Tim Hortons has confirmed that it is planning to roll out a loyalty program across Canada sometime in 2019.
Speaking to BNN Bloomberg, Tim Hortons president Alex Macedo said the company is looking to launch a loyalty program nation-wide “very soon.”
Macedo said the loyalty program is currently being tested in seven undisclosed markets and has achieved a 20 to 30 percent adoption rate since testing began. For the purposes of this pilot, customers were using a physical loyalty card, although Macedo said program members across Canada will be able to use both a card and the Tim Hortons mobile app.
Tim Hortons is “fine tuning” its loyalty program and will roll it out soon across Canada, president Alex Macedo tells @JonErlichman @amberkanwar pic.twitter.com/bvl7UulJPu
— BNN Bloomberg (@BNNBloomberg) February 11, 2019
“It’s going well. We tested seven markets with a few different mechanics,” Macedo told BNN Bloomberg. “As we saw the winning mechanics, we changed the markets to more winning mechanics. We found one that we think is excellent to be able to drive guest satisfaction and franchise profitability.”
However, when BNN Bloomberg reporter Amber Kanwar asked Macedo to elaborate on what a “winning mechanic” actually is, he didn’t provide a very clear answer.
“A winning mechanic is something that guests will feel they are being rewarded for their behaviour of coming back and they will probably come back more often or happier. That’s one side,” said Macedo. “At the same time, we serve eight out of 10 cups of coffee in Canada so we have to make sure that this is driving additional business to our franchisees. That’s really the sweet spot that we were looking for all this time.”
As a result, it remains to be seen exactly how Tim Hortons’ loyalty program will work.
