Behavior and Expectations of Digital Natives (generation Y) – Do Companies Need to Adapt in the Customer Service?

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The next problem was to find people for the 15 face-to-face interviews. In most of the cases my university friends helped me. Still I wanted a variety in my results thus I called my family friends in the UK and Pakistan with Viber, a free calling app, to do telephone interviews. This was only possible due to the low transaction cost.

All in all, there is always a solution to a problem.

4. Analysis of main findings

The analysis of the data is based on 56 completed surveys, 39 online and 17 offline. The average age of the respondents is 21 years who mostly live in Germany and are students, whereas some also work. This leads to the consequence that the data is diverse in its variety.

One of the main findings of the survey is that 92,86 % of the Generation Y uses social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. many dimes daily or about daily. This figures underlines how much influence the Information provided on the social media networks has on most of the Generation Y. The usage of social media has become an integrated part of the daily life. This implies that if companies want to reach the Generation Y, they will have to be present on one of these different social media networks. There is a business rule in the Service sector: Always be as near as possible to your customers!

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Another important finding is for what kind of activities does the Generation Y use social networks like Facebook. The vast majority, approx. 70 %, uses Facebook daily or weekly for example for commenting on posts of their friends. In contrast only 33 % use Facebook for contacting the customer service of companies by commenting on posts of the company pages. Unexpectedly 40 % of the people have never done or thought about this opportunity.

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Surprisingly company pages on social media seem less credible to the Generation Y than companies’ webpages. When asked about the credibility of the company websites 75 % people stated that websites are very credible or partly credible, as the same question referred to the companies fan pages on social media only 55 % found them very or partly credible. Although both types of media, may it be webpages or fan pages, offer the same type of information, the credibility decreases by 20 % only when presenting it on social media. This fact underscores that people mistrust information on social media than on webpages. Consequently, it also indicates a possible reason why people do not use social media to contact customer service. It seems to be a question of credibility.

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A last important finding, relevant for the customer service department, is that most of the people, about 77%, stated that they use the physical contact, a telephone call or the company’s website for contacting the customer service. Only 5 % of the people used social media networks. [pic 7]

When asked what they would like to use approx. 25 % percent said they would like to use social media for customer service issues. This figure points out the slightly increasing demand for company’s presence on social media.

The associated reason why people would still like to use different channels than social media was also mentioned in the survey. The main reason for this huge step is that the Generation Y is very reluctant to give their contact details on social media. Only 7 % of the Digital Natives would forward their information via social media. Approx. 77 %, an astonishing figure, would still use the “old style” of sharing the contact details via physical contact or telephone. This highlights the ambivalence of the character traits of the Digital Natives. [pic 8]

Summing up the main findings pointed out in the results of the survey, it can be concluded that Generation Y extensively uses social media, but more as a platform to connect with people than also as a platform to interact with companies to seek help, get information or complain. Classical tools such as telephone or physical contact to connect with the customer service are still more or less used. Companies still need to show intensively the advantages of contacting the customer service on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, etc.

5. Implications for the future

The main result of the survey has been that the Generation, which in my Survey has an average age of 21, does not use social media as a tool for customer service. One has to keep in consideration that most of the people participating live in Germany. If you would do this survey in countries like USA, Canada or the UK, you will most probably come to different results.

Other surveys have found out that 62 % of consumers have used social media for customer service issues. In addition 76 % would more likely use social media for service enquiries if they would better understand the tool available to them (Zensdesk, 2012, para. 4).

The effect of the use of social media platforms for the customer service can be stressed by the findings of Nielson Social, a company providing the most complete consumer trends and habits worldwide. They have found out that 71 % of “consumers who experience a quick and effective brand response on social media are likely to recommend that brand to others”(NM Incite, 2012, p.2).

In order to see the benefits of customer service on social media people in Germany people need to experience it. They will see the main benefits such as shorter wait times and faster responses because your customer care enquiries can be easily tracked back. You do not need to explain everything from the beginning, as it is mostly the case if you call the customer service a second time.

At last it is important to mention that, I personally think Germans are lagging behind using Facebook and Twitter to connect with companies. That is why the answer to the thesis statement is that companies need to adapt to the required preferences, e.g. assuring the security of contact information of the Generation Y, in order to increase the usage of customer service on social media. The customer service on social media platforms is a channel to understand the needs of the other side on a bigger scale and an opportunity of lowering the transaction cost in comparison to “normal” channels like physical contact or telephone calls which are mostly linked with costs.

6. Reference List

Zendesk Blog (2012). Infographic: Social Media and the future of the customer support. Retrieved on 02.05.2015 from