Exploring our Love/Hate Relationship with all things Tims

(Originally posted in 2018)

Thanks for your interest in coming here. I am a Canada Post employee in the Greater Toronto Area, and have had LOTS of Tim Horton’s customer experiences over many years now.  I have found that a Timmies visit can vary from scoring that perfect, ‘Mother’s milk’ java and some awesome fresh/hot/tasty super satisfying grubbage to a blood pressure warning, frustrating, ready-to-never-return disaster. Nothing too remarkable about that, but why is it that the scale seems to be pushing towards the real negative and so often? Is it the familiarity? Is it too much to ask for consistency in that coffee? Timely service? Hot or cold items which are supposed to be hot or cold (not vice versa)? You can judge and I would love to hear your experiences and opinions – I know many people have the stories to tell.

I just have gotten too frustrated with the same problems at so many different Tim’s locations that I have to get it out there and see if many of you feel the same way.

Top 5 sources of frustration with a typical Tim’s visit.

1. Salt and Pepper, please

Just three little words (four in Canadian). More often on a drive thru than a counter visit, why can’t they give me my S&P? I know they have a button on their POS (that’s point of sale to you) for the purpose – I’ve asked. I have gone to simply stocking up in my vehicle as best I can to avoid the roughly 60% Oops! – we forgot factor. As a salt lover, many of those sammies just don’t make it without additional spicing up.

2. Drive-Through (DT) dialogue and etiquette

I recently had a discussion with my son about what the majority of DT customers must  be like. Aren’t most of them (like me) experienced with the process? Haven’t we largely decided in advance what we’re ordering and how to do it?  More than 9 times out of ten after I have specified ‘and thats it’ or ‘thats all’,  I will be asked ‘Is there anything else?’ or perhaps ‘Would you like a muffin or a doughnut with that’? Why don’t they Listen?

What about the interrupters – the ones who wont let you finish your order? All they have to do is punch the appropriate button as I lay it out, (Dark Roast, 2 milk one sugar, multigrain bagel double toasted with …  blah blah blah) it hopefully will show on the little screen – it can be really cool when they simply listen. Ok, if i ordered with marble mouth then questions are fair. But I (we?) don’t, do we? We know to bark clearly and loudly. We know what we want (except when you’re in a hurry the chances of the car in front having a nice little review dialogue of all the menu options is much greater) Let Me Finish, Please! It will be faster, I promise.

3. Mustard!

Ok, I don’t expect too much empathy on this one but here goes. I changed up my diet some years back to drop some pounds. I wanted my sandwich with mustard. Not Mayo, or some chipotle-ranch-honey-southwestern-garlic-sweet onion flavoured whatever sauce or anything but mustard. Now, having worked some in food service, I feel that it is considered as a pantry staple. It’s cheap, it lasts a long time and how hard is it to keep a tub around somewhere anyway? I have simply stopped asking. Did you know that 95% of Timmies don’t have it? they probably only started stocking ketchup once they brought out those potato wedges.

4. The ignore – or, the grab and go.

This one is exclusive to counter service. You simply can’t get them to look at you or ask for your order because…. They’re filling DT orders/they’re cleaning something/having a little chat/not there. Don’t you love standing in a line inside while they blow out car orders like the world is ending? Then after the little flurry of DT completions, someone disappears somewhere, another starts cleaning..?

Sometimes it’s real important to make the line up smaller (for customer satisfaction maybe?) fast by taking a flurry of orders and then letting us all stew on the sidelines as we wait. Rather impersonal and disappointing to be treated as a wallet – grab the order and payment and then let’em wait. Like I’m supposed to know that with a coffee only order you’re not going to make it while I wait and then go the next customer… They grab your money, then want you to go wait over there and keep quiet.

5. Inconsistency

In an industry like theirs, and with a corporate model of thousands of franchises nationwide and growing, consistency is key. They go to great pains to make sure their coffee blend is the same regardless of where you order that cup. Too bad the same can’t be said for the various food products. Training issues with young and inexperienced staff making relatively low wages, Franchise Managers determined to make more profit by shaving or creatively interpreting corporate guidelines about freshness and portion size are the two main influences I can imagine. Stale bagels, incomplete sandwiches, meager portions of bacon or wedges. How many times have you been some distance away when you found out they forgot the bacon on that Grilled cheese WITH BACON you paid an extra buck for. How is it that the sugar dispensers can be so out of whack with the standard?

There. I think I will start to feel better having shared some of that. Please let me know your stories and impressions, I expect I am not alone.

Next step will be some product reviews and some specific transactions that were memorable one way or another.

(This ends the 2018 posting sessions – the blog is now up to date and current)