How Tesco Mobile's Twitter Account Is Conquering The Trolls

Corporate Twitter accounts can be pretty lame. Even the ones that do it well, like McDonald's, can sometimes feel a bit too artificial due to cheery language and slogans. But British mobile service provider Tesco Mobile is letting loose a stream of snarky compliments, insults, and everything in between at a relentless pace.

@princesschynax Funny story. Anyway, can you teach us how to pout? #SelfieQueen

- Tesco Mobile (@tescomobile) October 29, 2013

Tesco has a knack for beating trolls at their own game, like young teenager Felipe here:

@JayFeliipe Are you really in a position to be turning girls away?

- Tesco Mobile (@tescomobile) October 16, 2013

But wait, here's where it gets interesting. As you can see, both tweets got lots of attention, and Felipe seemed to love it. Two days later, Tesco got back to him, asking him to DM them his address for a surprise. Then he got this a couple days later.

Thank you @tescomobile for the gift much love for you!! pic.twitter.com/7BIQ8LKXt6

- Felipe (@JayFeliipe) October 21, 2013

A cool gift that acts as the final punchline to their back-and-forth. And most of the products are not linked to Tesco, but they manage to sell the brand better than anything else they could have done.

Felipe's current header photo is a screenshot of Tesco's reply to his snotty tweet.

Tesco has had a chatty Twitter since April, when British agency Jam trained Tesco's customer care team on social media strategy. Jam's work is a collaboration with Weiden + Kennedy's #nojoke campaign, which highlights that Tesco's service is the one "most recommended by UK customers," based on a number of polls ranking them first in customer service and customer satisfaction.

The idea is that being a customer favorite is "no joke," but that Tesco's team has plenty of quips and comebacks at the ready.