Rivals’ attack on Tim Hortons in morning market forces menu shakeup
Now more than ever, if history teaches us anything Nortel Networks being classical as the DO NOT DO business model, more hardware doesn’t mean better.
Fast forward to today and Tim Hortons if they don’t already know and understand this will. It’s just a matter of time.
The clue came in the ever shift of NOT having great customer service at the counter – one to one good old days of meeting the owner et al. and being relegated to third world class status when the drive thru came in.
The new marching orders – Virtual of Course from the Top Down was driver in vehicle too much in a hurry to come in, so he must be more important to serve faster and more efficiently to keep as a repeat customer. Otherwise off to MacDonalds or elsewhere they would go.
Service had to be measured – hence that niffy Digital Clock above the inside Drive Thru window. Tops 30 second service let’s say for argument’s sake. Well to meet those metrics without Corporate Penalties – more staff required. Less one on one counter service and face time and more virtual – hey, all I see 90 percent of the time is someone’s hands reaching out for money – that’s it that all other than handing me what I ordered if they got it right.
Got burned so many times at the drive thru, I’ve rather park the truck, walk in, go to the restroom, walk up to the counter, order and double check in store to make sure I’ve got what I ordered.
Off course this takes more time, but most of it isn’t because I’m slow getting there! 90 % of the time is waiting a good 5 minutes at the counter waiting to get served if everyone’s busy serving the drive thru.
Mentally on busy rush hour mornings – I count at least approximately 10 to 12 on staff for drive thru service. That’s alot of hardware to take my money and hand me something for it. Pretty soon, I’ll wave my SMARTPHONE from the remote ordering speaker and bingo, drive up be handed my stuff and off I go. No more hellos, no more money, no more well real. Almost all virtual.
The problem is balancing off course. That is something Tim Hortons hasn’t done well in my opinion. Not to just chide Tim’s. I’ve seen it countless times elsewhere at the check-outs.
With less staff. obviously service suffers. So what’s the solution… we’ll I’m looking at it dispassionately after being in those pressure cooker scenarios so many years. I’ll come to me, however it’s not a priority on my to do list. In the meantime, all I want to experience is quality service one on one with real people since all my other time is spent without real contact with Tech taking a much bigger role in all our lives.
Endless price increases to pay for so much hardware service at Tim Hortons with no counter service has tipped the balance. I’ve walked away going elsewhere. So by my calculations, I’m paying more for products and lousy counter service and giving donations to the drive through customer. Doesn’t seem logical to me to put money in a stranger’s pocket without at least getting to know them first and why I would want to do that in the first place. It’s not a subsidy, it’s a donation via the hands of many at Tim Hortons. Yep they get to keep money money and play with it finding more ways to milk more out of me next time. Enough of that once I woke up. Been there, done that – thank you very much for the lesson burnt into memory cells permanently.
So for the Tech domain, the moral of the lesson is this – if you virtualize everything into clouds, someone will turn tails on you and come up with something that will take your breaths away and leave you in the dust. That’s the nature of Dogs – they put up with much, but when enough is enough – watch out they have a mean bite and loyalty doesn’t count anymore.
The price is extremely high to buy back a lost Dog, especially not of it’s own doing. Being all things too all isn’t the answer. Specialize and Master, then spread out a leg and arm to do more. It’s called balance and using Tai Chi principles to use NRGY more effectively and efficiently without slicing and dicing the compromise so many times that it’s become worthless to the point of being disposable. A commodity made to consume and become obsolete like the old HP calculators. Who uses those still ??? I did once. Old PDA’s – I did. Today – no way Jose !
You can go down the Nortel and Tim way or you can plan ahead – the choice is obvious in my opinion.
Live~NRGY 
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