2. INTRODUCTION
Tim Hortons store was first opened in 1964 by a hockey legend Tim
Horton. The first store was in Hamilton and it served coffee and 2
varieties of doughnuts that is the Dutchies and apple fritters. After
passing on, Tim’s partner Jon Royce, bought out Mr. Horton’s widow
and became the sole owner of the chain in 1975.
Tim Hortons has become Canada’s largest growing restaurant chain
with 4,613 restaurants around 9 countries as of December 31, 2016.
Tim Hortons merged with Burger King in 2014 and it resulted in an
agreement where the King Burger CEO Daniel Schwartz became the
CEO and Tim Hortons’ CEO Marc Caira being vice-chairman and
director
3. Tim Hortons menu changes
Tim Hortons has since changed a lot on their menu; however, coffee is
still very popular. Today the restaurant is serving a variety of food
items such as:
• Soup
• Bagels, tim bits, muffins, variety of doughnuts
• Breakfast sandwiches
• Lunch e.g sandwiches, wraps, salads, potato wedges e.t.c
• Speciality cold beverages
4. METHODOLOGY
To carry out this research I used Facebook and twitter as I noticed
that they are the most used social media tools. I was watching its
facebook page very often over the past weeks for this audit. I paid
attention to the posts with the highest views and therefore was able
to see what is trending. I concentrated on Facebook as there are over
3 million people that like Tim Hortons' facebook page. On the other
hand twitter has a low number of followers and therefore of likes as
compared to its facebook account.
5. RESULTS
• Tim Hortons has relied a lot on Facebook for its promotions,
customer reviews and giving back to the community (for example
summer camps). A lot of Tim Hortons' patrons post comments and
a lot of people that are signed up view these and messages tend to
go viral and hence low promotions are needed for particular
products being sold. From this audit I learned that businesses now
reply mostly on social media for its promotions and reviews. This
helps the company get a feedback for its products and services. It is
up to the company to keep up with its standards so that positive
comments are posted and any negativity or complaints are
attended to quickly in order to maintain the company's reputation.
6. RECOMMENDATIONS
• I strongly recommend that Tim Hortons watches its competitors
such Starbucks that has over 36 million likes on its facebook page.
This will raise more awareness and help boost its sales. This could
be through reviewing its products ensuring that the employees are
experienced for both service delivery and product quality. For
example Tim Hortons is well known for hiring students and
sometimes this may affect its standards as I noticed a complaint on
facebook about a latte that the customer felt looked like mud. A lot
of the posts were negative and so Tim Hortons has to go through
vigorous staff training to keep up with its competitors when it
comes to food items.