Giving Great Customer Service to Millennials

John Krautzel
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The millennial generation — people born from around 1982 to 2004 — expect a certain level of customer service when interacting with a business or workplace. These people comprise nearly 24 percent of the American population, and they continue to take over the labor force as more baby boomers retire. Millennials also have a large portion of disposable income to spend.

The majority of millennials use social media 81 percent of the time to interact with customer services. Therefore, it becomes critical that firms use this form of communication to talk to younger people who use smartphones, tablets and mobile devices to stay connected any time and anywhere. As many as 22 percent of millennials expect a response on social media within 10 minutes of posting a query.

An online presence also makes sense for customer service in a business setting, since 57 percent of millennials check a company's website before calling to talk to a representative. Websites should have plenty of how-to videos and tutorials, self-help categories and detailed FAQ sections that explain how to get something done. This type of interaction saves companies money as a single online tutorial may answer questions for thousands of customers. When millennials do call for help, they are typically willing to wait on hold for up to 10 minutes.

Some of these customer service aspects in a business also translate over to the workplace. The millennial generation seeks to have better relationships with everyone at the office. Younger people need and want leadership, and they generally expect supervisors and managers to interact with them daily. This means millennials want to see their bosses genuinely interested in their success for personal and professional growth.

Similar to self-help modules on company customer service portals, millennials love to have the tools they need to get the job done. This means employers should have problem-solving tools ready to go so newer hires can navigate what to do on their own. The quicker an employer trains someone on a new piece of software or in a particular job duty, the better the employee becomes at the job.

Now that the U.S. economy has improved and the job market is extremely competitive, more millennials are continuing to stay at their jobs longer than before. Workers 16 and older stay at jobs approximately 4.6 years, according to Bureau of Labor statistics for 2014, and the average tenure at one position is 3.2 years, the longest time since 1983. However, it's important that employers help millennials to succeed in their positions so that they don't look elsewhere for career satisfaction.

Customer service works both ways in businesses and workplaces. When a company takes care of its customers and employees, the reverse also occurs. Those same people that the firm serves prop up the business and make it successful and profitable.


Photo courtesy of imagerymajestic at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

 

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