Unlocking the Experience Economy: Insights on Generational Shifts

Our survey shows that customers increasingly want experiences that are more digital, personalized and asynchronous, where conversations started in one channel can be resumed seamlessly in another — whether that’s in a few minutes or a few weeks. It shows that employees across generations are cautiously optimistic that AI will make their jobs better. And it shows that companies must invest in continually improving the experiences they deliver — or they’ll be left behind.

At Genesys, we know the value of a remarkable experience. We hope that what we’re sharing about generational dynamics helps you on your journey to delivering the personalized, connected and empathetic experiences that customers and employees expect today — and will demand in the not-too-distant future.

Executive summary

Consumers globally today equate a brand’s value with the experience it delivers: 86% say a brand is only as good as its service. Each generation brings its own unique perspectives, preferences and expectations to their brand interactions. To succeed, brands need to deeply understand their audiences and ensure that the customer experience they offer matches each generation’s consumer expectations.

Organizations face an added challenge: Employees bring their consumer expectations to work. Their preferences for values alignment, brand reputation, AI adoption and other employer attributes often mirror those they have as consumers. To gain and retain a competitive advantage, organizations must consider both consumer and employee expectations across all generations— Generation Z, millennials, Gen X and boomers.

Reputation matters: Generations weigh different factors when evaluating a purchase

Consumers across generations look to different sources and value different attributes when determining whether to purchase from a specific brand. Every generation ranks quality and price as the most important factors. Across generations, brand reputation — including reputation for customer service — ranks highly. Gen Z and millennial consumers lean more heavily on reviews, ratings and recommendations, placing high value on the experiences and opinions of others.

Customer service channels are increasingly digital

All generations want the option to interact with live agents, but younger generations prefer digital options far more than older generations do. Each generation expects personalized customer service across channels, and customers seem comfortable with providing personal data to facilitate this. Younger generations place a higher value on self-service and asynchronous channels. Gen Z and millennials also want customer service available in the channels of their choosing, including social and messaging apps.

Employees value flexibility, growth and culture

Businesses must balance a multigenerational workforce with vastly different values and expectations. Employees want flexibility and work-life balance regardless of generation. Gen Z employees have relatively modest expectations of their employers today — offering a prime opportunity for organizations to mold those expectations and retain workers. But Gen Z and millennial employees have radically higher expectations for the degree of flexibility and career growth that employers should offer in the future, which suggests that employers need to factor those trends into longer-term planning.

The organizations that seize the opportunity to act early, and act for everyone, will find themselves better able to attract, engage and retain both customers and talent across all generations.

Brands must adjust to evolving customer experience expectations

The days of unquestioned brand loyalty are long gone. With easy access to information and the ability to purchase from any brand, anywhere in the world, at any time, the onus is on organizations to earn consumer loyalty and trust. And to keep those customers, organizations must use empathetic, effective customer service that’s delivered where, when and how people want it.

Nearly 80% of consumers globally say it’s crucial to trust the brands they buy from, and more than three quarters say it’s important that brands show empathy and understanding toward their needs.

To understand what’s important to consumers, both pre-purchase and when they’re seeking customer service, we asked about three areas of consumer preference and expectations:

• The criteria each generation weighs when considering a purchase
• Consumer expectations around customer service interactions, including the channels in which they prefer to receive service
• The desired level of personalization across customer service channels

What stands out is how generations are similar, such as weighing price and quality most highly when contemplating a purchase, and how they differ, such as the greater importance younger generations place on reviews and rankings.

70% of Gen Z and millennials consider customer reviews and ratings important when choosing a brand, which is 19 percentage points higher than Gen X and boomers.

Brands that want to attract and retain their preferred consumers need to ensure they’re reaching out to and serving those customers in the ways they favor. And increasingly, that means understanding that consumers want deeply personalized interactions on their preferred channels.

Purchase decisions hang on brand reputation

Regardless of generation, quality and price are the two most important factors when deciding whether to purchase from a brand. Beyond that, there are sizeable generational differences when it comes to what else influences a decision.

