case study CaterEase

Catering Orders Management Dashboard System
for Private Customers

BACKGROUND

Catering Pudron is a catering company that has been operating for over 10 years.

The company specializes in delivering high-quality catering services to a variety of customers, such as corporate employees, evening events, businesses, and more.

The catering company operates under stringent quality control standards, ensuring compliance with high standards, and takes pride in providing excellent customer service.

The vision

the company will be able to overcome human errors by providing digital tools that automate manual processes, and that they will have satisfied customers because it impacts their profitability.

Business Goal

Acquiring new customers through exceptional customer service and reducing the risk of errors and delays.

Improving communication among team members and responsiveness to increase productivity and maximize profits.

Problem Statement

As the company grew, managing the orders from customers became increasingly challenging.

The existing system for processing orders was mostly manual, relying on paper forms, Excel spreadsheets, and phone calls to communicate with customers and suppliers.

This led to errors in order processing, lack of coordination between the order department and the supply and inventory department, and a lack of visibility into the status of orders, resulting in customer dissatisfaction.
These issues had a negative impact on the efficiency and profitability of the company.

Research

Qualitative Research

I conducted an in-depth interview with a senior manager of a large catering company that serves major clients
The manager assisted with the research and was involved in making strategic and design decisions throughout the entire product development process.

Insights

The research findings reveal 5 central and significant problems in catering company management:

The persona

THE SOLUTION

Digital management system

In order to deal with the issues faced by Catering, the company decided to develop a sophisticated ordering system that will automate many of the manual processes

The goals of the system

The system will generate reports and analyses to provide important insights for data-driven decision-making about business operations.

The system will accurately price items using predefined menus and pricing structures, reducing the risk of incorrect pricing.

The system will provide
real-time updates and notifications on order status, shipping routes,
and inventory levels.

The system will address the lack of coordination between the ordering department and the supply and inventory department through automatic inventory level checks and supplier availability before allowing orders to be placed.

The system will allow customers to place orders online, view menus and prices, and track their order status in real-time.

Additional features in the system

Personalized menus:

Allow customers to create personalized menus based on their specific dietary needs or preferences, with recommendations for meal combinations to maximize their chosen settings and provide a more tailored ordering experience.

Real-time delivery tracking:

Provide real-time updates on delivery status, including driver location and estimated delivery time, to give customers greater visibility into the delivery process and reduce the risk of missed deliveries.

LOYALTY PROGRAM:

Implement a loyalty program that rewards returning customers, such as discounts on future orders, free items, or exclusive deals.

Automatic reorder:

Set up the system to automatically reorder frequently ordered items, reducing the time and effort needed for customers to place orders and ensuring popular items are always in stock.

Research competitors

ui screens

overview screen

Dashboard for the management system that provides a general overview of the business's status, displays up-to-date data significant for making strategic decisions and choosing an accurate marketing channel, reports on urgent tasks that have been set, and enables quick access to various parts of the system.

The navigation menus for administration will be placed under a dropdown menu labeled 'Management' as I have decided it is not frequently used. This way, we can save space and avoid unnecessary clutter

This graph provides an overview of customers' culinary preferences, with the option to filter by month, year, or preferred date range.This way, we can save space and avoid unnecessary clutter."

This graph indicates a trend over time of income status, segmented by food categories, with the option to filter by the desired year

Customer Data: The data can be filtered between regular customers and all customers, a variety of actions can be performed on each displayed row, and it allows access to a wide range of customer categories

Presenting a summary of up-to-date data that is significant for assessing the business's status from various aspects

Orders screen

Orders page for all customers, you can filter by order status, by type of dishes ordered and more to get a clearer indication of the orders, each line in the table is clickable and wider information of the order opens

Screen view after clicking on a filter

The option to filter data for a better understanding and deeper insight

By clicking on a order, a side panel opens up with important information such as contact details, selected menu, and more. This way we avoid causing the customer to leave the orders screen

By clicking on the expansion button, we will get a detailed screen of the same order as displayed below

private order screen

The display of important data and information about the order, such as the selected menu, total payment received, delivery details, delivery notes, addition of servers, and more, will be provided.
The top panel will remain fixed to ensure continuous access to customer details, such as contact information and arrival details, which will be displayed there

Catering Orders Management Dashboard System for Private Customers