or clone yours
- Callers hear your shop, not a generic receptionist
- Knowledge base, pronunciation, and catering service intake in your language
Built around your shop — not bolted on
By the time they hang up, the plated dinner tastings is quoted, booked, and on the tech's phone.
Not an AI receptionist bolted onto someone else's software. DispatchNode prices from your catering service catalog and rules, books the job on the board, collects Stripe, and the tech sees it on their phone.
14-daytrial35% of catering revenue is lost to poor headcount communicationAvg ticket: $3,200 average catered event
Anatomy of a Lost Job
7:15 PM - Urgent Call
A corporate admin calls to book catering for a 150-person company event next Friday.
4:30 PM – No Answer
"Please leave a message or press 1 for..."
7:18 PM - Lead Hangs Up
Searches Google, hires a competitor who answers.
Bottom Line
-$3,500
Estimated Booking Lost
The Old Way:
Losing Bookings to Voicemail.
A wedding coordinator texts at 10 PM that the headcount dropped from 200 to 160. Forty portions of prepped salmon—$1,200 worth—sit in the walk-in cooler with no buyer, and the chef doesn't see the message until 6 AM.
A kitchen sends out 85 boxed lunches and one contains walnut oil. The guest with a tree nut allergy takes a bite, triggers anaphylaxis, and an ambulance arrives at the corporate lobby—the caterer's insurance premium doubles by month's end.
Three servers call out sick at 4 PM for a 6 PM gala. The chef stops plating appetizers to frantically text personal contacts, and the first course hits tables 35 minutes late in front of 200 executives.
Quote, book, collect, and dispatch — on one call
Quotes from your catalog
Live catalog and rules — not a script that says someone will call you back.
Books it on the board
Confirmed job, not a voicemail. Wade holds the slot, then writes it onto the board.
Collects, then dispatches
Stripe before hang-up. The tech sees the job, the map, and the notes on their phone.
Anatomy of a booked job
7:15 PM - Urgent Call
A corporate admin calls to book catering for a 150-person company event next Friday.
7:15 PM - Instant Answer
Wade answers instantly and qualifies the lead.
7:17 PM - Job Booked
Guest count and menu preferences captured. Event date reserved.
Bottom Line
+$3,500
Revenue Captured While You Slept
Configured to your trade
Call → quote → book → deposit → dispatch
Not a receptionist bolted onto someone else's software. One agent, your rules — on the phone and the widget — and the job lands on the tech's phone.
01
Call
Twilio number or the website widget
02
Answer
Wade · 29+ languages · first ring
03
Quote
Live catalog and rules
04
Book
Confirmed on the board
05
Deposit
Stripe before hang-up
06
Dispatch
Map + tech's phone
Your catering service operation — not just the phone
Intake, catalog, and dispatch in your terms. The same person on the call and the widget. Unlimited techs and office.
Dispatch & calendar
- Live map, travel buffers, recurring routes
- Time clock with GPS; availability on the call
- Holds a slot, then books it onto the board
CRM, quotes & jobs
- Intake and catalog and rules the way your shop already talks
- Estimates the customer approves by text
- Jobs created from the call transcript
Get paid
- Invoices + Stripe links, including mid-call deposits
- A/R dunning, job costing, 1099 contractor payouts
- QuickBooks Online & Xero on Starter+
In the field
- Native iOS & Android — no per-tech fee
- photos, signatures, and checklists
- Before/after PDFs and on-my-way ETAs
The customer
- No-login portal from an SMS link
- Pay, approve quotes, reschedule, see ETA
- Reminders, review asks, agreement renewals
Contracts & cadence
- Service agreements with e-sign review
- Recurring jobs generated on a cadence
- 60 / 30 / 7-day renewal reminders
Shop, parts & fleet
- Pricebook, inventory, vendors, serialized assets
- Bay, counter, or warehouse when you need them
- Vehicles, equipment, optional telematics
Office, team & growth
- 11 roles, audit log, website & campaigns
- Google + Outlook calendars; Gusto time sync
- REST + MCP API on Starter — your catalog, your terms
Live today Stripe · Twilio · QuickBooks Online · Xero · Gusto · Google Calendar · Outlook · Slack · CallRail · Lob · Mapbox / Google Maps · REST + MCP
Catering Service markets
Local pages for the metros this trade actually serves. The phone product is the AI receptionist. Packaging comparisons start with the Jobber alternative and the ServiceTitan alternative. What AI dispatch software does explains the workflow, and tiers are on pricing.
New York Catering Service · Los Angeles Catering Service · Chicago Catering Service · Houston Catering Service · Phoenix Catering Service · Philadelphia Catering Service · San Antonio Catering Service · San Diego Catering Service · Dallas Catering Service · Austin Catering Service · Jacksonville Catering Service · San Jose Catering Service · Fort Worth Catering Service · Columbus Catering Service · Charlotte Catering Service · Indianapolis Catering Service · San Francisco Catering Service · Seattle Catering Service · Denver Catering Service · Nashville Catering Service · Oklahoma City Catering Service · El Paso Catering Service · Washington Catering Service · Las Vegas Catering Service
More metros at /locations · local catering service pages for each city.
Meet Wade
Your AI Voice Agent for Catering Service
Answers the phone, asks for their street address, texts them a deposit link, and drops the confirmed job into your schedule.
Catering Service — why missed calls hurt
Market reality
A corporate admin hangs up the phone at 4:15 PM Tuesday after three caterers sent her to voicemail. She books the fourth one—the company whose system texted back a menu link and a $2,380 quote before she set the phone down. The three silent caterers each lost an 85-person Thursday lunch they never knew existed.
How Wade wins the job
A corporate admin calls at 4 PM Tuesday for an 85-person Thursday lunch requiring 12 vegetarian and 2 halal plates. The AI agent answers, queries current supplier pricing, calculates ingredient costs, and quotes $2,380. The admin clicks the secure payment link to approve. The system pushes a prep sheet within five seconds to the kitchen tablet highlighting all 14 specialty plates in bold red. When the admin texts at 9 PM to add 10 guests, the AI agent recalculates portions, charges the $280 difference to the card on file, and updates the digital prep sheet—telling the line cook exactly how many extra chicken breasts to pull from the walk-in before the chef arrives Wednesday at 5 AM.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens technically when a client texts a last-minute headcount change?
The AI agent parses the inbound SMS, recalculates portion counts against the ingredient database, and adjusts the invoice total via the payment API. It then pushes the updated digital prep sheet directly to the kitchen tablet, specifying exactly how many additional proteins, starches, and garnishes the line cook needs to fire.
Ready to run catering service from first ring to the tech's phone?
No contracts. Cancel anytime.
See AI dispatch handle a live call — free 30-min demo