Carla Celaya has made a career of getting people to drink cacti and spinach smoothies.

“I love my work helping people become healthier through good food,” says Carla.

And having succeeded in helping people eat healthier as a nutritionist for 20 years, in 2016 she combined her professional experience with a lifelong dream of running her own restaurant to launch Nutrah-C, a fresh food eatery in Hermosillo, Mexico.

Carla’s cozy restaurant can accommodate 16 eat-in customers but takeouts account for 80 percent of her business. In February 2019 she began using the WhatsApp Business app to make the process of handling customer orders — for everything from mango salads to avocado sandwiches and chía pudding — smoother and to boost her team’s efficiency.

"In March 2019, sales increased by 40 percent, thanks to WhatsApp Business”

Nutrah-C receives and processes all of its takeout orders via the app and Carla says, “In March 2019, sales increased by 40 percent, thanks to WhatsApp Business.”

“I went from spending 40 seconds on a message to three seconds,” says Carla, explaining how much more efficient the WhatsApp Business app’s quick replies feature has made her team which receives up to 80 customer requests a day. “I also like the ability to put a link to our address in the business profile so that people don’t have to ask,” she says.

Nutrah-C’s customers like the ease of interacting with them via WhatsApp, too.

“I get an instant response from Nutrah-C. It’s incredible, really,” says Luis Carlos Larios, a local entrepreneur. “I also like WhatsApp because one decides when to respond. If they called me I would have to drop everything to answer them.”

“It saves me time; I don’t have to come to the restaurant to make an order,” adds Diana Rodríguez, a mother who appreciates being able to order healthy food for her family. “All I do is send a message, and I know that they will see it.”

In the coming years, Carla wants to franchise Nutrah-C across Mexico. And with the WhatsApp Business app helping her serve her customers faster and more efficiently than ever before, Carla has more time to convince more people of the merits of green smoothies and her smorgasbord of healthy meals.