According to the “Cone Communications Impact Study” of 2014, millennial’s are spending more than $1 Trillion dollars on consumer goods. With this number set for growth every year for the foreseeable future, it is imperative for your business to understand how this rapidly growing population segment will need to be serviced as customers.
Millennials were born between 1982 and 2003, and are generally accepted as the most tech-savvy generation. Many still live at home and have a decent amount of disposable income. They have had instant access to information at their fingertips for the majority of their lives, and their patience with traditional customer service channels is very thin.
Due to the emergence of social media, instant gratification, and their “anything-is-possible-online” attitudes, millennials can be difficult to service with a traditional call center.
Creating loyal customers from the millennial generation requires non-traditional methods of interaction, and it is imperative that interaction comes off as authentic and engaging. Below are four ways to enhance this relationship, as well as getting ahead of the curve with the next generation of mega-buyers.
This is the most connected generation ever. They are connected and communicate with each other in a wide variety of apps and forums. It is important to recognize this important medium of communication and utilize social media monitoring and interaction as a tool of connection. It is vital to have a plan on how interactions will generally take place.
With the advent of the smartphone and nearly unfettered access to an entire globe on information at their fingertips, millennials expect rapid, concise, and even personalized responses. One of the best ways to separate your company from your competition is to provide first-class customer service, and have the world see it.
While many of your competitors dread the idea of showing all of the reasons customers reach out to them in the public square- having a plan and social media experts responding to these posts as they come in show off what kind of company you are- shows that you take care of your customers, and you do it quickly. It also shows that you have nothing to hide, a highly favorable quality with this group.
Having Google allows most millennials to find answers to basic FAQ on their own, which were traditionally handled over the phone. It is important to reference the basic questions they may be calling about, but it is equally important to be ready to dispense proprietary solutions and customer service answers if the product needs to be exchanged, returned, or refunded.
By being flexible, quick to resolve problems, and available in public, social forums, you are sure to stand out from your competition.
Millennial customers can spot poor service from a mile away. Chances are, they have already looked at reviews through social channels and searched Google for people who may have similar problems with your product.
You can meet this head on by having your call center representatives prepared to answer questions in whatever channel the customer reaches out to you. There are few things more annoying to a customer than challenge inquiries that start with a live chat only to eventually make them realize that they cannot be serviced that way and need to call in.
It's like going to a gas pump and dealing with a glitchy card-reader... SO annoying!
Millennials are not afraid to tackle their challenges at night, and often have no qualms about picking up the phone and calling customer service outside of normal business hours. In fact, "normal business hours" often means "when I'm awake" to them.
Maybe if your inbound call center was open around the clock, instead of closing at a "reasonable" hour, you'd be able to hold onto more customers. Heck, maybe you'd even up-sell a number of them while you're at it.
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CONCLUSION:
Although the conversation may be on the phone or “off line”, this generation maintains the need for connectivity 24/7/365. Really great - and conversely, really poor - interactions usually find their way to online public forums. This means that one remarkable experience (good or bad) could reach and influence hundreds or even thousands of other potential buyers.
OnBrand24 provides customized solutions for social media monitoring, live chat, email response, and phone support. Our expert sales and operations team will design your company a thorough, consistent plan to service all customers, using industry best practices and cutting edge technology. Using a multi-channel call center software suite, such as Five9’s Freedom release, makes it easy for call center agents to respond in various methods outside of the traditional phone-lane only. OnBrand24 utilizes this technology in the call centers to be able to answer emails, live chats, and social media posts as quickly, and with the same speed of answer as traditional phone lines.
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