Last week I bemoaned online retailers that are using Twitter as a one way channel to broadcast to customers.

The flawed formula is simple: build as big an audience as possible and use Twitter to push out marketing messages.

But it doesn’t work. It’s the TV model applied to a new medium.

But there are businesses that do appreciate the platform that Twitter provides to engage in a conversation with customers. Here’s an example.

On Thursday evening Mark Pinsent (@markpinsent) spotted that Henry Dimbleby (@henry_leon) was tweeting from the now infamous recording of BBC Question Time.

Dimbleby is a founder and CEO of Leon, the upmarket fast food chain.

Mark and I exchanged a couple of Tweets about Leon and at Mark’s suggestion I tweeted Dimbleby about the hefty price of Leon’s bacon sandwiches.

His response?

Such a frank response is refreshing. Leon’s cares about what its customers think and responds directly to their queries.