July 7th, 2010

@twelpforce to the Rescue!

A store can’t help anyone who doesn’t walk through their doors, or can they? Best Buy recently proved the old age retail excuse with the introduction of its “Twelpforce” only one year ago. Best Buy associates can answer the questions, whether they are directly asked or not.

The platform for the Best Buy Twitter site is as follows: customers can either @twelpforce a question and have specialists run to the rescue with an answer or twelpforce members can answer the questions they find people ask indirectly to the whole twitter universe. The whole campaign promoted that Best Buy is there for its customers, whether they are in the store or not.

With over 24,000 followers, Twelpforce has certainly become a success but receiving the Titanium Grand Prix award at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival only further signifies Best Buy’s exemplary use of Social Media to drive in store sales.

By answering someone’s question, @twelpforce members form a personal connection with the customer and in so doing makes them feel good about Best Buy and motivate them to make their purchases from a company who cares about them.

The interaction with twitter writers who do not directly ask @twelpforce questions increases the customer further to choose Best Buy over other technology sales stores because a big label shows interest in them. The success for Best buy has been a monumental increase in sales including a 40% increase in laptop sales this year. For Best Buy, a new customer service platform has certainly paid off.

Below is one of the advertisements Best Buy used to launch its @twelpforce brand last year.

Image by ShashiBellamkonda

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