An answering service for caterers.
Midebo answers the phone for caterers day and night, takes the details, and holds the day for an event in your calendar.
Why the phone is the problem in catering
Every call is a date, and dates are the thing you cannot get back. Somebody planning a wedding or an office party calls while they are comparing three caterers, and they call on a weekday afternoon when you are standing in somebody else's kitchen with a service to get out. By the time you listen to the message that evening, two of the three have already replied.
What your callers actually open with
- “Do you still have June fourteenth open?”
- “Could you do something for about eighty people?”
- “Do you handle the rentals too, or just the food?”
Midebo answers every one of those, and asks whatever it still needs to know before it lets the caller go.
How it works for caterers
Midebo answers on the first ring, day or night. On a catering call it finds out the event date, the guest count, the venue, and any dietary requirements. It sorts what is urgent from what can wait, holds the day for an event in your calendar, and sends you the details by text or email. Dates are held for the whole day rather than a time slot, because that is how this work is actually booked. Every caller is told they are speaking with an automated assistant.
The call types it comes set up for
Your account starts with these already built, and you can rename them, add your own, or set how long each one takes.
A catering call, start to finish
A hundred and twenty for a wedding, and the date goes on hold · Wren & Marrow Catering · 1:02
The whole of the fourteenth goes on hold, because that is how a wedding is taken. Two celiac, one vegan and a nut allergy at the head table go on the booking rather than being mentioned once and lost, and the chef calls about the menu.
Outcome: June 14 held, chef calls about the menu
These are scripted demonstrations. The businesses, the callers and the phone numbers are invented; any resemblance to a real company is coincidental. The receptionist voices are the 39 you can actually choose from.
Example shop. Your app shows your own calls, not anyone else's.
The shop, from wherever you are.
Everything the assistant did today, in your pocket. Free with your Midebo account, and your customers never need it.
- Who called, what they wanted, and whether it booked
- Today's jobs and the next slot you have free
- Callbacks somebody still owes
- A push the moment a call is urgent
A front desk, not a booking bot.
Every call, start to finish, handled the way a good receptionist would handle it.
It answers
Picks up on the first ring, day or night. It asks what's wrong and answers your hours, your service area and the questions you field twenty times a week, sounding like your shop instead of a call center.
It books
It checks what's genuinely open, reserves the slot, and writes it straight to your calendar. Code books the time, not the AI, so it can't invent a time or double-book you.
It reschedules and cancels
A customer calls back to move a time? Midebo looks them up by phone number, shifts or cancels the job, and frees the slot. No callback to chase.
It knows what's urgent
It can tell someone who needs you today from someone who can wait until next week, and handles each the right way.
It logs everything
Calls are recorded and transcribed, with what the caller wanted and what got booked. If the caller asks not to be recorded or asks for a person, we delete our copy. Anything it can't answer becomes a clear message with a name and a number, so nobody is left hanging.
It screens the junk
Robocalls and cold sales calls are filtered before they reach you, and you can see exactly what was turned away. You stop paying attention to a phone that mostly rings for nothing.
It takes a callback when it can't book
Some calls should not end in a booking, and pretending otherwise is how a bot loses you the job. If it can't book, it takes the details and flags that somebody owes them a call back, so the call is still worth something.
It hands over to a person
A caller who needs you rather than an assistant is warm transferred to you or whoever is covering, and there is a fallback number behind that so a caller still reaches somebody.
It never gives a busy signal
Everyone who calls gets answered at the same time. Midebo isn't a phone line, it's software. No hold music, no voicemail.
It books into the calendar you already have.
Connect the one you use, or use none at all. Midebo keeps its own calendar either way, so nothing has to be set up before it can answer your phone.
Calendars and booking
- Google Calendar
- Outlook and Microsoft 365
- Jobber
- Apple Calendar, Fastmail, Nextcloud or any CalDAV server
- Midebo's own calendar, which needs no connection at all
Whichever you connect, Midebo reads what is already there only to work out when you are free, adds the appointments it books, and only ever changes events it created itself. Disconnect at any time and your appointments stay in Midebo.
Your phone line
- Keep your number and forward it from your current carrier
- Warm transfer to you or a colleague when a caller needs a person
- A fallback number, so a caller reaches somebody if we are ever down
There is no porting, no new handset and nothing to install. Forward the calls you want answered and keep the rest.
Your own tools
- A read-only API for your calls, bookings and customers
- Per-shop keys you can create and revoke yourself
The API only ever reads. Nothing can book, change or cancel through it, so a key you share cannot be used to touch your business.
Try it on your own phone.
Call (636) 378-2006 and talk to it. That number is answered by Midebo, day or night. Plans start at $49/month, no contract, cancel anytime.
First month guaranteed. No contract, cancel anytime, and keep your own number.