65% of consumers overall — and 74% of millennials — rank a brand’s reputation for customer service as one of the most important factors when considering a purchase.

When choosing to buy from a brand, Gen Z and millennials care more about brand reputation and recommendations from others than Gen X and boomers do. From customer and third-party reviews to recommendations from trusted individuals, younger people consider the experience of others more than older generations do. They’re also more likely to place importance on social media compared to older generations.

Reputation also matters more to younger generations. They weigh not just the brand’s overall reputation but how their customer service is rated, indicating the importance of how an organization is perceived both before and after a sale. So, while it’s critical that brands create compelling products and price them competitively, it’s also increasingly important to manage reputation in a holistic way.

Reputation and ratings drive buying decisions for younger generations

Q: How important are the following factors when considering purchasing a product/service from a brand? [Percentage point (pp) difference is between Gen Z/millennials and Gen X/boomers.]

Deliver effective customer service across multiple channels

Customer experience is powerful: Get it right and earn loyal customers that last a lifetime; get it wrong and trust could be lost forever. Three-quarters of consumers globally say they’ll stop purchasing from a brand after five or fewer poor interactions, according to the Genesys State of Customer Experience report, and 31% stopped buying from a brand in the past year due to a bad service experience.

While millennials, Gen X and boomers all have strong opinions about what’s important when it comes to customer service, Gen Z are less demanding.

The priority for all generations is that customer service interactions solve their problems or completely address their concerns. But looking at generational preferences, only 71% of Gen Z finds this to be important, in comparison to 79% of millennials, 82% of Gen X and 83% of boomers. This simply might reflect how consumer preferences change as people age, so brands should act as if Gen Z’s expectations will rise over time.

To meet the evolving expectations of younger customers, companies must adapt their approach to customer service. A critical step in this adaptation involves implementing AI-powered, channel-less customer service solutions that will enable organizations to meet their preferences in ways that drive both engagement and retention.

Notably, 53% of Gen Z and 63% of millennials favor self-service tools like chatbots, surpassing Gen X and boomers by 15 percentage points. Furthermore, 58% of Gen Z and 67% of millennials demand disability accommodations, exceeding older generations by 10 percentage points. A seamless multichannel service experience is also crucial, as indicated by 57% of Gen Z and 71% of millennials. Ignoring these preferences in a customer service strategy jeopardizes your connection with these key demographic groups.

Customer service: Fix my issue quickly and treat me with empathy

Q: How important are each of the following to you when interacting with a company for customer service? [Percentage point (pp) difference is between Gen Z/millennials and Gen X/boomers.].

76% of consumers say it’s important that brands show empathy and understanding toward their needs.

Closely related to consumers’ preference for having their problem solved or their concern addressed completely are the next two most important factors in customer service interactions: receiving a prompt resolution and interacting with a knowledgeable customer service representative. These also were consistent across all generational groups.

The way customers are treated also plays a role, with most consumers across generations citing respectful and empathetic treatment as a top preference. Customers seeking support want to feel heard and valued. As organizations adopt more digital platforms for delivering CX, it’s critical to keep empathy at the forefront.

Live interaction channels are preferred — for now

Despite a reputation for avoiding phone calls, Gen Z and millennials still prefer to deal with people over bots or other self-service options for customer service, which is in line with Gen X and boomers’ preferences. In-person or live interactions ranked highest across all generations, showing that people still prefer to interact with people.

“There’s never going to be a time where somebody doesn’t want that personal touch,” said James Flanary, Manager, Customer Experience at JEGS High Performance, a US-based provider of aftermarket automotive parts.

When it comes to customer service, providing more channels and more options for those seeking service is better, as shown by how many channels respondents selected as “preferred.” It’s also clear that younger generations have a stronger preference for digital channels, self-service options and the ability to get support in the channel of their choice. In many cases, that channel may be one they use in their daily lives, such as messaging, social media or email.

As Rohan Khanna, Group CTO of Australia-based business process outsourcing firm Probe CX, put it, “Millennials and Gen Zs, they’re really digital natives. The journeys usually start at the website or FAQ in terms of self-servicing and trying to figure it out themselves, and they’re happy to then flow through into a channel of choice.”

