Those born between 1980 and 2000, called millennials, are now coming of age. They are either just entering the global workforce or advancing to the stage where their ability to spend is significant. In the GCC region, millennials are important and account for a quarter of the total population. Compared to their global peers they spend more online and were responsible for regional ecommerce growth of 25% in 2015.
Globally there are 2 billion millennials, of which 86% live in emerging economies. According to a recent VISA study, 31% of the UAE population is under the age of 25, and in Saudi Arabia the equivalent figure is 50%. Millennials are heavy users of digital technology and consumers of digital content. Across the UAE, they average 6.5 hours of online activity per day and in Saudi Arabia they average 4.5 hours daily. They interact online to save time, for convenience, and to source globally, in that order of preference. Deloitte estimates that in 2015, millennials in the Middle East spent US$15 billion on digital content, averaging US$120 per person.
While millennials’ online spending and usage habits have been well documented, they are presenting engagement challenges for traditional businesses. Organizations that have operated using traditional channels of customer engagement, such as face to face and call-in, may not find millennials amongst their active customers. On the other hand, businesses that have invested in social media platforms, online chat features and web portals are likely attracting many more millennial customers.
So what are the characteristics that define a great customer experience for millennials and what technologies are required to support them? Here are three that should form the cornerstone of any modern customer experience strategy.
Consistency & Immediacy
Millennials tend to use multiple points of contact with a business. They may, for instance, browse items in physical stores, then search online for the best price and purchase them that way. Or, they may initiate a chat, then want to transition to a screen sharing session, and maybe even two-way video. They will also likely escalate issues via multiple channels – and quickly. For instance, if they don’t get an issue resolved, say via email or chat, they are highly likely to amplify this negative experience via social media.
The challenge for businesses is creating a consistent response across all channels, and responding fast. This requires customer engagement technology that supports omnichannel interactions. This not only enables a business to see the historical context of millennial interactions across channels, but also enables them to report on these interactions in a holistic way so they can accurately measure service levels and adjust resources accordingly. With cross-channel visibility and appropriate resource allocation, businesses can react rapidly and effectively.
Taking omnichannel to the next level, businesses should also look for customer engagement technology that includes multimodal functionality. This gives businesses the ability to transition millennials between channels within the same interaction. This will be an increasingly important feature for millennials moving forward.
Personalization
Vital to attracting millennials is treating them as individuals, which means deeply understanding their interaction preferences, buying history, and even anticipating their needs through proactive communication.
The most basic prerequisite to accomplishing this is to have an integrated customer relationship management system. This enables businesses to track customer data, then give service representatives simultaneous access to it as they manage an interaction.
To really meet the personalization needs of millennials, however, businesses must effectively use big data. The good news is that advancements in cloud technology have made collecting and storing big data much simpler and more affordable than in past years.
The key to personalization, is selecting a cloud solution that includes advanced analytics for customer engagement, designed to maximize the use of big data. An example of using analytics to personalize the millennial experience includes the ability to identify patterns in customer behaviour to predict things like their channel preference or how often and when they check their bank account balance. Businesses can then use this intelligence to tailor customer outreach accordingly. This will not only lead to increased loyalty, but can also lead to improved up-selling by offering only the products and services relevant to the customer.
Self-Service
Millennials like the “do it yourself” approach. They like to feel empowered to resolve things without live assistance if possible, which is why they prefer the 24/7 access that self-service systems allow.
While it’s true that millennials prefer non-voice channels, speech-enabled Interactive Voice Response (IVR) is still an important tool for customer engagement. To make it effective though, businesses need to remember to keep menu options short and logical, and continuously fine-tune the system to ensure the most common requests are being addressed in the most effective manner. Here too, the analysis of big data provides the insights needed to achieve this.
A new area of IVR is also emerging called visual IVR. It extends IVR to a visual medium across new touchpoints available on a website or mobile app. This visual IVR lets customers click or touch their way through the conventional IVR system when they call a business. They don’t have to listen to each option or struggle with voice recognition, which can turn millennials off. And visual IVR in the cloud is very affordable.
Finally, new forms of assisted self-service are becoming increasingly popular. Driven by advancements in artificial intelligence, features such as chat bots or virtual assistants are proliferating. While chat bots are beginning to be used to replace live service for very simple requests, right now their greater value is in assisting service reps. For instance, a chat bot can suggest responses or provide supplemental information to reps based on their web chat with a customer.
The Writing is on the Wall
The bottom line is that businesses need to start adapting now to millennials’ needs to stay competitive. As millennials become an even larger segment of the buying population, they will further dictate the success or failure of a business. This is particularly important given the millennial tendency to switch brands that don’t meet their needs. In fact, two thirds of millennials drop their initial brand of choice, since either the brand has changed too much for their liking, or the brand has not changed enough to keep up with them. This means businesses not only need to incorporate modern customer engagement technology that meets today’s millennial expectations, but this technology must be flexible enough to accommodate new and as-yet unforeseen ways of interacting.
While this proposition requires some investment, businesses should take heed from companies like Uber and AirbnB – the only real choice is to adapt and thrive, or maintain the status quo and go the way of the dinosaur.
Article By: Shaheen Haque, Territory Manager for Genesys