Best Buy to use Twitter to increase service levels

Minneapolis Best Buy said Monday it plans to use the Twitter social-networking site to enhance customer-service levels, according to a report in TransWorldNews.

The retailer said it will launch the program on July 19, when it will begin searching out and answering consumer Twitter posts, called “tweets,” that express a need for information about electronic goods.

More than 500 Best Buy employees will reportedly participate in the new Twitter customer-service program. According to the company’s CMO Barry Judge, Best Buy hopes to convert information-seekers to paying customers.

Kmart, Pizza Hut and Walmart already use Twitter to run promotions and increase consumer awareness, but Best Buy is reportedly the first to actively seek out Twitter users who show an interest in consumer electronics and trying to convert them into customers.