12.30 Yardstick Report: Parking Problem at Caputi’s Italian Restaurant (Obj. 5)
You have always enjoyed the great food at Caputi’s Italian Restaurant, owned by your uncle Guido. Caputi’s is a formal, upscale dining Italian restaurant in downtown Tempe, Arizona, near the campus of a major university where you are a student. Because of its steadily increasing business, Caputi’s has outgrown its small parking lot, which has only 20 parking spaces.
Frustrated over their inability to park in the restaurant’s lot, some potential customers give up and go elsewhere to eat. Some of the regulars have also disappeared. Caputi’s cannot add parking spaces because adjacent land is unavailable. However, according to Guido, “The problem is not a lack of parking spaces; it’s a lack of willingness on the part of customers to walk from where they parked to the restaurant.” To pay its debts, the restaurant needs to continue to grow. Guido says, “Relocation is out of the question— this spot is too good!”
Guido wants you to evaluate options to ease the parking problem, using criteria that he and you develop. The options are to (a) use a valet service with attendants who park and later retrieve cars for patrons, (b) run a free shuttle service between the restaurant and a nearby parking garage, and (c) advertise the availability of nearby parking garages and bus routes on the restaurant’s website and in the restaurant. The criteria are (a) the cost to the restaurant to implement the solution, (b) the cost to the customer to use the solution, (c) the ease of implementation for the restaurant, and (d) convenience to the customer.
Besides talking to Guido, you interview a valet parking company about its services and fees, and you interview the managers of the nearby parking garages about availability and prices. You survey 40 of the restaurant’s customers about their willingness to use a valet service and the price they would be willing to pay for the service
You explain what a decision matrix is to Guido, and together you decide on the weights of the criteria. The net profit (or loss) to the restaurant to implement the solution receives a weight of 10. The cost to the customer to use the solution receives a weight of 6. The ease of implementation for the restaurant receives a weight of 4. The convenience to the customer receives a weight of 8.
