Tim Hortons Launches Tims Rewards Program
I was recently interviewed by Global News to provide my thoughts about Tim Hortons’ new rewards program called Tims Rewards (free to sign up). Looks like they want to compete with McDonald’s and Starbuck’s loyalty programs.
Earning
The program is fairly straight forward. For every 7 qualifying purchases (coffee, tea, or baked good), you earn 1 point. After 7 points, you earn 1 reward. However, you can only have a maximum of 5 rewards in the bank. This essentially forces you to redeem on the go. I really like the 5 reward limit condition, because it goes with the earn and burn philosophy that we emphasize at Pointshogger.
Conditions
There is a minimum purchase of $0.50 paid out of pocket. This means that you cannot just buy 1 Timbit to earn a point. Aside from Timbits, other notable items excluded bagels and hot chocolate. Though they are working on plans to add more eligible items.
Furthermore, each point earn has to be 30 minutes apart. This means that if you and 7 other friends are at Tims together, one person cannot earn the points for each purchase. But maybe you can buy 7 seven coffees and have the 8th one free on the same purchase?
Redeeming
Reward options include ANY SIZE coffee, tea or a baked good. This is amazing, because you can purchase 7 smalls and redeem for 1 large.
Conclusion
I’m not a coffee drinker and I usually only buy Timbits a couple of times a year at Tim Hortons, so I may not have this reward program in my wallet for the time being.
That being said, I am still excited for the launch of this new rewards program. It should help increase the competition in the loyalty market, which is usually a good thing for consumers.
This program seems to fall in the line between McDs program and the earlier version of Starbucks rewards. McDs is pretty simple as you collect 7 stickers for a free drink. Although now you can double-dip an earn stickers via the App too. Starbucks used to require 12 points for a free drink, but they went to a dollar based program.
I did read where you can add the loyalty card to your Tim’s app, so you don’t have to carry another card in your wallet. I guess something is better than nothing. Although I still prefer McDs program since you can double-dip on rewards, and they consistently have $1 coffee specials (Had that month of Dec and Feb). Let’s hope Tim’s eventually does the Starbucks route and grants you points on all items, where you can then redeem them for anything in the store (kind of like a % or cashback on every purchase).
Something better than nothing! I’m with you on that!
I earned a free reward and 2 credits with my 1st purchase. On my 2nd purchase, my reward was automatically redeemed for the lowest price eligible item in my order (a 99 cent doughnut) instead of the highest price price eligible item in my order (a $2 coffee). Tim’s staff could not fix the mistake.
May need to call customer service instead. Make take some time for them to work out any glitches as it is a new program.
I’m getting quite frustrated with the new Tim Hortons reward program I earned my first reward quite quickly and it was for $.36 off my order I don’t find that very rewarding, and today when I went to claim another reward they said I didn’t have one. When I showed them on my phone that I did they said there was nothing they could do about it. So I’m not too crazy about it .I’ve also contacted customer service about this twice and I still haven’t heard anything back from them
Thanks for sharing your frustrations sherri. This is always helpful to know.