Tim Horton’s save
May 9th, 2008In the sport of hockey, there’s the phrase ‘nice save’. It’s used when one team has a brilliant scoring opportunity, and the other team’s goalie does something equally brilliant to avert disaster. A fitting metaphor for the unfolding Tim Horton’s story, (see my previous post for details) given that the late Tim Horton was a legendary hockey player.
In less than 24 hours, Tim Horton’s, I believe, has recovered as well anyone probably could under the circumstances. Whoever is responsible for their PR will be keeping their job for a while I think (unless, of course, he/she gives someone a timbit). In a nutshell, from Tim Horton’s perspective, here’s what I suspect happened yesterday morning:
5:30 am: Don Schroeder, Tim Horton’s president, wakes up to see his chain’s name splashed across every daily newspaper in the country, and sees it on every news broadcast. He thinks “Oh crap!”
6:00 am: He has already called his assistant who has begun to call everyone in head office, telling them to get their butts to work within the next half an hour.
7:00am: They hold an emergency meeting to discuss what they’re going to do about it. Don Schroeder uses at least one swear word. At least one person suggests publically hanging the manager who fired the employee.
7:10am: It occurs to them that there were actually three managers present for the firing, and the district manager had publicly and stridently supported the strict adherence to the corporate theft policy. It then occurs to them that this is probably due to directives from head office, since this kind of behaviour rarely happens in a vacuum. The public hanging idea is out, because they don’t have enough nooses to go around.
7:15am: The woman is offered her job back, and all of the press is notified
7:20 am: It’s slowly starting to occur to all of the managers, including the district manager, that maybe they did something wrong (although most still in denial)
8:00am: It looks like the tide of ill-will might be unstoppable. Canada’s national newspaper, The Globe & Mail, already has over 200 people writing in with comments on their website. (by the end of the day, the number will swell to over 800 - one of the highest responses the G&M has ever had). In at least 50% of these, people have vowed to never eat at Tim Horton’s again.
10:00am: Tim Horton’s has received over a thousand emails and telephone messages from customers. None of these customers expect a response.
2:30pm: Tim Horton’s has pulled everyone off of all projects to ensure that each email and telephone call gets responded to. The email is a generic, but not obviously so. It is well written. Most of the press is given regular updates, which includes the repetition of an unqualified statement that the firing was wrong, and that it has been fixed
6:00pm: Everyone is exhausted. Nothing to do but wait until tomorrow to see how it plays out in the media.
2:00am: The managers involved in the firing still can’t sleep, but still aren’t quite sure why.
This has become a wonderful case history of how much of an impact one poor management decision can have on an organization. It’s also a case study in how strongly people feel about policies and procedures that unreasonably restrict someone’s ability to deliver great customer service.
We’ll be using this one in our management training programs! Thanks Tim’s!
