If you’re considering providing nutritional value information for your products and menu items, the initial concern is you may be shooting yourself in the foot.
Obviously, it’s probably the moral thing to do.
But by letting your customers know that one of the reasons your Pesto Chicken is so delicious — is because you add a very generous portion of Parmesan and cream, thus, the dish contains 875 calories per portion — the fear is that your honesty will have customers turning away in droves.
Well, fear not.
In fact, the opposite is true.
Providing nutritional information to your customers is always a sales boost. So read on to find out why.
1# Health Conscious Customers
Canadian consumers are just like many Western nations. We are getting older. While that is a great thing if you are operating a business and, in particular, a food business you need to accommodate this shift in your consumer’s requirements.
With an aging population, spare a thought for how many older people need to eat to stay healthy. Older people may be living with diabetes, heart and blood pressure conditions and, as such, they may need to follow low salt, low sugar, or low cholesterol diets.
It may be that many dishes on your menu or the products you produce simply are not suitable for some older people with special dietary requirements. But if you give your customers information, then at least they have the information they need to be able to make the right choice for themselves. If you don’t display information they simply will not take the risk. So in essence, you can’t lose.
While you are increasing your customer base to include older generations don’t forget your Millennial customers. These customers are born into an information age and are also extremely health conscious. If you don’t display your nutritional information, many Millennials will simply take their business elsewhere to your competitors that are displaying theirs.
The advice here is by including your nutritional information you will increase your customer base to both the younger and older generations.
2# Calorie Counting Customers
Don’t underestimate the number of your consumers that live and die by nutritional information. For at least fifty years, calories and slimness have been popular in Western societies. The Canadian diet industry is worth seven billion dollars annually and if you are not displaying nutritional information, you are going to lose a huge number of customers.
For sure, your 12-inch pizza is not going to be the ideal choice for someone following a low-calorie diet. But by displaying how much information is in your mixed salad with and without dressing and how many calories are in one slice of your 12-inch pizza, then you might have made a sale. If you don’t then you are highly unlikely to do so.
Once again, don’t turn away this large section of your consumer base by hiding your nutritional information.
3# Keep it Legal
Canadian food companies have recently been subjected to a healthy ban on trans-fats. This is great news for Canadians and will extend the lives of thousands of Canadians.
A way you can prove to your customers that your food does not contain any unhealthy PHPs is to display your nutritional information.
It’s something that Canadian consumers are currently looking out for. You can wear your nutritional information either on your website, menu or packaging as a badge of honor so your customers know your food doesn’t contain unhealthy fats and you are in line with current legislation.
In short, let your customers know you are following legislation and you will drive your sales.
4# Experimentation and Innovation with your Product Range
In 1# and 2# we discussed calorie counters and people that have special dietary requirements. Using nutritional software also has the added benefit of allowing you to extend a product range so that you can cater to all of your customers. With talented chefs on board to help you produce lower-calorie products, then once again you will boost your sales.
You can easily extend your menu so that you can cater to everyone with the help of nutritional information software.
When fast food conglomerates were forced to start displaying their nutritional information, they made sure to extend their product range.
Consumers were given more choices, such as healthier salads and sandwiches so that people didn’t turn away from higher calorie menu items. Extending your product range means you can cater for everyone. You can highlight products you know are healthy and create new dishes and products. Ensure that there is something on your menu for anyone who is following a low sodium, low fat or low-calorie diet and you will boost your sales.
Think about a typical family celebration with an improved and informed nutritional information on your menu. Now, Grandma and Granddad can come with their dietary needs, as can Auntie Ginnie who is always on a diet. You can also make sure that the kids have healthy choices too, with plenty of fresh fruit and vegetable options.
Using MenuSano nutritional software makes it easy to experiment with your team and cater to all your customers whatever their age or dietary needs. You can’t avoid driving your sales by catering for all.
5# Professionalism
It’s in vogue to be bespoke these days. To be an artisan. To still be small. And people do like that. If you are not displaying nutritional information, you’ll be forgiven by some consumers if they know you are a small business and perhaps can’t afford to get your food sent to a lab for analysis.
It can cost up to $800 per dish to have dishes analyzed in laboratories so well out of the budget of smaller eateries.
However, the number of consumers that won’t forgive you far outweighs the number that will.
The great news is that nutritional software is super affordable. In fact, it costs from as little as $25 per month. So don’t delay. Sign up today!
6# Do The Right Thing
As mentioned briefly when you display your nutritional information you are being honest and accountable. You are giving your customers choice and information to make decisions.
The more information you provide your customers with the more trustworthy you are being. And when customers trust you, they will buy from you.
Consumers know that you are being respectable and are sharing your information and will respect you for doing so. They may shy away from some of your more calorific items sometimes and choose to indulge at another time. It’s up to them after all, but surely it’s right to give them the information they need to make an informed choice.
If customers have overindulged over the weekend, you may find that sales of your lower calorie lunches are big on Mondays. And conversely, on Friday night might be when some customers decide to share a Triple Chocolate Cookie Delight.
Give your customers’ information so they can make their own choices from your menu. They will thank you for it.
Conclusion
So there you have it. Six ways that displaying nutritional information will boost your sales and grow your business.
With an increased consumer base, an extended product range and an honest approach; slick and professional nutritional analysis can’t fail to improve your sales and grow your business.
It’s very easy to input your ingredients contained in your recipes and information is displayed in easy-to-understand values including DV% calculations.
The cost of adopting nutritional information software from MenuSano.com is as little as $35 per month.
So why not try out our nutritional software for free, today?
