WHY FOCUSING ON MILLENNIAL CUSTOMERS’ NEEDS TODAY IS LIKELY TO REAP BIG REWARDS TOMORROW
A lot has changed in the automotive customer service industry over the last few decades, but one fact remains. High quality customer service continues to inspire loyalty even in today’s demanding digital age.
Whether they are older customers, younger customers, or everyone in between, technology and access are changing customer service culture inside and out. Additionally, service expectations are rising so rapidly it can seem hard for dealers to keep up.
Within the next few years, Millennials, or Generation Y (those born roughly between 1980-2000 — considered the most numerically important generation since the baby boomers) will become your core customers. And they will bring with them a different set of customer service expectations.
As a result, understanding and dealing with Gen Y will therefore require a different approach than dealing with older customers. Perhaps a good strategy is to try and put yourself in the shoes of Gen Y — aiming to understand the issues and concerns important to them and how they want to be treated.
A connected generation
It’s important to remember that members of Generation Y have tended to be embroiled in the digital world almost since infancy. Given their familiarity with Internet connectivity, whether via a smartphone, tablet or other device, many have little understanding of the more earthbound systems and expectations that dominated our world, even just a few short years ago. “Millennials are a very open generation, and a great resource for brands, as co-creation is second nature for them.” —Jacqueline Anderson, Director, J.D. Power.
In automotive retailing, we tend to think of customer service and hospitality as following age-old principles, and there’s a certain truth to that, one that reaches as far back as ancient Greece. That being said, the particulars of how customer service has been delivered for the last several decades have tended to be extremely baby boom-centric. It’s time for dealerships to change, and change fast.
Generation Y tends to have a different concept of service delivery and where human interaction fits within the process. Gen Y’s concept of time and customer expectations can also often be shaped by the “instant gratification” culture they’ve been exposed to. As a result, speed and efficiency are of the utmost importance when dealing with them. How quickly you can offer choices, products and services to fulfil their needs will often determine how successful you are in terms of customer service.
Speedy outcome
Here’s an example. Recently, I had to contend with an upset Millennial customer who wasn’t happy with the repairs performed on their vehicle. I followed up, apologized and invited them to meet with me in order to review and resolve concerns. We both agreed on a meeting time. However, just before meeting I received an email from the OEM regarding the customer’s issues.
During our meeting, I asked the customer why they had sent an email to the head office, knowing in advance that I was ready to resolve their concerns. The customer said it was just to speed up the process to get a result on the spot rather than sit and wait. I mentioned that regardless of their approach, the only way to resolve the issue was by re-inspecting the vehicle by our service technician and by having a face-to-face meeting to review the history of events, a process that was concurred at the OEM level. After a satisfactory resolution, the customer quickly sent good feedback as an acknowledgment of the services performed. The outcome from this particular situation is that this Millennial customer placed a premium on a speedy resolution to get results in real time, a by-product of the perceived need for instant gratification and satisfaction.
The why and how
If you want to build a relationship with these customers, you are going to have to explain “why” first, and then deal with the “how.” They will get upset very quickly if you don’t know the answer to their question immediately. And give them an experience they’ll want to share.
Millennial customers expect brands to interact with them when things go right and wrong. Do you remember the story of David Carroll? When his guitar was damaged by United Airlines and after having exhausted his efforts with the airline’s customer relations department, he recorded his grievance into a song and posted it on YouTube. The result? He got millions of hits, and within no time, the airline dealt with his concerns.
Although United did eventually respond, it was too late to avoid a public backlash — the damage to the brand’s reputation had been done. For dealers, this is an important consideration, since stores are going to have to consider Millennials as becoming an ever larger share of their customer base. While some may argue their peak purchasing power is still years away, savvy dealers see right now as the perfect opportunity for building strong relationships with these customers and turning them into loyal ambassadors. Shouldn’t you be among them?
