CCR2 Technology


The generation game


How are we best to communicate with a new generation of customers?


Dewi Fox Managing director, ARC (Europe) DFox@arceuropeltd.co.uk


Those of us of a certain age will remember Generation X, a punk band of the late 1970s whose lead singer, Billy Idol, went on to have notable success in his own right. The band took their name from the demographic cohort that followed the ‘baby boomers’ of the 1960s, and has since been superseded by Generation Y (Millennials) and the latest Generation Z, the so-called post-Millennials, Plurals, Homeland Generation, or the 9/11 Generation. If this seems like a language all of its own,


then I have some sympathy. Certainly, this latest generation has developed their own ways of communicating, if my own two boys are anything to go by: they never open post, never answer the home telephone, and never listen to messages left on their mobiles. But, before you think this is the rantings


of a middle-aged parent, there is a wider, more important, point to be made. And it is about how we are going to communicate with Generation Z as our customers of the future.


Startling results Having initially consulted my own children, I have since conducted further research with the Post-Millennials within our business. The results are quite startling. When it comes to post, there was a strong


75/25 split in favour of ignoring, rather than opening, letters. To make matters worse, the majority of those that opened their post, would only do so if they knew what the letter was – Generation Z still open their post around birthdays and Christmas! Of those who ignored their post – usually


junk mail or from the bank – the principal reason was that, if it was important, then it could be actioned online.


26 www.CCRMagazine.co.uk


Use of e-mail, meanwhile, was mixed: some said that they still used it as a means of keeping in touch with older members of their family, and others were happy to receive communication from companies with whom they had legitimate relationships, for example with their banks or Amazon


In terms of telephones, almost all of those


surveyed said that they spoke to their friends every day. This point, however, needs clarifying. Pressing them further, it became clear that few, if any, actually ever called their friends, indeed the thought horrified them. What they meant was that they were in contact by text. ‘Real’ phonecalls, it transpired, were for


parents and partners only! Of the more ‘modern’ methods of


communicating, SMS and WhatsApp were by far the most popular. Things like Facebook were no longer ‘cool’, and now only the domain of (in their opinion) the very old or the very young. Facebook has been superseded by Instagram and Twitter, and used only occasionally for the odd message or catch up with an old friend. Use of e-mail, meanwhile, was mixed:


some said that they still used it as a means of keeping in touch with older members of their family, and others were happy to receive communication from companies with whom they had legitimate relationships, for example with their banks or Amazon. When I asked if they ever read their e-mails, the response was very mixed: always; sometimes; hardly ever. One girl showed me her mobile which had 10,288 unread e-mails!


A mixed picture Given such a mixed picture and diverse number of channels, how do we ‘speak’ to a new generation of customer, and most specifically, a customer in debt? Letters, it appears, are a resounding


‘no’. They either do not open letters or, of those that do, most would not open a letter if they did not know who or where it was from.


July 2017


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