Effective Customer Service For Millennials
As the largest consumer group, millennials have shared a fair amount of attention in the online retail industry when it comes to speaking about consumer experience, and rightly so. Defined as the consumers born roughly between 1980 and 2000, millennials are the first generation to grow up surrounded by modern technology, and now drive the market with specific expectations and preferences that online businesses have to keep up with.
So, as the largest consumer group, what are their likes, dislikes and expectations when it comes to customer service? And how do you, as the business owner, capitalize on these in order to provide good quality customer service, and ultimately drive sales?
Self-Service
Millennials are big fans of finding the answers to their queries or concerns themselves. Having grown up with the internet and computers readily available, they have become a self-sufficient group that is extremely comfortable with navigating the online space alone. They would far prefer to look for an answer to their queries online, before they even think of contacting a business directly. As this group like to be problem solvers, it is a smart move to provide them with the tools to do so.
They would far prefer to look for an answer to their queries online, before they even think of contacting a business directly.
According to the 2017 Global Customer Experience Benchmarking Report, only 8.1% of respondents under the age of 25 preferred using the telephone to get in touch with a business. By offering customers a FAQ section on your website or mobile app, and social media channels where they can see customer comments and reviews, you can give them the ability to answer their own questions.
Immediate Service
Millennials are used to being able to access information in an instant online, and in turn expect to receive responses to their queries immediately. According to IBM, 52% of millennial customers will abandon a purchase if they don’t receive an answer to their query quickly. A business that wants to provide quality customer service, will have to find ways to respond to customers as fast as possible, or risk them moving on.
Chatbots are one of the most effective ways to provide immediate service. According to the aforementioned Dimension Data Customer Experience Benchmarking Report, chatbot response times sit at an average of 6.9 minutes and an overall resolution rate of 71.5%, compared to 266 minutes via email and 70 minutes via social media. Chatbots, in the form of instant onsite messaging platform provide an immediate service to customers without them having to leave your site, any time of day or night.
Multi-Channel Users
Millennials are comfortable using both desktop and mobile devices, meaning they hop between different devices and online channels throughout the day. According to PFS Web, millennials prefer to shop over multiple channels rather than just through a single one. But because a customer can view your offerings onsite and via social media on their laptop, tablet and smartphone, they expect the same level of service no matter which channel they use. If your site offers instant messaging, a FAQ page and an easy-to-find contact us page, then so too must your mobile site or app.
Millennials prefer to shop over multiple channels rather than just through a single one.
Take on the role of your customer, browse through your site on different platforms to see if your customer service offerings are consistent throughout. If your website offers instant messaging, but your mobile site or app doesn’t, customers aren’t able to get the same experience on one channel as they can on an other. Cater to this group by offering a seamless way to get in touch with you, no matter which channel they’re on.
Millennials are directing the ways in which customer service needs to be delivered, from how customers receive customer service, and how responsive businesses are, to the number of channels they use to get in touch with businesses. As a business owner you need to adapt to these preferences in order to make your biggest consumer market happy to engage, and buy products from you. You need to embrace new trends, and new technology and practises, like customer management outsourcing, as they will help you provide quality customer service to a large number of buyers.