Don’t expect Millennials to call anytime soon

I was designing a survey the other day and wanted some additional technical support. Specifically, I wanted to have a conversation with someone at the survey company to ask a few questions and get some advice. So I bypassed the chat icon on my screen to give them a call. I finally found their phone number, not without difficulty, and rang them up. Ironically, once I eventually reached a human, she directed me to back to the chat icon on my screen. Eventually I got the answers I needed…but I never did have the phone call I would have preferred.

This whole experience had me reflecting on modern communication preferences.

Millennials are a driving force of how companies interact with their customers, and they are demanding instantaneous answers on familiar channels over traditional call center wait times. A recent surveyof preferred business contact channels shows that all generations, except Millennials, actually prefer to speak with someone on the phone when it comes to customer service. But for Millennials, a phone call was their last resort.

However, it’s not all on Millennials—with technology, everyone’s phone habits have changed. The smart phone can sometimes be everything else to us—but an actual telephone. While conventional generations might still value taking time for that live conversation, those of a more modern mindset might consider a phone call too intrusive. It’s also not as practical, or as fast.

It will continue to be important for companies to have Omnichannel strategies in place to interact with their consumers via, text, social, and online. But please don’t forget a good old-fashioned 1-800 number.

Photo from Business Insider