Office catering order form for cafés with Zapier

Office lunch and platter orders arrive by email and phone with half the details missing, so you chase date, numbers, delivery address and who pays. If you take 20 catering orders a month and each takes 12 minutes of chasing, that's 240 minutes, 4 hours a month.

Make a Google Form for catering orders with fields for date, time, number of people, delivery address, contact name, email, phone, invoice details and a tick box for "dietary needs to discuss" (not the details themselves), and tell customers to use it. Responses land in a Google Sheet. A two-step Zapier automation starts on each new form response and sends the customer an email through Gmail saying the order has been received and that you will confirm it. A person checks each order, confirms price and availability, and writes back. When the box is ticked, the owner phones the customer to take the dietary details and checks your own allergen records before confirming what can be supplied, so no allergy or health details sit in a free Google account.

A café in Bristol takes about 20 office catering orders a month by email and phone. It sends the form link in every reply and checks the sheet each morning.

About 2.7 hours a month saved (160 minutes), worth around £40 if your time is worth £15 an hour. Zapier's Free plan allows two-step Zaps and 100 tasks a month, so about 20 emails fits. This assumes free Google accounts for Forms, Sheets and Gmail.

1. 1Write down what you need for a catering order and turn it into a Google Form, with your lead time and minimum order stated at the top.
2. 2Make sure responses go to a Google Sheet you check each morning.
3. 3In Zapier, start a Zap on each new form response and add one action: send a Gmail email to the customer saying the order is received and will be confirmed.
4. 4Test with a dummy order and read the email as the customer would.
5. 5Confirm every order yourself by email, with price, time and what is included.

• The email only says the order is received. It does not confirm you can do it. Say so in the email wording, and confirm each order yourself.
• Zapier can fail silently. Once a week, compare form responses with the emails sent.
• Customers' names, emails and phone numbers are personal data under UK GDPR. Use them for the order, and ask for consent before you add anyone to marketing emails.
• Don't collect allergy or health details in the form or list allergen information in the email; allergy details are health data. Take them by phone and check them against your verified records.