The spread of COVID-19 forced closures on both sides of ezCater’s customer base — restaurants and offices — forcing the company to adjust, fast.
According to VP of Product Engineering Jeff Dwyer, almost immediately after remote work sanctions went into effect, ezCater began working with restaurants to highlight individually packaged menu items. A few weeks later, the company introduced Feed the Front Line, an initiative that sent 35,000 meals to hospitals nationwide. By June, they rolled out Relish, a service that delivers individually-packaged meals from local restaurants to workplaces everywhere.
Because of these adjustments, and the team’s ability to rally while remote, ezCater was able to take a tough year and turn it into another one of growth.
“I’m really proud of the things we did here,” Dwyer said.
Built In Boston turned to Dwyer for more on ezCater’s journey throughout 2020 and what’s ahead in 2021.
How did ezCater adjust its business model to meet the challenges your customers were experiencing?
Dwyer: When we saw an uptick in orders for individually packaged items, we helped our restaurants update their menus to call out individually packaged items and made it easier for our customers to find menus that offered them. We also stopped taking commissions on orders for a month to help our restaurant partners who have been so dramatically impacted by the pandemic.
In April, we launched Feed the Front Line where anyone who wanted to support healthcare workers could send meals from local restaurants. Not only did this support healthcare workers, but it also sent big, recurring orders to the restaurants that badly needed them. We’re so proud to have sent 35,000 meals to hospitals nationwide.
As more workplaces reopened, companies looked for safe access to daily individually packaged meals for their employees. We launched Relish by ezCater to give companies a safe, reliable way to bring their employees back to the office. Relish delivers individually packaged meals from a rotating list of local favorite restaurants at a designated place and time.
How did you ensure your team’s morale remained high amid such a difficult time?
The product and engineering team has people in Boston and Denver, so we were lucky to have a bit of a head start figuring out how to maintain a sense of community over Zoom.
ezCater is a people-first place, so being as honest and transparent as possible was critical. As a leader, being public about the challenges and realities of this situation is important so you can give space for your people to do the same. Recognize that “engaged and excited” isn’t always possible during a pandemic. We shouldn’t kid ourselves — this is hard. When somebody has a 6-year-old hanging off their neck, it probably means you’re not getting their best thoughts on Q4 strategy. You just have to be real.
What surprised you about the industry, your clients and your team during this time?
I knew I’d love restaurateurs. What’s not to love? They’re people sharing recipes and passions while running their own businesses. Even so, I think I was surprised by just how amazing they are. They’re infinitely flexible and adaptable. So many things go wrong in a kitchen every day and it’s cool to see how resilient they are as a result. One cool detail about our team is how many have prior restaurant experience. It often feels like we’re building tools for our friends still in the industry.
With an end to the pandemic in sight, how is ezCater preparing for the return of business as usual for its clients?
We’re using this time to understand exactly what our customers need: What does food for work look like during and after a pandemic? We know that no matter the customer — whether they are feeding a 10-person meeting, 200-person team lunch or daily recurring individual lunches — and with or without a pandemic, we’ll be ready.
We know that no matter the customer and with or without a pandemic, we’ll be ready.”
What are ezCater engineers working on right now that you’re excited about?
One thing I’m particularly passionate about is helping our customer support reps. They’re amazing and the reason ezCater is the best way to order food for work. I’m beyond excited to build tools to enable them to do their jobs better. It’s satisfying to ship code, but when you make people’s jobs easier and more fulfilling (for both our employees and our customers), I don’t think it gets more rewarding than that.
