r/lidl

Yes, Lidl has scored a massive own goal with recent business decisions. Customers are not happy.

This is the company that challenged the supermarket status quo and turned grocery shoppers into underdog advocates. They've made bargain hunting sexy. They've made low priced supermarket brands cool and been eating others' market share year after year with this approach.

They've now changed their loyalty scheme to look indistinguishable from any other major supermarket and I'm also seeing (unconfirmed) posts about head office replacing swathes of staff with AI chatbots, starting with HR. All of a sudden, customers are thinking "hmmm aren't they behaving like the companies they sought to challenge?" A bit like when the pigs start sleeping in the farmer's bed in Animal Farm.

So now what? Customers are threatening to leave. Many won't, some will. Many in the middle will just not seek out Lidl above any other supermarket. They're now at what PR people would often refer to as an inflection point. Decisions here are going to lead to massive consequences.

They have two options.

1. Listen to customers and give them back what they loved. This is going to take a lot of humility from corporate leaders, people not famous for humility and empathy.

2. Prove, undeniably and publicly, that changes put in place *do* actually result in a net benefit for customers. In PR, it's not just about doing the right thing, but being *seen* to do the right thing. People aren't stupid, they're seeing straight through the current tinned and automated answers from the Comms team. They need a better value prop than what they're currently producing.

What they absolutely cannot do here is double-down, close eyes and ears and bulldoze forward. Or, heaven forbid, seek advice from an external consultancy/PR agency for the answers to their own customer problem.

So, now's your time, Lidl. Are you the brand you've been building for years, or are you just like the supermarkets you sought to challenge?

As someone who works for the company it's been legitimately impressive how much they've been screwing up lately.

First they gut the rewards from the app losing customer confidence. I really don't understand how they thought the new rewards functions would be received even remotely well.

Now I come in today to some training to find out that we have a new AI chatbot who's entire functionality is to search our already existing database for answers. Oh and because we have this fancy new AI were just gonna lay off like 130 HR staff.

What a company. SMH.

My last 10% off code from Coupon Plus was expiring today. The expiry of coupons always goes to the end of the day when it says "expires today".

I made sure everything was active in the app this morning, went to do my shop and checked the receipt. The 10% coupon was nowhere to be found. Not redeemed, not anywhere on the app either.

So it must have been removed from my coupons mid shop or removed at the checkout.

Bastards.

Edit: Free bakery item with 3 days left also disappeared from coupons and didn't track on the receipt. So I'm guessing they're having a glitch :-(

Edit 2: £8.50 voucher received after complaining to customer service. Glitch confirmed. 👍

https://preview.redd.it/e6pdhbynzyzg1.png?width=845&format=png&auto=webp&s=db044b3c447a8136393f9bed5cc66596fbc9ef86

Surely I dont have to spend £100 to get a free cucumber??

Only way I can see forward for the Lidl app is them giving us something free every week like veg, fruit, bakery. Or giving us coupons to get cupboard staples for pennies. The weekly coupons are the only chance of saving this.

Senior management who oversaw this should be sacked. Shocking decision