Millennial generation contact center

They were born sheltered by economic prosperity and all of them have similar features: young, self-centered, spoilt but above all, highly academically prepared. They are “Generation Y” or Millennials, so called because they came of age when the millennium turned.

Who are Millennials?

With the advent of the new millennium, there was a generation of teenagers who came of age; they were born between 1981 and 1995, when economic prosperity allowed them to grow in a safe and comfortable environment. From a numerical perspective, as they were in number less than their parents’ generation, the income of each of them was higher and, thus, they enjoyed more whims and better education. A study conducted by Pew Research highlights their superior intelligence, technology, clothing and pop culture as those traits which define them better.

Journalist Leslie Kwoh states that “they are criticized for being impatient, spoiled and getting an academic degree”. However, they bumped into a sad reality: it was the best prepared generation, and was unemployed. But, despite all the aforementioned and the fact that apparently all their features may seem negative, Millennials are companies’ most desired customer.

Why are they so desired by companies?

By numbers, they were less than their parents’ generation (1,700 million worldwide and over eight million in Spain according to the INE), so Millennials enjoyed of a higher income. Although they joined the labor market much later, they have enjoyed up to 111% more purchasing power than their parents, that’s why they have been named as “picky buyers” who “need freedom to try”. For instance, they need to hold the total control of the buying process, according to the study conducted by Time magazine.

Thus, Millennials are the ideal profile for brands. According to a study published by MediaPost, more than half of them got a university degree and 89 % think that “it is important to keep learning while working for a company”; half of them prefer “not having a job, rather than being stucked in a job they hate” and moreover, ” they are more open-minded and prefer to ‘live life’, instead of living in a more aggressive way as their parents did: working in order to make money and getting an important position in a company.”

Millennials, the profile of customer service

Millennials are considered as the kings of the smartphone in particular and new technologies in general, but at the same time the smartphone is the king of technology for them too. This reciprocal relationship is certainly supported by the fact that both “have grown together”. According to another study conducted by Deloitte in 2015, 89% of millennials between 18 and 35 years old had access to smartphones and 85% did so on laptop. Thus, the use of smartphones already exceeds the use of computers, which turns into an advantage.

Although they don’’t use phones to make voice calls and, in fact, 22% remained at least a week without calling, they have never stopped communicating, they have just “replaced voice calls by a combination of messaging, voice and video over IP services.” According to Deloitte, all this force new companies to adapt their strategies to these new customers, while they incorporate them as workforce as well.

How to provide Millennials excellent customer service

If we have already understood who Millennials generation is and which their traits are, it will not be difficult to assume that customer service segment must adapt their strategies in order to achieve an optimum quality. As stated by John Rampton in Entrepreneur, companies should consider some previous observations, which Tamar Frumkin, content marketing expert, shares too.

• Millennials have grown up using the Internet, they are used to look for information on their own, prefer self-service to human contact. In summary, they are self-sufficient and therefore, corporate websites must incorporate a FAQs page, a forum to ask and answer questions, view tutorials, and so on. This way, not only will allow Millennials to solve their own problems by themselves, but it also will be a cost effective method for companies, as less customer service staff will be required.

• Millennials are used to access real-time responses; “25% of Millennials expect an answer within ten minutes after contacting with customer service through social networks, and more than 30% expect the same response speed when sending a question through text messages.” Therefore, questions must be answered as quickly as possible.

• Millennials are present on multiple channels and devices, and companies’ customer service must be multichannel too.

• Face to face communications have gone down in history. Millennials want to choose the way in which they contact with brands, including SMSs or social networks; only 1 % of all calls made to the customer service department are made by these users.

• It is necessary to speak the same language as they do. Scripted customer service is no longer possible to get in touch with Millennials. Jay Coldren, from EDITION Hotels, states that “Millennials generation want to talk in their own language and according to their own rules. They use tweets and Facebook posts to communicate. If you want to attract their attention, you have to speak their native language. And you have to be completely authentic.”

• Although they don’t wish to contact “face to face”, Millennials want to know who are the people behind brands, who answers in social networks, that’s why it is so important to add an “About Us” section in companies’ website. They honestly worry about the company’s corporate philosophy and values: “more than 50% of millennials purchase products from companies which support causes they care about,” says Micah Solomon in Forbes.

• They are the best prepared and educated generation, open to try new experiences, cultures and worldviews, they cannot be easily fooled so the brand should take advantage of it and add value.

• They are not equals. Despite all Millennials share traits, the fact is that according to Boston consulting Group, there are at least six different groups. Finding out which one is your company’s target segment will help you provide the service they need.

• Millennials don’’t hesitate to leave a company; more than half do it each year after having a bad experience. Thus, customer service should be first class, if your aim is engaging them.

In conclusion, Millennials are a generation different from the previous one, which has grown and developed alongside the new environment in which the Internet and new technologies have completely transformed communications landscape. Consequently, customer service segment must be adapted to their current and future most important customers, evolving at the same time as they do, using new media tools, knowing them in depth, understanding them and, definitely, “speaking their same language”.