Major Retailer uses Twitter to help customers?!? (Will it work? Is it fair to Employees?)

Sorry, but I just have to weigh in here. I just saw a commercial for a major electronics retailer (which I used to work for) that is offering customers help via the Twitter social networking service.

Although I am a former employee, and current shareholder of said company, I can’t help but fear the worst. First off, I do not believe anyone can give sound advice in 140 characters or less – heck I don’t think the end-user could provide enough info in their “question” in 140 characters for the “helpers” to attempt sound advice.

Earlier this afternoon, I made the “mistake” of using Twitter to express my opinion of this new “service” and was quickly contacted by several “members” of this new “team” of “helpers”. What I discovered in a brief “Twittersation” (is that the proper term for a conversation on Twitter?!?), is that hourly employees of this said retailer are doing this, off the clock, on their own time or even worse, on the clock at other jobs.

When I asked one of these employees if they did this on or off the clock, his answer was delivered over 4 tweets, which proves you can’t help someone or even answer a simple question in 140 characters. He basically told me that although some people in some stores can do it on the clock, he can’t because his manager doesn’t approve since it doesn’t affect his store directly. Since he can’t do it on the clock, he does it from home or from his “second job”. He said he does it because he loves his job, and the company.

First, he talks about “his manager”, which tells me he, himself is NOT a manager (who are the only exempt, non-hourly employee’s in a store), so he is hourly. Although he wasn’t “asked” to work off the clock, he, is in essence still working off the clock because when he is “helping” customers on Twitter, he is representing the company – the company is getting benefit from his actions without compensating him for his efforts. It is awesome he loves his employer, but what about his “second job” where he is at helping customers of his “first” job that he can’t help because his manager doesn’t approve because it “doesn’t effect his store directly” (BTW, great job from that “Manager” – you should be focusing more on District, Market, Territory and Company numbers than just “your store”. I know your type – you just care about your bonus )

So we have this guy who has a douche manager that doesn’t care about the company as a whole and just cares about his store, and in turn his bonus. This hourly employee loves the company so much that he is working off the clock, helping customers while he is at his “second job” who is obviously paying him to do something, that he obviously isn’t doing because he is busy helping customers of “first job” on Twitter.

I see this becoming a “major fail” very quickly.