IT In The Millennial Generation

Millennials are everywhere. From shopping malls, college campuses, and summertime social gatherings – teens and twenty-something are there with their heads down and eyes glued to their smartphones. Even though they cluster together in groups, you notice they don’t make direct eye contact or utter any sounds to each other except to share a video or Tweet, since they are all immersed in their own text message conversation or social media exchange. Whether we like it or not, the “Era of the Millennial” is upon us; and this generation will prove to be the most influential demographic in history when it comes to technology use.

Millennials Want a Slicker, Faster IT Experience

What does the “Era of the Millennial” mean for IT Services? In a nutshell, it means that interactive technologies – from smartphones to websites to mobile apps to cloud platforms – need to provide the most usable, self-guided, hiccup-free, and efficient user experiences in history. Contrary to the belief that millennials can make anything work, their expectations for slick user experiences are the highest ever.

Although millennials can often figure out how to use an app or site that is a clunker, they probably won’t take the time to do so. They are experts at finding alternatives and they simply won’t put up with bad user experiences that get in the way of accomplishing their tasks as fast as possible. It is no coincidence that Apple evokes the strongest overall brand loyalty for this demographic. Apple products thrive on fluid user experiences that allow these kids to accomplish their goals with ease.

Millennial Communication Habits Rely on IT

Millennials also have different communication habits, according to professional IT services, and are way more connected and in-tune with technology and online culture. Growing up with access to information at their fingertips, they have become accustomed to an on-demand lifestyle, expect a seamless shopping experience, and won’t hang around for long if they don’t find what they need. These kids also resort to social media and lambast brands and technologies that have just let them down, meaning they will be the greatest advocates or worst critics of companies in real-time.

Most of what causes millennials to refer to brands either positively or negatively on social media are centered on the online experience that this group of consumers has with those brands. That’s why great user experiences will pay for themselves many times over. That’s also why investing in creating great user experiences is worthwhile for all businesses in the long run.

Based on what I’ve mentioned above here are some things you should keep in mind to provide millennials with the IT experiences that they expect:

• Mobile is the way to go.
• They have less tolerance for poor user experience. That means the importance of creating great online experiences is higher than before.
• Millennials want to be in control – they favor website self-service solutions over assisted service, giving them the power to solve their own problems.
• Expect millennials to talk about your business on social media, so engage in the conversation and learn from it.

Although they have a unique, evolving set of needs for interactive technology, the ability to examine millennial behavior online gives you the power to grow and adapt to this confusing generation.