Also speaking about younger customers, Flanary of JEGS said, “They just want self-service. They want it done now. We’re going to have to adopt our business model to meet them more digitally, or we’re going to get left behind.”

Organizations need to ensure that they connect interaction channels to create a seamless, omnichannel service experience that eliminates both dead ends and the need for customers to repeat themselves. They also should align their channel mix with the preferences of their customer demographics.

Customers want choices for customer support channels

Q: Please indicate your preference for each of the following types of customer service interaction channels [Percentage point (pp) difference between Gen Z/ millennials and Gen X/boomers.]

The biggest generational gaps of where personalization is expected across channels

Q: What level of personalization is ideal to you for each of the following interactions? (Percent saying “moderate” or “extensive” personalization) [Percentage point (pp) difference is between Gen Z/millennials and Gen X/boomers.]

43% of Gen Z and millennials are willing to share personal information in exchange for more personalized experiences.

What’s striking about this is that younger generations are 39% more likely to say they’re willing to share data in exchange for personalized service than older consumers are. This suggests that younger consumers clearly see the benefits of personalization. This includes receiving tailored recommendations and not needing to provide information about their accounts with customer service representatives, who they expect to have those details at hand. It also means personalization needs to be part of any successful long-term CX strategy.

Khanna of Probe CX says customers see the benefits of personalization and expect it: “You have that information handy. You know my past experience. I can get a nice, quick conversation on the other end. That’s an absolute expectation.”

Consumers generally feel more comfortable with personalization during interactions with agents, whether via phone, chat or video. But there are generational differences between the amount of personalization that consumers want: Gen Z and millennials tend to expect higher degrees of personalization, especially in digital channels than Gen X and boomers.

A good customer experience requires a good employee experience

Customer expectations don’t end with purchase and service interactions with brands. People take their consumer expectations to work.

They’re looking for shared values, empathetic interactions and personalized experiences. And like consumer expectations, employees’ attitudes about their work environment and employers are evolving — revealing commonalities and differences that organizations will need to address if they’re to become or remain an employer of choice across generations.

We asked about three areas of employee preferences and expectations:

• What prospective employees expect from an employer
• How employees expect what employers provide to change in the future
• How employees feel about AI in the workplace

We found that employers need to provide the technology, training and culture that make it possible to deliver great customer service and support. Employees that are having a bad experience at work aren’t going to be as willing — or able — to go the extra distance to solve customer challenges. As younger cohorts, who have a greater expectation of empathy and support, come to represent a higher proportion of the workforce and take up leadership positions, businesses need to evolve their employer value propositions or they’ll struggle to attract and retain the talent they need to succeed.

Flexible work and career growth lead changing employee expectations

It’s been estimated that people will spend as much as one-third of their life at work. So, it’s not surprising that people have strong opinions about what they expect from an employer and about what drives satisfaction at work.

Given the high cost of hiring and the impact that staffing shortages can have on an organization’s ability to deliver customer service (not to mention the impact on employee morale), there’s a strong business rationale to create an environment in which employees can do their best work.

Our survey found that workers across generations have similar expectations when it comes to three areas: a supportive work environment and culture, work flexibility and work-life balance, and opportunities for professional growth and autonomy.

Gen Z has lower expectations of employers overall, which could reflect that they’re relatively new to the workforce. It could also be symptomatic of simply having lower expectations about work and what employers will provide. Whatever the cause, there’s an opportunity for employers to build loyalty over time by meeting or exceeding expectations.

Millennials, the largest generation currently in the workforce, have the highest expectations, closely followed by Gen X employees. As managers and leaders, these two generations also have outsized influence on the job experiences of Gen Z employees.

While their top-line expectations are similar, looking more deeply into these three areas shows where generational expectations differ — and point to how organizations can empower their workforces and remain employers of choice.

Flexible working arrangements are expected

All generations rate flexibility highly as an expectation, showing how the world of work has changed post-pandemic. It also reflects generational challenges, including juggling caregiving responsibilities for children and parents among all generations, most especially millennials and Gen X. Beyond that, it might also indicate a generational shift of the role of work, with younger generations working to live instead of “living to work.”

