Imagine you’re in the company boardroom, and you propose to let every single one of your thousands of employees offer advice to customers… on the Internet.

Although most of your employees may offer advice in the company stores on a daily basis, isn’t allowing all of them to do it on the Internet a huge risk?  Wouldn’t everyone in the boardroom look at you like you were insane?

Best Buy decided to take this risk using Twitter.  One year later, the gamble appears to have paid off.

This July marks the one-year anniversary of Best Buy’s “Twelpforce” (i.e. Twitter help force), a social media experiment in customer service.  Any Best Buy employee can sign up using his or her own personal Twitter account, and whenever they add the hashtag “#twelpforce” the tweet gets added to the Twelpforce feed.  No tweet is added to the feed without the hashtag.

To ensure employee accountability and allow customers to build a relationship with a specific employee, each tweet posted on Twelpforce includes a signature at the end indicating the personal Twitter account of the employee.  Of course, not all employees sign up using their personal account.  They can create a new account with a name like “TwelpFromBob” to use just for Twelpforce contributions.  To date, over 2,500 employees have signed up to become part of the Twelpforce.  The account has over 28,000 followers and has generated over 31,000 tweets.

How does this work?

To understand how this thing works, we looked at some examples directly from the Twelpforce feed:

On July 23 @DespicableP tweeted:

@twelpforce Do you have any suggestions on fashionable ipod speakers?

A few hours later, this tweet showed up on the Twelpforce account:

@Despicable P This speaker dock by iHome is one of my personal favorites: http://bit.ly/cf96wy via @agent1834

In addition to recommendations, members of the Twelpforce answer tougher customer service questions.  Check out the following exchange, for example, from July 22:

@TWELPFORCE Hi, I am having problems with the geo location on my iphone … i am WAY off where I really am. anything I can do to correct it?

@PhoeLam have you turned on the GPS function? It will drain more battery, but be more accurate. via @bernierjohn

@PhoeLam Under Settings->General->Location Services (On/Off) Turn on for better Location… via @bernierjohn

In an age where most customer service hotlines consist of button pushing your way through five different menus just to reach the smooth jazz hold music, it’s nice to know that there are real human beings on Best Buy’s Twitter account who want to help.

Who Participates?

Best Buy marketed Twelpforce as if a small army of their employees wants to help every customer, as shown on this YouTube clip. The reality is a little different. On a given day, it appears that about ten to fifteen different Best Buy employees post on the Twelpforce feed.  At least five or six of those employees are Twelpforce regulars who answer numerous questions everyday.  The rest of the posts come from a variety of employees who may post one or two tweets and then not post again for a week.  Regulars include both of the Twelpforce responders from our examples above, @agent1834 and @bernierjohn.  As shown on their Twitter account home pages, @agent1834 is a member of Best Buy’s Geek Squad, the company’s technical support team, and @bernierjohn is John Bernier, the Digital Product Line Manager and Social Media Steward for Best Buy. Bernier essentially runs Twelpforce.

So what does it mean if only the man in charge and a handful of others contribute to the Twelpforce from day to day?  On the one hand, it means customers may not receive an avalanche of responses to one question, which may or may not be helpful.  Perhaps getting one response is better than getting buried with directly conflicting statements on store policy or how to resolve an issue.  Then again, fewer responses mean fewer options for a customer to choose from.

On the other hand, customers dealing with only a small number of Twelpforce members allows for all parties to build a relationship.  Even huge companies have learned that Twitter is better used for building relationships than for pushing products.  Best Buy customers appear to appreciate the Twelpforce, as they often tweet thank you notes and encourage others to take advantage of the service.

One year after its start, an informal scan of press and Internet chatter about the Twelpforce remains positive.  The Twitter account clearly has some practical value to customers and (though more difficult to determine) marketing value for Best Buy.  Many people now credit Best Buy with setting the standard for customer service on social media.  With other large store chains like Kohl’s (@Kohls_Official) embracing the model, it seems only a matter of time before every company big and small feels the competitive pressure to offer support in 140 characters or less.