I love the Tim Horton’s near our home. We have been regular customers since we moved to the neighborhood. Now some of you might think, “There HAS to be places that serve better coffee than Tim Horton’s.” Well, yes, there are. In my drive to the office I pass six other places I can easily stop and purchase coffee (two of them are also Tim Horton’s). All six of these other places actually have shorter waiting lines, because our Tim Horton’s is very busy. So why do I stop at the busiest donut store around when I could stop at six others with shorter lines and possibly better coffee? One word. “Home.” It feels like home. Shortly after we moved here, the lady in the drive thru window asked me my name and introduced herself. I’d never had that happen in a donut store before, and now every time I stop by, Jill greets me by name. It doesn’t matter if I’m on a roll and stop nearly every day, or if a couple of weeks go by without a visit. Jill knows a lot of people and calls them all by name.
This personal service is not unique to Jill at this store. I was telling my wife that once on a weekend I had ordered and realized that I had left my wallet in my other jacket. The worker told me to go ahead and just take my order and pay the next time I was in. On weekends when the kids are with us, sometimes a couple of free “Timbits” will be added to the order or special pink sprinkles are added to a little girl’s donut (because pink is her favourite colour.)
Somehow this donut shop has created a sense of family. So when another donut shop opened nearby I didn’t even want to try it. And when I’m out of the area and go to other donut shops I compare it to the one where “my family” is.
It is the small things that customers and prospects remember, the fact you ask about their kids by name; you remember they were training for the marathon and ask how it went; or you add a little something extra to the order.