While preparing this blog, I kept thinking about Millennials. Everyone’s talking about them. They’re the driving force behind customer experience transformation because they have been raised with a digital sensibility. My first Millennial had a mobile phone by the age of 12 and a smartphone at 16, and that was a few years ago. My second got her first smartphone even earlier, at 14. Millennials have already developed digital expectations that influence their technology choices.
Even with this understanding, questions persist, such as “why do businesses think Millennials are so much savvier than Gen-Xers?” And “why does business, from HR to marketing, coddle Millennials like helicopter parents?” In fact, the level of attention given to Millennials seems to be stirring jealousy from some Boomers and even Gen-Xers, who naturally don’t want to be dismissed.
Millennials represent the future, and businesses need to operate with that in mind while avoiding leaving Gen-Xers and Boomers out in the cold. It won’t be long, based on sheer size alone, before Millennials are spending more money than Boomers and Gen-Xers. Apparently, there are about 20 million more Millennials than Gen-Xers. But we’re not there yet. Don’t give up on the older folks.
I’ll go out on a ledge and suggest that many Gen-Xers actually admire Millennials for being tech savvy, their general social ease and interest in causes. While I’m no psychologist, I think Gen-X behavior often follows Millennial behavior in terms of new technology adoption. Gen-Xers, and many Boomers, are open to learning from Millennials, maybe even stalking them (as parents often do). We’ve been exposed to and use many of the same technologies, if not at such an early age. Businesses might consider building solutions that bridge Boomers and Gen-Xers to their best Millennial-worthy, digital customer experience.
In truth, the typical Gen-Xer preference and expectation for an omni-channel experience may be catching up with Millennials. In the past, I might have suffered through my favorite store’s slow app, while my Millennials would simply go to another retailer with faster, cooler capabilities. Now, I only repeat business with retailers that provide the best digital experience. And I appreciate apps and digital experiences that teach me something new and bring me into the digital fold.
Verizon provides digital solutions that help businesses offer exceptional customer experiences to both the digital native and the digitally naïve. Our newest Customer Experience (CX) solution, Visual Interactive Calling, provides a spectrum of voice and digital possibilities that meet the customer where they are and create possibilities for ever-expanding digital connections.
Of course, it makes sense for businesses to anticipate and respond to Millennial buying behaviors and CX preferences, because Gen-Xers and some Boomers will likely follow. Creating solutions that support unique experiences and personal preferences allows those businesses to capture more market share.
So whether you’re a Boomer, Gen-Xer or Millennial, stop by Verizon’s booth at the 2016 NICE CXone User Conference on October 11-13 in Orlando, Florida. Verizon is a Platinum Sponsor and will be located in the Solutions Lounge where you can demo our new mobile app, Visual Interactive Calling, to see how we can help bring your users into the mobile era of Customer Experience. Register today!
Guest blog post from our friends at Verizon.
