Drive Profits by Bringing Healthy & Exciting Innovations Into Your Customer Experience
Do your customers describe your establishment by using these words?
- Wow – Exciting!
- An Experience
- Innovative
If they do, that is great! But we’d like to ask, what are you doing to continue this trend? In this fast-paced world that we live in our businesses must always be growing and innovating. The moment that we stop bringing new experiences to our customers is the moment we risk losing those customers to our competition and to the newest company in the market.
If they don’t, you may already be slipping behind your competitors. The Foodservice/Restaurant Industry is highly competitive and it’s extremely important to stay ahead of the curve. The grocery industry, while being extremely busy and experiencing record growth, is also highly competitive. Restaurants and grocery stores are not just competing with other ‘live’ establishments, rather they are also competing with on-line players.
This article is focused on bringing you ideas and strategies to use, along with innovative concepts and technologies, to help offer healthy and exciting experiences for your customer base. These strategies are on trend and designed to attract profitable market share into your location, be it a restaurant, bar, hotel, grocery store or convenience store.
In her article How To Keep Your Restaurant Trendy Always, Susmitha Veganosaurus talks about restaurants that offer authentic, traditional foods and specialize in them, and restaurants that are all about fusion, newness and innovation. Creativity and collaboration are some of the keys that she talks about. She also talks about trends and dietary needs. We know that plant based diets are trending now more than ever. Consumers are looking for healthy alternatives to the highly processed products that have been being marketed to them for years.
We know that consumers are willing to pay extra for what they value. Recent studies show that consumers are willing to pay more for products that are more sustainable. In their article, Consumers will pay more for ready‑to‑eat meals made with fewer ingredients, researchers at Washington State University showed consumers are willing to pay a premium for clean labels and “They are also more willing to fork out their hard-earned cash when they know their processed foods are made with a new technology that helps limit the number of additives and preservatives commonly found in most ready-to-eat meals.”
When you bring an exciting, innovative, healthy experience to your customers, they will not only be willing to pay for it, but they will keep coming back for more. As a result, you create healthy profits by serving profitable products and creating return customers. Getting customers back into our buildings is a big issue that all industries are having right now. Every business from Hotels, Restaurants, to Grocery stores earn more by getting customers to come into their location (Petro). We also know that Customer Experience is a major driver of stronger financial results, repeat business, and positive word of mouth.
So how do we do that? How do we get more customers into our establishments?
We do it by creating experiences they cannot get anywhere else. There are great recipes and strategies to deliver healthy products that are totally on trend.
In The Next Wave of Restaurant Innovation Must Take Place in the Kitchen, Jayson Tipp argues that restaurant kitchens have not changed much over the past 25 years. This is in contrast with ‘front of house’ operations, which have experienced massive innovation, with POS tech, QR codes, online ordering, digital loyalty programs, take-out and delivery strategies, just to name some of the innovations.
The best manufacturing companies have devoted their efforts in areas that should sound surprisingly familiar to the restaurant industry of today, eliminating waste (green!), improving cycle time (quick!), and reducing inventory (fresh!). And they are now using a whole new set of tools to achieve those goals. We need to do the same in our kitchens, utilizing real-time technology to help our kitchen staffs produce the best possible food with the lowest amount of wasted time and resources. (Jayson Tipp, August 20, 2021, QSR Magazine)
Here at Citrus America, we pride ourselves on helping our customers create a Fresh, Natural, and Exciting Experience for the consumer. Not only is this a truly exciting experience for the end user but our customers are able to experience healthy profits at the same time. So, you might ask yourself, “How can I make food and beverage fun, exciting and innovative”? Well, we do it by using an extremely eye appealing, interactive, and innovative piece of technology.
Jay Gardner, culinary expert, produce specialist, food service veteran, is going to/has shared some of his ideas for generating excitement and driving results in the paragraphs below.
- For the bar: use innovation to create new exciting craft cocktails in your hotel, restaurant, casino or cocktail lounge
- For brunches and catered events: offer fresh squeezed orange juice and make Mimosas a whole new live experience
- For grocery stores: offer a customer-facing self-service fresh squeezed juicer into your market or grocery store
By adding a fresh juicing strategy, you can support a clean and healthy image while being fun. This is not just about elevating your beverage strategy. You can use fresh citrus juices to dramatically improve your cooking ingredients as well. By using an innovative commercial citrus juicer combined with fresh, natural, and healthy citrus products, you can offer an exciting end-user experience that is about as tasty and creative as it gets.
It is all about the experience, so you need to give your customers a show that requires no words. Give your customers a TikTok experience they can share with their friends.
What can you do with this revolutionary piece of equipment? I think what the question should be is what can’t you do with this revolutionary equipment? The easy thing to say is, wow this is fun to watch work and makes the best tasting orange juice that I have ever had. And that statement is very true. It is so much fun to watch the juicer juice, you want to keep going back for more. But have you thought about all the other things a commercial citrus juicer can do? This is what starts getting me really excited! Are you ready to dive into this rabbit hole with me?
The In-Store Fresh Juicing Experience – Communicate ‘’Fresh” from the moment your customer walks into the store
Let’s start off with the obvious self-service retail stations. Bringing a truly fresh squeezed citrus juicing into your market or grocery store is amazing for your customers. It is after all what your customers are asking for. Fresh and Natural products are the trends. But what is important is how you bring this into your store. If you simply bottle it and put it on a shelf you will make some sales, but your customers are missing out on the innovative experience. When you set up a customer self-service citrus juicing location around your produce or deli area you are allowing your customer to interact with your environment. With using our FSB/ATS or 8000 SB units you become the innovator. You are bringing this healthy, exciting experience direct to your customer. You are also giving them the confidence of having the freshest product possible. If You want to read more about The In-Store Fresh Juicing Experience visit our blog page.
