INTELLIGENT MOBILE TECHNOLOGY 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 .
Individual customer 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 personalisation 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 personalisation , is selecting a cloud solution that includes advanced analytics for customer engagement , designed to maximise the use of big data . An example of using analytics to personalise 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 ,
As millennials become an even larger segment of buying population , they will dictate success or failure of a business
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 is true that millennials prefer non-voice channels , speech-enabled Interactive Voice Response 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 finetune 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 do not 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 .
Writing 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 do not 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 , the only real choice is to adapt and thrive , or maintain the status quo and go the way of the dinosaur .
Shaheen Haque is Territory Manager for Middle East and Turkey at Interactive Intelligence
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