Almost 5000 Lidl staff have been told a perceived lack of customer service is holding the supermarket chain back. They were bussed to Citywest this week for a massive American-style conference which one Irish Times journalist described as "partly like a US political convention, part deep-South evangelical sermon, and part corporate training exercise. But it was almost totally surreal."
Staff were shown the above headline from the satirical web site Waterford Whispers News. Lidl's commercial director told the crowd that even though it was a joke, sometimes the "satire jumps up to bite you. It is based on reality."
In a bid to improve their reputation for service, staff have been told from October they'll be called 'Customer Assistants' rather than 'Store Assistants'. Each Lidl will also have a 'Happy or Not' customer service kiosk. Lidl's CEO Paul Scally says "We have a new obsession: making every customer smile."
Workers will be wearing different uniforms from next month and from next year they'll be using customer pallet trucks.
