ONLINE EXCLUSIVE: Tim Hortons’ Implements Video Technology to Decrease Service Time

A huge contributing factor to achieving service-time goals was how Tim Hortons motivated its store managers and employees. The program had specific, measurable goals, and employees were motivated to meet those goals and continually improve with incentives. Tim Hortons found its most success when it combined creative contests and competition with effective recognition programs.

Creating internal competition enabled greater results, and once the system was integrated into Tim Hortons’ central database system and shared with management teams, it was able to compare performance of one store vs. another for more meaningful motivational incentives. QueueTime and Performance Monitor enabled immediate performance feedback so staff could see their results daily, creating a powerful motivator to achieve corporate and store owner objectives.

The result was that a select Tim Hortons’ store saw its storefront service time decrease 30 percent. The study also showed a correlation between increased sales and decreased service times. From Aug. 10 to Sept. 30, service time decreased by 30 percent while sales increased by 17 percent. In high traffic stores such as Tim Hortons, improving service time can increase its capacity to serve more customers. Over time, the tendency will be for customers to develop a preference for the store location with better speed of service, thereby increasing overall sales.