Generally, employees across generations are satisfied with the schedule and location flexibility that employers provide. But taken as a cohort, younger generations have lower expectations around employers offering flexible working arrangements.

John Parente, Director, Contact Center Operations at Stanley Steemer, says he’s seen schedule flexibility and the option to work from home become table stakes across generations since the pandemic. “This is becoming embedded in our work life,” he said.

Culture is paramount to employees

A supportive work environment and culture is important to all generations. It’s the highest priority for Gen Z workers, with 68% citing this as an expectation they hold for their employers. Different generations rate the aspects of creating a supportive environment similarly, so employers that invest in building their culture will see benefits across their workforce.

Sustainability and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I) initiatives also play important roles in attracting workers of all ages, with commitment to building a diverse workforce, supporting social or environmental causes, and aligning with their core values all rating highly.

Another way to create a supportive environment is to provide the tools employees need to be effective. AI-powered assistants that surface information, recommend next-best actions and summarize customer interactions allow employees to focus on supporting customers. And technology can help supervisors deliver more targeted and effective coaching.

Top expectations for creating a supportive work environment

Q: Which of the following are your top expectations from your employer in relation to a supportive work environment? [Percentage point (pp) difference is between Gen Z/millennials and Gen X/boomers.]

Where generations diverge is how people expect the world of work will change in three to five years’ time. Younger generations expect their employers to offer more location and schedule flexibility and provide more support for work-life balance in the future than older generations do.

Employers that encourage workers to take time off, offer schedule flexibility, have remote and hybrid working options and provide other programs that promote work-life balance are more likely to meet those future expectations.

Younger employees have higher expectations for the future

Q: How do you expect your experience as an employee to change in the following areas over the next three to five years? (Percent saying significantly/ slightly more) [Percentage point (pp) difference is between Gen Z/millennials and Gen X/boomers.]

Employers that want to retain their workforce now and over the long term need to focus on building effective hybrid and remote teams. The good news is that cloud-based technology gives employees the ability to do their jobs at home while meeting the security, availability and other requirements of complex work environments, including remote contact centers.

Provide opportunities for growth and development

Employees across generations also expressed a desire for professional growth and development. Millennial employees have the highest expectations around career growth and development as they enter their prime working years. Gen Z, on the other hand, has lower expectations, providing an opportunity for forwardthinking employers to mold the expectations of this cohort.

Employees value not just the ability to learn and grow, but also to act with autonomy. Employers can look to leverage technology, including AI-powered platforms that surface coaching recommendations and help employees tackle new challenges, to meet these needs.

“[Young] people are so much more advanced. They’re learning stuff that we learned at 20 years old at age 3 or 4. [Their technology] demands are gonna be significantly different,” said Khanna of Probe CX.

Looking ahead, 69% of Gen Z and millennial employees expect more training opportunities in the next three to five years, ahead of the 58% of Gen X and boomers who share that expectation.

Higher employee expectations for future growth and autonomy

Q: Which of the following are your top expectations from your employer? (Percent saying significantly/slightly more) [Percentage point (pp) difference is between Gen Z/millennials and Gen X/boomers.]

Employees appreciate being appreciated

While they hold lower expectations of their employers, Gen Z workers are also reporting a lower level of job satisfaction than their more experienced colleagues. Only one in five (22%) Gen Z employees agree that they’re very satisfied in their current role.

More millennials feel valued by their employer and are happier with their work-life balance, but only a third (32%) feel highly satisfied. And there’s a higher propensity for job-hopping among younger workers — those who feel dissatisfied and undervalued present a flight risk.

In contrast with most of the younger versus older generational dynamics, Gen Z and Gen X feel less valued than their millennial and boomer colleagues. Only about one quarter of Gen Z and Gen X feel highly valued, in comparison to approximately one third of millennials and boomers, suggesting that employers need to focus on showing appreciation across the board.

