In September I ran a workshop for about 20 twenty-something’s. At one point we were talking about communicating and how organisations speak with them. I spoke about email being ubiquitous amongst businesses and they all returned me blank stares.
I said “you Guys don’t do email do you?”
They all nodded. And they explained that they have Hotmail or Gmail accounts because they have to, but they rarely check them, preferring other means.
I did a poll of these other means and in order of preference we had:
- Tex
- Facebook messenger
- Skype
And they have 100% Smartphone or tablet use
Admittedly these are bright young Gen Ys but they will grow older, start working and may begin consuming your products or services.
To cap it all, the following week I was working for a motor company with their salespeople and the company had just begun a drive to harvest more and more email addresses from customers as this is how they want to send messages and documents. The message is quite clear.
- How do you communicate with your customers?
- What other means do you offer them?
- How do you send documents? Attachments are so last century and get caught in Spam traps anyway.
- Do you use links for documents sent via a text message?
Some questions to get you thinking about your communications. Are you keeping with the changing times?
