How the Generation Gap Affects Customer Service

All customers, young and old, have different ideas of what customer service means to them. These varying expectations require customer service departments to accommodate all types of customers, as well as support the different ways those customers communicate.

Researchers and social commentators divide age groups into a few particular categories, defined by certain experiences and traits.

• Teens

• Millennials/Generation Y: 20’s and 30’s

• Generation X: 30’s and 40’s

• Baby Boomers: 50’s and 60’s

• Retirees: Late 60’s and up

Generation X, Millennials and Teens are most comfortable with computers, so they tend to prefer online channels when they communicate with customer service departments. Since Millennials and Teens use social media sites, they expect to use these accounts to communicate directly with customer service reps.

Baby Boomers and Retirees tend to stick to more traditional and personal means of communication. Though some in this group may consider themselves just as computer-savvy as younger generations, research shows they usually prefer to make a phone call or even go directly to the business to talk face-to-face if they need help. 

Recent research also demonstrates a generational gap when it comes to customer loyalty. With age comes a greater sense of product and company loyalty uncommon in younger groups who are more inclined to go after the best deal or follow a trend.

Keep in mind, these descriptions are flexible and many exceptions to these common behaviors exist. However, in order to provide service tailored to each and every generation, all possible lines of communication should be used.

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Find the Perfect Fit: How to Hire a First-Rate Customer Service Team

A business that tries all the tools and tricks available for improving customer service, will inevitably learn that the success of those tools depends on the quality of the staff implementing them. Finding the right customer service staff can be the hardest step in developing a business that customers rave about, but when it's done right the payoff will be huge. The customer service staff is the primary face and voice of the business to the group of people most important to its continued success: its customers. When staffing your customer service department don’t just look for the qualified, seek out the exceptional.

First, develop a clear idea of the job your representatives will perform. Get a sense of the kind of person, in terms of personality and experience, that can best fill the company’s needs in this position. While it’s useful to have a clear vision of the ideal rep, don’t limit your hiring process if all of several ideal criteria don't perfectly match your expectations. Allowing some flexibility can lead to even better results, with the right candidates. Think about the current business culture and the personality types already present, a staff that works well together without conflict saves untold amounts of time and effort and makes for a more positive work environment. Keep all of this in mind when crafting the job ad.

Once candidates are chosen for consideration, do the research. A resume and interview can be revealing, but only tell a partial story. Call the candidates’ references with a list of prepared questions to get a more thorough sense of the person’s reliability, strengths, weaknesses, general approach to life-- anything relevant to how they’ll perform the job and fit in with the company. During the interview, provide some customer service hypotheticals, ideally taken from actual experiences within the company. This is a great opportunity to test how well they think on their feet and their penchant for problem solving. Another possibility is to include current employees in the hiring process. Not only can they field potentials for a personality fit, but they can also use their experience to weed out any candidates that may not cut it from a performance perspective.

Found some promising candidates, but not quite ready to commit? Try them out on a temporary basis. Strike a deal to have them start the job with a 30-90 day evaluation period to see if they and the company are a good fit. Once the trial period’s up, if you’ve decided against a job offer, be sure to offer thorough feedback to them on why you feel it’s not a good fit and consider providing a reference to help them with future opportunities.

Be willing to make the position competitive. If the pay and benefits offered are sub par, the candidates attracted to the job will follow suit. If a high quality, highly motivated staff that’s excited to represent the company is the goal, it is imperative that the company earn the best candidates through high pay, quality benefits and a business atmosphere that’s exciting. Job performance has a tendency to reflect employee experience and the initial job offer will help to set the tone for the relationship to come.

It’s not easy to turn down hopeful and qualified candidates in the search to find the perfect employee, but building the customer service staff that’s just right for your business has to be priority number one. Trust your instincts, combined with the proper due diligence, they will lead the business to a first-rate customer service team. Once there, it’s time to move on to the far easier task of equipping them with the best customer service products available to perform to their full potential.

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5 Ways to Keep Customer Service Representatives Motivated

Employee motivation and loyalty is important in any position, but for those tasked with representing a company to its customers, it takes on extra significance. Customer service representatives who feel invested in the company they work for and the products they represent will inevitably provide superior service than those unhappy in their position. As individuals commit themselves to resolutions for the coming year, take the opportunity to encourage improvements in your customer service department. Consider these 5 ways to keep customer service representatives motivated.

1. Hold Weekly Staff Meetings for Feedback
Effective communication is one of the most important facets of running any successful business. Weekly meetings afford both representatives and managers the opportunity to address any concerns that arise week to week and provide relevant feedback. As the main point of contact for customers, the customer service department is the first to hear about any problems or suggestions for products. By making sure this feedback is heard and passed on to the product development staff, these meetings can serve to improve products, keep customers happy and make the job of your customer service reps that much easier. It also lets staff know their contribution to the company is valued.

2. Encourage a Positive Work Environment
A pleasant workplace means less risk of dissatisfaction and high turnover. When the customer service staff is happy in their work, this lends itself to how they interact with customers. Give positive feedback whenever it’s earned and make sure any negative feedback is carefully worded to be constructive rather than disparaging. Pay attention to conflicts amongst the staff and step in before they have the chance to influence the larger environment, setting up a meeting with HR or a sit down with the staff members to encourage communication. Find little ways to reward the staff, such as donuts in the office once a week, or monthly company lunches or happy hours.

3. Set Goals and Recognize the Staff Members Who Accomplish Them
Mojo Helpdesk makes it easy to track the time it takes to resolve customer inquiries and lets customers provide ratings to representatives for how an issue is handled. Find a way to honor or reward those with the best results or greatest improvement over time. Having something tangible to work towards, such as a bonus, gift card, or displayed list of top rated employees each month, can be a powerful motivator.

4. Offer Upward Mobility
There’s little incentive for employees to work hard and stay with a company long term if they don’t expect opportunities for upward mobility. The best customer service representatives know the company’s products well and care about the larger success of the business; a state that is best achieved by ensuring that employees see their own success as aligned with that of the company. Showing long-term loyalty and providing a consistently good performance should lead to promotions and raises—skimping on this will lead to the loss of your best staff members to competitors.

5. Give Representatives Freedom to Make Decisions
Encouraging consistency in business can be valuable, but becomes constraining when taken too far. Don’t micromanage. Allow for some flexibility and creativity in how representatives handle customer service inquires, as long as they stick to general guidelines and trust their instincts. Something as simple as staff upgrading shipping for free due to an order error can enable your staff to quickly solve a customer’s issue and shorten call times, saving money in the long run. There also might be some truly great ideas to come out of giving staff the room to make their own decisions.

A company that makes a priority of providing a positive work environment and motivation to its employees will quickly gain a reputation as such. This can positively impact the company from an internal perspective, but also in regards to the company’s customers. People like to do business with companies who have a good reputation for taking care of their staff. In addition to improving conditions for your current customer service representatives, these tips can help your business to attract and keep high quality employees moving forward.

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