The world is making way for the new age of Gen Z customer. Just as marketing teams, software designers and customer service departments had to make way for the new demands of millennials entering the consumer space, it’s time to welcome Gen Z on a huge scale.
Reportedly set to make up 40% of all consumers as of 2020, Gen Z already have a bad reputation as screen addicts with super short attention spans. While this may be true in relative terms, as a generation who have grown up knowing nothing of a world without the internet, can we really be surprised?
What does the Gen Z consumer really look like?
The generation born after 1995 are known for being social-media-savvy digital natives. While they are often dismissed by older generations as being ‘double screeners’ or ‘always on’, it’s not just all about TikTok and Snapchat for these young consumers. They do their research when it comes to brands, they are an ethical generation who care about making change in the world and they are particularly health oriented, and technologically advanced.
Ask Gen Z what a fax machine is, they are unlikely to know the answer. Born after the painful days of dial-up tones, MSN Messenger or the Nokia 3310, they will struggle to fathom how the world was once not in an always ‘connected’ state. They will however, probably be able to tell you the exact rate of deforestation in the Amazon and they’re also much more likely to part with their money on brands and products that have trusted eco credentials, are the most authentic and ethical on the market.
How to attract, engage and retain a Gen Z customer base
Set to represent 82 million people, making up the largest group in the US consumer population by 2026, Gen Z will undeniably introduce new challenges to the table, but rather than fear the influx of the new modern consumer, it’s time to just get to know your Gen Z audience. As the newest, brightest-eyed and bushier tailed members of the consumer landscape, Gen Z’s for the most part, haven’t formed loyalties yet in terms of their chosen brands. That mean’s now is the time to look at your business continuity, strategize to future proof your processes and pivot to attract and captivate your Gen Z audiences.
Gen Zs, having grown up as true digital natives, surrounded by constant messaging and information, have developed an internal filter to help them drown out some of that constant noise. While they reportedly have an attention span of only 8 seconds compared with the millennials 12 seconds, this means you and your marketing teams have to be prepared for the extremely discerning, fast paced consumer behaviour of this new Gen Z audience.
Make sure your brand can withstand the rigorous research, and sometimes short patience of a discerning Gen Z consumer. This generation are cynical, and they are more likely to respond to personal recommendations of friends and family than they are to be influenced by traditional advertising methods.
What does a good customer experience look like for Gen Z?
With a reported eight second attention span, user experience for Gen Z audiences needs to be seamless, streamlined and glitch-free at every touchpoint. These young adults are the Connoisseurs of User Experience, so now is the time to truly fine tune your consumer contact points by future proofing your payment methods and processes, as well as your customer service and marketing endeavours.
When it comes to customer payments for example, you can be sure that your Gen Z customers will balk at the idea of having to manually input data or spend time painstakingly entering bank details online.
According to Business Insider, 75% of Gen Z consumers use digital payment apps or P2P apps, with contact-free payments apps such as Zelle and payment sharing platforms such as Venmo proving increasingly popular with Gen Z users in the US.
Businesses with a high concentration of Gen Z customers are looking for new ways to take payments or introduce payment methods that are more engaging and friction-free for this short-attention-spanned audience. For example, letting agents in university towns across the UK are seeking ways to ensure that they can easily take recurring payments and one-off payments from their student renters in the manner that suits this younger consumer; quickly, efficiently and without having to input extensive bank details manually.
By implementing a Smart Bank Transfer payment method such as Coupay’s streamlined payment requests, businesses can receive payments online for free (or approximately 20p per transaction) and generally make the payment process more friction free and agile for customers, empowering them to make payments via their chosen device whether that be on the move, or at their desk.
With Coupay’s Smart Bank Transfer, customers simply click on their digital payment request, when, transported through to their own banking app, they can make your payment within four easy clicks. No muss, no fuss, and no bank detail entry needed. Take a tour of our Coupay use cases to see how you might future-proof your payment processes for the impending influx of Gen Z.
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