That’s the consensus of replies to a poll by Yahoo! Canada, which asked Tim Horton’s customers what they’d like to see the chain improve. If you’re a Tim’s head office type, reading through the comments will be sure to turn your Sunday sour. But you need to do it, just the same…
What should Tim Horton’s improve to reclaim its reputation?
As you’re probably aware, Tim’s sales have been suffering over the past couple of years and its customer loyalty ratings – once the envy of their competitors – have taken a serious slide. In an effort to answer the obvious question, ‘Why?’, Yahoo! asked Tim loyalists (current and former) what they’d like to see the chain improve to reclaim its traditional good reputation.
Recurrent themes…
The most common suggestion, by a long reach, was the Coffee. Once the fave brew of Canadians, Tim’s original Coffee was considered a national treasure. When someone said they’d had a ‘Double, Double’, you knew they’d been to Tim’s. But, now, customers tell Yahoo! pollsters that the coffee is ‘inconsistent’, ‘often tastes burnt’, ‘too strong’. Those and other observations, notably that the coffee is often too hot, are repeated over and over again in the comments.One respondent top the poll summed it up perfectly, I thought: ‘There was a time the coffee had this aroma and a taste that I miss.’ The essence of a kinder, gentler diss – typically Canadian.
The baked goods also come in for some pretty severe criticism. ‘Doughnuts taste a week old every day’, one poll respondent said. ‘Freshly made donuts. […] right now they are pre-baked and frozen no better than grocery store bought,’ echoed another. One comment summed up the consensus on the move, a few years back, to stop baking the doughnuts and preparing other food items fresh, in-store: ‘Quality of food should get back to what it was (even if that means fewer options). Tim’s has become too fast food’.
The service, once a point of pride for Tim’s, has suffered, according to poll respondents. ‘Train employees to know what “toasted” means. What it doesn’t mean is “warmed”, one customer complains. ‘Customer Service!!!! I would be surprised these days to get a “Hi” and “Thank you” at any fast food places especially Tim’s’, says another, making a good point that could apply to all, or most, Fast Food joints these days. ’18 people ‘working’ in Tim Hortons, 14 of them standing around doing nothing, and it takes 10 minutes to get a coffee and a breakfast sandwich every time? They need to vastly improve employee roles and efficiency,’ another poll respondent gripes. And yet another risks getting the PC Police on his tail: ‘Canadian employees that speak English?’ That’s a problem at many fast food chains, alas, and is centred mainly on the abuse by owners and manages of the temporary foreign workers’ regulations. One extremely disgruntled commenter jibed: ‘Every time I think I have had bad food or service I park outside Timmy’s so I can remember what [bad service] is really like.’
But the most persistent opinion expressed by poll respondents was…
Quite a number of respondents tied Tim’s ill fortune to the buy-out by Restaurant Brands International (RBI) which is headquartered in Miami, FL, and the changes that new master has brought in. For example: ‘Make yourself a coffee shop again, you’ll never be a restaurant. Prepare the foods in your own shops, who likes assembly line products?’
Others blamed the decline of Tim’s directly on the takeover a few years ago and responded with some intensity: ‘HOW ABOUT JUST LEAVING SO WE CAN HAVE A CANADIAN COFFEE PLACE AGAIN[?]’
Perhaps the most insightful poll response came from a poster calling himself Guru: ‘As a kid, Tim Horton’s was always something that all Canadians identified with including myself. The commercials, the early mornings before hockey practice, the stops on family road trips. Tim Horton’s needs to get back to customer value. It seems as though everything is about making the most profit and nickel and dime the people that made the company what it is, us! This company should stick to its roots: Canadian. People want to support their country, they take pride in it. No longer being a Canadian company is like a slap in the face.’
RBI bean counters and profit skimmers, listen up!
~ Maggie J.