I recently heard about Best Buy's new customer service initiative "The Twelp Force". Basically what they've done is eliminate that terrible sale pressure one gets when entering a store and made a service through the use of Twitter that is purely customer service driven. No sell. No marketing. Just Best Buy employees providing 24/7 customer service and help through the use of twitter so people can repair and troubleshoot their best buy products. It's a pretty amazing service. And the fact that a company is reaching out to the customers and also at the same time self-aware enough to realize the power of tools like twitter and then utilize them in such an ingenious way is amazing as well.
Even more amazing are the follow ups. 1. How tangible the twelp force is. Even though it's across the arguably cold empty vacuum of the web they still manage to place a human touch on things. Engaging customers in constant conversation is the best way to keep your name on their minds. Good will, brand recognition. It creates a self perpetuating influence and makes YOU the talk of the town. 2. 24/7 means, as I said before, constant conversation. Help is always there. You can always reach them. Which means they can always be on your mind. 3. Completely trustworthy and transparent. They created a feed that aggregates all the original messages and the twelp force replies so that everything is in plain view. Nothing is hidden. That means even if you are cursing the best buy name they still put your comment up on the feed for everyone to see, which, in my opinion, promotes enough goodwill to overshadow any negative opinion a single twitterer might voice.
So, what's the impact? A lot of people would love to reach out to their customers like this but they just don't have the manpower or resources to do so. That's why it's important to target social influencers and marketing influencers to really find the people that can reach your audience.
