(Rochester, N.Y.) – Erica Tickle and Aaron Thompson have a nickname at the office.
“We’ve been called ‘Tweet and Retweet,’” Thompson said.
That’s because the Wegmans Web marketing staffers helped convince the grocery store that the time was right to Twitter.
For one thing, a fan was tweeting under Wegmans name, misleading customers.
“The conversations were happening, but we just weren't there,” said Thompson.
The pair also knew Twitter was gaining in popularity.
“I think we just needed to get out there and dip our toe in, and see that people really love Wegmans and they like talking to us about how much they love Wegmans,” said Tickle.
“Social, media, it's where our customers are at already,” Thompson, said who happens to be married to Kodak’s Chief Blogger.
Tickle and Thompson trained the Consumer Affairs Department on the ins and outs of Twitter, which limits each communication to 140 characters.
The company gets about 70,000 customer communications a year, nearly half coming as emails. Tweets, however, are a growing category.
Martha Rhoney spends most of her day responding to customer emails, but says Twitter is fun. She said it’s challenging to keep answers short.
“Really looking at, taking the time, to pare down what the question is and respond, particularly respond with the type of quality, care and service that we normally would,” she said, as she tweeted to a customer that Wegmans does not carry Strawberry Chex Mix.
Wegmans has not advertised its Twitter page, as workers get more familiar with the medium. Shoppers, though, have quickly found the site since it launched in August.
“What's neat about Twitter is customers will ask us questions while they're shopping, if they're missing something or they'd like to know if we carry a product, or they'd like to give us feedback,” said Tickle.
Many tweets ask for Wegmans to build stores in their cities.
Eight employees are authorized to use Wegmans’ Twitter account, each specializing in different areas of the company. The company uses a program called “Co-Tweet,” which allows the staffers to assign tweets to each other based on subject matter. Wegmans estimates the group collectively spends about an hour a day communicating with customers on Twitter.
CEO Danny Wegman is not among the company tweeters, but Tickle revealed he has an anonymous account.
“He is following us, but not as Danny Wegman,” she said.
Next up for Wegmans? A Facebook page is in the works.
