The decision this workflow supports
A request for an event soon may deserve prompt staff review, but urgency does not establish availability. The useful distinction is between collecting the inquiry quickly and promising that the restaurant can fulfill it.
Put the review process in place
Ask for the event date and time before gathering lengthy preferences. Follow the owner’s approved short-notice routing rule. If no staffed response route is available, explain that limitation and avoid encouraging the organizer to treat the inquiry as an accepted order.
Worked example for your team
A fictional organizer calls about an event tomorrow while the usual catering coordinator is off shift. The assistant should follow the approved short-notice route and identify the requested event time immediately. If no dependable response is available, that limitation must remain clear. Ask the reviewer whether the resulting note provides enough context for a quick feasibility decision. The assistant should not collect an elaborate menu selection while leaving the event date unclear, nor encourage the organizer to assume the request is accepted simply because it has been marked urgent.
Sample wording to approve
“I can record this as a short-notice inquiry for the catering team. What is the event time and guest estimate? They must confirm whether the request can be accommodated.” This wording is a draft for the restaurant owner to approve before use.
Fields for the staff handoff
Staff need event date and time, guest estimate, requested format, callback availability, and short-notice reviewer. Mark uncertain details explicitly and keep the requested action separate from anything restaurant staff have already confirmed.
Acceptance tests before use
The urgent flag does not imply acceptance. The correct staff route receives the request. An unavailable reviewer is not described as immediately reachable. Record the observed result, assign any mismatch, and repeat the affected scenario after correction.
Further reading
Catering inquiry value calculator ↗
Try Ava with your business’s public information ↗