Category: Customer Experience

Soon, Zoomers will become the largest population cohort that shapes new consumption patterns and the way businesses interact with customers. So if you haven’t yet started nurturing relationships with them, it’s high time to add it to the list of your strategic priorities.

To help you win the hearts and minds of today’s young consumers, I’ve collected some of the hottest trends in customer experience that Gen Z cares about. Does your business tick all the boxes?

Trend #1: mobile-first

61% of Gen Zers got their first smartphone at 11–17, while 22% — at the age of 10 or younger. They are constantly connected and therefore, do everything on the go — i.e. shop, play games, socialize, study, etc. That’s why their expectation of your website performance and functionality is extremely high.

Zoomers will not use a website that is incompatible with their mobile device, prone to errors, and hard to navigate. This translates into the fact that your mobile optimization efforts should go well beyond just making your website responsive. The experience you offer must be flawless and natural on smartphones — otherwise, you risk leaving the way open to competitors. A phone screen is essentially smaller than that of tablets or desktops, meaning your mobile website or app must contain only what is really important to the user and bring them to the target action faster.

Today, however, mobile usability can hardly be regarded as a customer experience trend. Instead, it must be regarded as an absolute necessity.

Trend #2: omnichannel

It is a proven fact that Zoomers frequently balance the use of multiple devices simultaneously. Specifically, 66% of young customers do it. They can start making an order on a smartphone and complete it on a laptop. And naturally, they don’t want to experience interruptions and glitches on the way. But let’s face it, who does?

Gen Z customer expects consistency across all channels and devices. It means their user experience should be so smooth and uniform that it is nearly indistinguishable which channel they use to interact with your brand at the moment. To achieve this, all touchpoints should be integrated with each other establishing a holistic end-to-end customer experience. But there’s more to it.

A special place in your omnichannel strategy must be reserved for social media as it is now the most popular destination for brand research among Gen Zers. More likely than any other generation, they will reckon with online recommendations of social influencers or their followers when making a purchasing decision. Along with this, Zoomers are also more willing to engage with brands in a less formal environment — via comments, direct messages, or video streams.

Trend #3: individualization

This customer experience trend naturally stems from the previous one as you just can’t provide a great omnichannel experience if it is not personalized. Interestingly, 41% of Gen Zers are even ready to sacrifice privacy to a certain extent and provide a brand with their data for the sake of personalized experience.

That said, keep your customer at the center of everything and try to understand how they perceive value at every point of interaction. For this, use advanced data analytics tools because they can inform you about the proper time, the proper context, and the proper message for Gen Z targeting.

Zoomers also appreciate it when they can be creative and express their unique self, so provide them with an opportunity to customize your product as they see fit, even at the stage of a free trial. In their research, IBM calls this Gen-Z-inspired trend ‘individualization’ since it is driven by Zoomers’ desire to adapt customer experience so that it is perceived as uniquely their own. This is something I haven’t seen with other generations.

Trend #4: self-service

Another peculiarity of Generation Z is that they are largely self-reliant. They don’t want to speak to someone who can solve a problem for them. They want to and can do it themselves.

Only 24% of Zoomers choose to talk to a human agent when they need help. Others prefer doing their own research and coming up with their own solutions. But even when they understand that the challenge is complex, they tend to turn to AI-powered channels like virtual assistants (85%) or chatbots (78%).

What does it mean for businesses? Actually, this is one of the customer trends that can bring a tangible benefit in the form of cut expenses. Equipping your website with self-service options — such as FAQ, knowledge base, chatbot, etc. — will help you resolve customer issues faster and save on live support because a large chunk of work will be automated.