Generation Gap leads
to customer service train wreck

Newswise — As holiday shoppers cram into retail stores in the coming weeks, they may find that customer service just isn’t what it used to be. And according to researchers at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, it’s only going to get worse—a lot worse.

Dr. Bill Withers, a communications professor, and Dr. Patrick Langan, a professor of business administration, have spent the last few years studying customer service. The researchers say that a dramatic demographic shift in the U.S. and changing societal values will cause a veritable customer service train wreck by 2010.

“We're reaching a critical point demographically where baby-boomers will make up roughly 47 percent of the total U.S. population and hold about 65 percent of the disposable income,” Withers says. So while boomers will be doing much of the nation's shopping, Gen-Y workers will make up a substantial proportion of the service sector.

The problem with this, Withers says, is that boomers’ concept of how a customer should be treated is entirely different from that of Gen-Y workers.

“People born between 1980 and 1996 are coming out of far different family dynamics – many single-parent homes, many double-working parents, pervasive technology use, et cetera,” Withers says. Because of these factors, the new generation of service workers “struggle to make connections with customers and meet their service expectations.”

Compounding the problem is the fact that many businesses simply don’t have the time or the resources to offer as much customer service training as they would like. A study completed by Withers and Langan completed in 2005 revealed that though 78 percent of companies surveyed said they provide “some” customer service training, 68 percent said they would like to provide more if they had the means.

For the last few years, Withers has been traveling around Iowa offering advice to businesses based on his findings. He tells them that “awareness and training” are the keys to heading off the customer service crisis. “I also recommend looking to retirees as a possible service workforce, thereby bridging the gap,” he says. “Some McDonald's restaurants, for example, routinely place retirees in their drive-ups to now avoid dealing with quirky youth-workers who just don't get it."

So what’s a frustrated holiday shopper to do?

Withers says we’ll need to adjust our expectations and remember that we get what we pay for.

“Consumers will often times find better service in higher-end retailers,” he says. “These retailers tend to have the time and resources to train well and usually pay better, thereby attracting better workers.”