In The Bar – The Sky's the Limit When you bring this innovative citrus juicer into your Bars, Restaurants, and Hotels
Let’s take a quick trip through what could be a very creative place, the bar! Let’s face it the bar can be the largest margin producer in an entire restaurant: Drinks make money! The cocktail drink industry is a multimillion-dollar industry that has untapped potential in any location. The most thought of products in the bar would be fresh squeezed lemon and lime juice. Right now, most businesses are spending money to buy a concentrated lemon and lime juice that is not truly 100% natural. When you are doing this, you are also missing out on the experience. Imagine ordering a drink from a bar and seeing the bartender drop some limes into a Citrocasa M/AS or Revolution citrus juicers and filling your glass with natural lime juice. The smell of lime fills the air, everyone around the bar is looking at the machine and wanting a fresh squeezed drink. The drink itself tastes so much better with fresh squeezed than with any kind of pre-bottled product. As a business owner, you are able to make an extra $1.00 - $2.00 off of that fresh squeezed drink that just provided an amazing live experience. For the locations that are already doing hand squeezed fresh juicer, the bartender is thrilled that they did not have to spend hours and hours hand squeezing product.
This is a true win-win for everyone involved. Now let’s step it up a notch shall we! Think fresh squeezed Blood Orange Martini, or a Tangerine Orange Crush, fresh squeezed Mimosa, fresh squeezed Margarita, or a fresh squeezed Blood Orange Margarita, the list can truly go on and on. Your specialty drink of the week can make you a good $3-$4 extra margin. You have a great new experience for your customer. Your bartender is having a great time letting the creative juices flow, you are making extra healthy profits, and your customers are getting an exciting experience. You can find some great craft cocktail ideas on the Good Food site from the BBC.
Back of the House – Bring Innovation Into Your Kitchen
Now let’s move this show to the kitchen or the back of the house shall we. First, we start with an appetizer. Today we are offering a Feta and Lemon Crostini made with Feta crumbles and Fresh Squeezed Lemon juice. Topped with Lemon Zest, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, and some Red Pepper Flakes. We then move into our salad offerings. We have a wide offering of handmade dressings that pair well with all of our salads. Our Blood Orange Vinaigrette adds a little zip to any salad. Our Sweet Orange Vinaigrette does wonders over our Chicken and Spinach Salad. But our Lime Caesar Dressing is absolutely amazing with our fresh squeezed lime juice and just a bit of fresh ground Anchovies. For my main course today I am going big, it’s Ceviche time! That’s right, there is nothing better on a hot summer day than fresh Ceviche. Have you ever tried to squeeze enough fresh lemon and limes for Ceviche… NO, that’s why you don’t make it right! Well now you have that tool in your toolbox to pump out enough fresh squeezed citrus juice to feed Ceviche to the whole block, and you had a fun time doing it too! Once you are done parting with your Ceviche it is time to move onto our dessert menu. What can I say, this is endless? We can do so many different things with fresh squeezed citrus on our dessert menu. Your pastry chef will be going crazy with new ideas every week using this innovative citrus juicer.
Front of House – Innovate with the Tableside Margarita
That was a lot of fun bringing this product into the back of the house but let's pull this out to the front of the house to put on a little show shall we. We are going to be doing a table side fresh squeezed Margarita with tonight’s dinner service. We are going to be charging $14 per drink that will be made right in front of the customer. They will be able to add a few different ingredients and we can do it all with our hand crank Citrocasa Eco juicer, of course it will be shaken not stirred. Check out the ideas that Don Julio’s has for table side Margarita, wheel our Eco Juicer up to the table and it will be an experience that your customer will never forget.
As you can see, we can accomplish so much if we put our minds to it. The question is are you using every tool that you can to create an experience for your customer?
It doesn’t matter if you are a smaller retailer that needs to stand out from the larger chains. Or maybe you are a large chain, and your customers are telling you that they want more fresh, natural, and healthy products. Maybe you are a Hotel that desperately needs to get customers back in the door. Or a restaurant that is finally able to open again for the first time in a year. It all comes down to giving your customer a truly unique experience. You must be the innovator in your segment. Give the customer the healthy and natural products that they are asking for. Not only is it better for us but it tastes better too! Do you want your customers to just be a customer, or do you want them to be talking about your establishment? Of course, the answer is you want them to be talking about the amazing experience that they had, and they would recommend it to everyone that they talk to.
About Citrus America– Citrus America has been driving innovation and quality in the juicing segment for more than a decade in North America and the Caribbean. We’re the exclusive master distributor for Citrocasa and have driven many innovations and quality improvements in juicing equipment. In addition to equipment solutions, we provide tailored training and support strategies to help our customers earn Healthy Profits.
About Citrocasa – Citrocasa has been the pioneer in producing the most innovative and highest quality food grade stainless steel commercial citrus juicing equipment to the grocery, hotel and restaurant since 2005 across Europe. The Citrocasa 8000 Series was launched in 2005, with the 8000XB and the 8000SB. The 8000SB-ATS was launched in 2013. The Citrocasa Fantastic Series was launched in 2010 with the Fantastic M/AS. The Fantastic F/SB followed in 2011.
