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To most pre-millennials, technology is a great tool used to solve problems. To the millennials and those in Generation Z, technology is an extension of themselves. They use it intuitively and expect everyone else to as well. After all, they’ve never been without it, and they have no reason to expect to be in the future. The millennial customer doesn’t see tech as a benefit added, it’s an expectation. When it comes to customer experience, this mindset is a game changer.
This new breed of tech-savvy, mobile-first customers demand ease, speed, and consistency, any time they interact with your company. In fact, Microsoft’s 2016 State of Global Customer Service Report found that “68% of 18 – 34-year-old consumers have stopped doing business with a brand due to a single poor customer service experience.” This generation isn’t about giving second chances to the companies they work with.
Millennials, and post-millennials, won’t settle for frustrating experiences. They know that have nearly unlimited options, so they set the bar high. Only the best businesses make the grade—the ones that understand their needs and, more importantly, respect them. Embracing this new mindset is critical to success, since the influence of new generations isn’t going away. After all, today’s tech-savvy toddlers are just a few years from being consumers with even higher expectations than their millennial parents.
How Can You Plan when CX is Always Changing?
Similar to customer demands, technological evolution won’t stop. You can use this to your advantage. Instead of trying to find the “latest and greatest,” technology to meet each change, invest in software that can evolve along with technology so you don’t fall behind. Staying ahead of the curve is as much about leveraging a forward-thinking strategy and technology as it is understanding the modern customer. You must have a plan and the proper tools.
Key Tools to Optimize Millennial Customer Engagement
1. Seamless omnichannel blending—According to a post by Retail TouchPoints, retailers that have implemented an omnichannel customer management strategy have seen customer engagement increase by 63%, sales boost by 56%, and customer loyalty improve by 44%. So, whether you’re aiming to keep millennial employees engaged or to attract the millennial customer, a system that provides a consistent experience regardless of the communication channel used is a good place to start.
An omnichannel engagement solution can also give agents access to all necessary customer information and allow them to thrive while making customer interactions simple and intuitive. Additionally, you can eliminate the need for different applications and pools of agents for different channels by routing and storing all information in the same system.
2. Big data access—Remember the importance of integrating access to data and leveraging analysis capabilities. According to Dimensions Data in their 2016 Global Contact Center Benchmarking Report, 71.5% of businesses believe that analytics can enable better agent performance. 69.1% say it drives better CX. And yet, 79% have no big data capability. Don’t let your customer insights go unutilized. Use your data to plan ahead and anticipate what your customer will want before they even realize it.
3.Cloud deployment—Much of the future of good CE lies in rapid adoption. In order to thrive, you’ll need to continuously innovate the customer experience. With cloud deployment, you can do so without additional investment. Look at what some of the biggest names in tech are doing, from Microsoft Office to the Adobe Creative Suite, companies are taking advantage of the cloud to offer customers rolling updates and rapid bug fixes (often fixing things before the customer even realizes there was a problem). Investing in a good cloud platform now will help you down the road.
To learn more about how you can keep ahead of the evolutionary curve and improve the customer experience for this new generation, download our eBook, Keeping Pace with the Modern Customer.
