Let’s Solve A

Consulting Case
Problem Statement
The canteen of an
undergraduate college
campus has witnessed a dip
in its revenues. Help them
recognize the root cause
and give them some
recommendations to grow
their revenues.
 Interview Thread
Interviewee: Understood. Firstly, I would want to
understand the product range that they offer. And
what is their regular service time? Is it a night
canteen?
Interviewer: Sure. So, the canteen runs from 9AM till
3AM late night every day. They mostly sell basic
snacks. Their 3 key products are omelettes,
sandwiches, and puffs.
Interviewee: What is their scale of operations? How
many staff do they have?
Interviewer: They have a fairly small setup but are
positioned well. They have 6 employees distributed
across 2 shifts.
Interviewee: Okay. Also, if it is an on-campus canteen,
the typical customers would-be students, professors
and maybe the on-campus staff. Is that correct?
Interviewer: Yes, that’s correct. But majorly, the
revenues come from students.
Interviewee: Got it. Is the problem specific to this
canteen? Or are the other food outlets on the campus
facing a similar issue?
Interviewer: No, the other outlets haven’t seen a
change in their revenues.
Interviewee: Alright. I think have enough information
to start my analysis.

Firstly, breaking down revenues, Revenues = # Of

Customers * # Orders Per Customer * Revenue Per
Order. Do we have an idea of which if these could be
causing the decline, or would you want me to analyze
both of them individually?
Interviewer: It is the number of orders going down
that is hurting them. The Average Order Value has
gone up and the # of customers is the same.
Interviewee: Okay. Since it is the number of orders
going down while the competitors around remain
unaffected, I would want to switch to an individual
customer’s journey and see where exactly the drop
off may be happening.
Interviewer: Sure. Go ahead.
Interviewee: I will break a customer’s journey into
three parts:
1. Before coming to the canteen
2. During the visit to the canteen
3. After the visiting the canteen
Have we identified an issue in any particular
segment of this? Or would you like me to dive into
each of these individually?
Interviewer: They haven’t observed any particular
change in how and why people approach the store.
However, the complaints while people are at the
canteen are rising.
Interviewee: Okay. So, once at the canteen, the
customers are facing some issues. I would like to
break this down further into factors that affect a
customer’s decision once they are at the canteen.
Interviewer: Sounds good. Go ahead.
Interviewee: I would break the decision into:
1. Product-related factors: quality, quantity, raw
materials used, price
2. Service-related factors: wait time, seating
availability, ambience
Do we understand where the problem might lie?
Interviewer: The product and everything that goes into
it is largely the same. The complaints are mostly on
the service aspect.
Interviewee: Okay. As I briefly mentioned, issues with
the service could be about:
1. Increased rush limiting access to the products
2. Longer wait time post ordering
3. Insufficient or improper seating space
4. External issues like bad surrounding odor
Interviewer: While other things have remained
mostly the same, people are complaining about
experiencing longer wait times.
Interviewee: Longer wait times may mean -
1. There are not enough workers
2. They do not have enough resources to work with
3. There has been a change in the workers and
hence the lower efficiency
4. The general worker efficiency has gone down
Interviewer: The workers and the resources they use
has remained the same. However, because of the
newly started room delivery service, a worker is
typically on-the-go delivering orders. That has
reduced the available workforce in the store. hence
the longer waiting times. We can close the case.

that’s a wrap!
 Framework
Canteen Revenue

# of # of Orders Revenue per

Customers per Customer Order

Customer
Journey

Before During After

Arrival Visit Visit

Product Service

Seating availability
Ambience
Wait Time
 HOPE YOU
LEARNED
SOMETHING NEW!

SAVE this post for future

reference

REPOST this post to help

others

FOLLOW me for more such

content on Consulting & MBA