Under-fire high street chain Marks & Spencer (M&S) has hired an American motivational guru to inspire its staff.
The store is spending £10m on training days for 60,000 workers with customer service expert Mary Gober.
New Yorker Gober claims to be “the most dynamic force in customer service culture development today”, according to her own website.
Her clients have included Coca-Cola, Royal Bank of Scotland and Nestle Rowntree.
M&S said: “Every member of staff will attend a specially tailored training event over the next month.” At the London seminars, sales assistants will learn the three-step ‘Gober Method’, which is said to provide “the required mindset and motivation for superior service”.
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The company denied it was a panic reaction to continued falling clothes sales.
M&S’s Latest sales figures show a fall of 5.4% in the three months to July.