Customer experience strategy and innovation expert Woody Bendle got home from work the other day and received a great reminder on why you need to understand your customers, even the ones you don't realize are trying to become your customers. Without waiting any longer, here's Woody!
Customer Experience Strategy – Millennials Don’t Wait by Woody Bendle
One of my favorite expressions is, “It’s amazing what you can see if you take the time to look.” The other evening, my millennial step-daughter reminded of just that.
I’d just gotten home from work, and she was at the kitchen counter with her laptop going through a packet of paperwork and looking frustrated. I recognized the packet as “the stuff” she needed to get done prior to moving into her first apartment. You know, hooking up the electricity, gas, internet, etc.
I asked her if she’d been able to connect with our insurance agent to get her renter’s insurance set up. She gave me that millennial look that says, “You won’t believe this,” and replied, “I called this afternoon and got their voice mail. It said to leave a message, and someone would get back to me within 24 hours. I left them a message, but I haven’t heard anything from them yet.”
I told her, “They’ll get back with you tomorrow – just be patient.”
That’s when the, “It’s amazing what you can see if you take the time to look,” moment happened.
She shrugged her shoulders, rolled her eyes, and dispassionately said, “I don’t need to wait,” as she continued scrolling through an online insurance comparison site.
IWWIWWAHIWI
For those of you who don’t speak Millennial, IWWIWWAHIWI stands for “I want what I want, when and how I want it.” And therein lies my lesson from the other evening.
I “know” this is how Millennials think and feel from all of the stuff I’ve read over the years about them, but I guess I didn’t “really know” this until the other evening. That reality hit me when I saw how my step-daughter was dealing with not connecting with our insurance agent when SHE tried to connect with him.
With just a few taps on a keyboard, I watched our insurance agent lose business – just like that!
Unfortunately, I think there are a lot of brands and businesses still operating out there assuming that they are fine by just focusing on satisfying the needs and expectations of their current customers (Boomers and Gen-Xrs). And, they don’t have a clue about what’s going to happen to them in a few more years.
My insight from observing a Millennial in the household is this: If you have a business partially dependent upon millennial consumers – either today or tomorrow – and you’re not operating in “now time”, you need to re-tool… now! If you don’t change your customer experience strategy, it’ll be game over before you even know what hit you.
Just remember, not only do Millennials instinctually feel they don’t need to wait; they won’t.
And by the way, the insurance agent still has never called back. - Woody Bendle
