Hang Up Your Age-Old Stereotypes: Gen-Z Is On The Phone For Customer Service Needs

Nikola Mrkšić is the CEO & Co-founder of PolyAI, a leading provider of enterprise-ready voice assistants built for customer support.

Generation-Z (those born between 1995 and 2012) has been typecast by preceding generations as lazy, entitled and overly "woke." They’re also among the most digitally savvy, given their time and exposure to both consumer and corporate technologies. Gen-Z is generally recognized as the first cohort to earn the moniker "digital native," and research indicates that 94% of them own at least one smartphone.

This nearly ubiquitous tech adoption has also put Generation-Z in the crosshairs of complaints claiming they’re obsessed with said devices. In fact, the average member of Gen-Z does spend more than six hours a day looking at their phone. In comparison, Baby Boomers’ daily screen time clocks in at about three and a half hours.

Even though Gen-Z has almost universally grown up with a phone in their hands, it’s allegedly common knowledge that "kids these days" hate to talk on the phone. Rather, Gen-Z has a reputation for favoring text- and image-based chats via apps like Snapchat and WhatsApp if they need something.

Despite this stereotype that youth don't call, there’s a surprising exception: customer service. Research from a survey of 1,000 U.S. consumers aged 25 and older conducted by Dynata on behalf of PolyAI revealed the preferred channel for reaching out to customer service for the vast majority of Zoomers (86%) is the phone—not a chatbot, email or a text message. When Gen-Z (and most millennials) have a customer service question or request, they’re primarily picking up the phone.

Contemporary Calls To Customer Service

One key element to this surprising interest in voice calls is artificial intelligence, and voice bots in particular. Gen-Z, as digital natives, are not intimidated by new technology—in fact, they’re excited by its potential. When they encounter a voice bot in customer service, they’re less likely to be discouraged compared to some older generations.

Nearly 80% of Millennials and Gen-Z would use intelligent automation as long as it could accurately fulfill their customer service needs by processing a return, performing a price match, answering questions or accomplishing other common customer service (CS) tasks.

This willingness is in part because of advancements in natural language understanding (NLU) models that have helped improve the voice experience. These sophisticated AI-powered voice assistants are a far cry from the traditional interactive voice response (IVR) systems that require saying the right keyword in the right way to move the conversation forward, often resulting in frustrated callers begging to speak to a live agent.

Modern voice assistants allow callers to speak freely, use slang, pause, interrupt and ask questions about different topics. Regardless of a caller’s accent or connection issues, modern assistants can communicate with callers in natural, almost human-sounding language. The ability to train assistants on company updates to scale, along with their 24/7/365 availability, also helps reduce hold times. As Gen-Z values speed and convenience in customer service, this is especially important.

Talking The Talk Versus Walking The Walk

For organizations looking to integrate AI-powered voice assistants, some key questions must be answered to ensure success.

Is there a business driver for change?

If an enterprise cannot connect operational outcomes in its contact center to tangible business results, the initial expense of deploying new technologies can appear cost-prohibitive. Assess not only the potential but also the mechanisms in which potential solutions gather, analyze and report on service and customer data.

What is the tolerance for risk?

Many AI solutions are based on large language models (LLMs), which generate probabilistic results. In short, they're effective, creative and proficient but not entirely predictable. While new generative models are seeing more consistent outcomes, there's still a chance a generative support solution could give customers incorrect information.

Should you build or buy?

As with any wave of widespread disruptive technology, organizations should thoughtfully evaluate their existing resources alongside external options when selecting an implementation strategy. While enterprise adoption of next-generation AI automation for customer experience (CX) is still in its early stages, organizations have opportunities to either upskill internal teams or partner with external providers to ensure they can design, deploy and manage these solutions effectively.

Is there a customer culture of acceptance?

Industries like travel and hospitality are innately customer-focused, and while previously support-agnostic verticals like healthcare, finance and public services are exploring ways to be more "user friendly," not all customer bases will respond positively to increased automation, no matter the use case.

Considering these challenges, organizations researching smart automation for the phone—or any support channel—should develop a strategy that assumes acceptable risk, meets the understood needs of the customer and allows for human agent involvement at any point. This strategy should have both business and IT's buy-in and have the appropriate dedicated resources to ensure compliance with the impacted customer's regional regulatory requirements. Just as with any progressive technology adoption, testing and extensive vendor vetting is essential.

Zooming To The Top Of The Consumer Power Pyramid

Meeting the CS expectations of Generation-Z and Millennials is crucial as these demographics made up nearly 40% (17.1% and 22.5%, respectively) of global spending in 2024, and Gen-Z is expected to see the fastest spending power growth in the next decade. Projections estimate they’ll be responsible for adding almost $9 trillion in global spend by 2034. These groups have (and will continue to have) dispensable income, and as long as organizations can meet or exceed their customer service standards, younger generations are ready to buy whatever is being sold to them.

Surfacing this group's somewhat surprising affinity for phone-based customer service teaches a clear lesson to the companies investing in multichannel support: The oldest communication technology can still have the most powerful impact. When it comes to customer service needs, voice is king. It’s much easier to verbally outline a complicated problem than to type out a long paragraph framing your issue.

Humans have an inherent need to feel heard and to be understood when handling a challenge, and voice communication effectively and simply meets this need—regardless of which generation is on the line.

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