EXPERT SPEAK
Five traits of the digital customer
Usage of technology must facilitate five traits that distinguish
the digital customer today says Jenny Sussin at Gartner.
experience strategies and technologies,
organizations cannot afford to get this
wrong. To date, however, we have seen some
scrambling to increase engagement rather
than focusing on what these customers want
from companies that is truly different from
those who have come before them. Gartner’s
research suggests that application leaders
should focus on five key differences in the
next generation of customers:
Jenny Sussin is Research Vice President
at Gartner.
Y
ou are standing in your local
coffee shop waiting for your order
watching other customers try to
keep from spilling their coffee as they open
the door. What if you sent a suggestion to
the coffee shop and they began installing
automatic doors? This is the idea behind
the My Starbucks Idea community on which
over 200,000 ideas have been submitted.
Sweeping generalisations have
been made about the next generation
of customers from – They want digital
everything, to – They do not have the same
values as their predecessors. So, it is not
surprising that application leaders charged
with supporting customer experience are
wondering what their next move should be.
To complicate matters, they are
broadly given the misnomer of Millennials
when for most organisations, the next
generation of customers refers to the
youngest Millennials and mostly to older
members of Gen-Z. Millennials are people
born between 1980 and 1994, and who are
23 to 37 years of age. Gen-Z, is a class of
people born between 1995 and 2009 who
now range from eight to 22 years.
Interest in understanding the next
generation of customers is growing. With
big investments being made in customer
1. They do not trust you, yet
Trust in businesses, government and
media is at an all-time low. The next
generation of customers do not always
trust authorities. Instead, they gather
information from other sources that
they do trust to be accurate. Peer
validation has become a key way for
many younger people to self-evaluate,
thanks to social media, which they use
as sources for reality checks.
2. They want a
reciprocal relationship
When it comes to the customer
relationship, the next generation of
customers is looking for benefits akin
to those of a real-world relationship,
as they may differentiate less between
online and offline activities. Benefits
include regular engagement, the
opportunity to be heard, and the
understanding that the organisations
they engage with will support causes
they care about. They actively look for
opportunities to co-create with the
organisations they associate with.
3. They want to be trusted to
self-serve
Although next-generation customers
want engagement with the
organisations they deal with, they also
strongly desire self-service. They do
not see the need for another person
to be involved when they can do it
themselves with technology, which has
typically been reliable for them. They
grew up in an era of immersive video
gaming; from games played on game
consoles, smartphones and computers,
they have learned that an initial failure
to accomplish a task does not mean
that they cannot accomplish it, it
simply means they need to try again.
4. They want to buy experiences,
not products
Unlike traditional products, experiences
are not easily mass-produced. Members
of the next generation of customers
flock to businesses that treat them as
if they were special, rather than as just
another number. These customers want
to have a connection, a relationship,
with the organisations they deal with.
They want to be in a position to endorse
and support organisations, as long as
they know they can trust them and
believe in their mission.
5. They influence other customers
Some organisations choose not to pay
attention to Millennials and Gen-Z
because they do not perceive them as
their target audience. Although Gen-Z
might not be your customers today, their
behavior will dictate consumer dynamics
for years to come. This is because over
70% of Gen-Z influence their parents’
retail purchasing decisions.
The next generation of customers
influences far more than just retail
purchasing decisions. Just think about
how Millennials pioneered the adoption
of Facebook and WhatsApp – which were
subsequently adopted widely by other
generations.
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