Tendering
A specification written on gut feel is a contract written on hope.
Award on atmosphere and a polished pitch, and you buy later arguments about mix, opening hours and indexation. The specification should already contain the steering.
Gut feel is not useless. It is just a poor award method. A catering contract runs five to eight years. What you ‘taste’ in the pitch is a brigade on its best behaviour. What you live afterwards is mix, peaks, absenteeism and indexation.
A usable specification turns policy choices into measurable dials: opening window, minimum staffing, catch-rate target, food-cost band, and how you may steer without reopening the whole contract.
Mystery visits and a sober data baseline before publication make the difference. You then know whether ‘high satisfaction’ is luck or a pattern. And you stop bidders filling gaps with assumptions that later become your cost.
Independent advice on your side of the table is not a luxury for that. It is the cheapest way to avoid eight years of argument.