From simple gestures such as saying, “Thank you,” to providing empathetic coaching, managers can make a big impact on how valued employees feel simply by expressing appreciation. As Khanna from Probe CX said, regardless of generation, “The underlying values and foundational stuff is still the same: People want to feel valued when they turn up to work.”

Employers can also look to show appreciation through peer recognition. Gamification and leaderboards can instill a sense of friendly competition among teammates. It can also provide opportunities for high performers to mentor and share best practices, even in remote and hybrid environments.

Learning and development and other career growth opportunities also show employees that an organization is invested in their future, helping shape positive employee sentiment.

Personalized job experiences drive retention

A personalized job experience that considers the preferences of each individual is a savvy way to retain younger employees. Nearly three quarters (73%) of millennials and 61% of Gen Z workers agree that they’re likely to stay with an employer that offers a personalized job experience, such as tailored career development or benefits attuned to different life stages.

Organizations can use solutions like AI-powered coaching to enable supervisors to gain richer and more detailed information about each employee’s performance. This empowers managers to provide far more personalized recommendations for skills development and career pathing. Additionally, AI-powered forecasting and scheduling tools can provide individual employees with flexibility that allows for more personalized work schedules.

In customer experience, personalization for employees extends to getting the right interactions to the individuals best skilled to handle them. This personalizes their work experience and helps them succeed, while also providing better a better experience for customers.

Workers are cautiously optimistic about AI in the workplace

Organizations of all kinds are working to harness AI to improve the customer experience, helping employees by automating tasks, surfacing information and recommending the next right action. Our survey found that employees, while cautiously optimistic about the promise of AI to improve their work lives, also express concerns.

The vast majority (93%) of both Gen Z and millennials voice concerns about the adoption of AI in their workplace, predominantly revolving around increases in workload, less job security and a lack of training opportunities. By comparison, only 84% of Gen X and boomer workers are concerned, which might reflect a belief that they might be out of the workforce before AI causes any widespread disruptions. One in 10 Gen Z and millennial workers are concerned that AI will replace their job altogether.

28% of millennials and 21% of Gen Z and Gen X employees think AI will make jobs better and more efficient.

But employees also see the promise of AI. About one-quarter of employees across generations say that while AI will replace some aspects of their job, it will create new opportunities. And 22% say it will make their job better and more efficient.

Millennials are comparatively bullish on AI, with a greater percentage citing both sentiments than other generations. Twenty-eight percent of millennials think AI will make their job better and more efficient (along with 21% of Gen Z and Gen X workers), showing that the opportunity is there for employers to bring their workforce along the AI journey.

“Yes, we’ll be able to automate, we’ll be able to be more efficient. But that will leave complex queries for, and better servicing of our customers, by agents — and that’s what the expectation will be. Agents are here to stay,” said Khanna of Probe CX.

It’s up to employers to explain how AI will be a net benefit, setting clear strategies, providing necessary training, managing workload, involving employees in AI initiatives and demonstrating how AI assists employees. How companies navigate this delicate balance could significantly impact their ability to attract and retain the younger workforce.

As Khanna from Probe CX said, “The order of the day is augmentation over automation. We will actually be able to provide quicker, faster, more reliable and better contextual services than we’ve ever done before.”

Employee concerns about AI technology in the workplace

Q: What concerns do workers have about AI technology being implemented in the workplace? [Percentage point (pp) difference is between Gen Z/millennials and Gen X/boomers.]

Focusing on experiences pays of

Across all generations, satisfaction with an experience — with a brand or in the workplace — generates greater loyalty, stimulates word-of-mouth recommendations and engenders genuine advocacy.

Consumers are more willing to recommend a brand they have interacted with as a customer to family or friends based on how satisfied they were with their customer service experience. Similarly, employees are more willing to recommend their employer based on their satisfaction with their on-the-job experience.

There’s a virtuous circle between customer experience and employee experience. Employees who work in a supportive culture with flexibility and opportunities to grow are more likely to provide empathetic service to customers. And customers who receive personalized, connected, and empathetic experiences are more likely to remain customers.

Customers who are “Very satisfied” with their interactions with a brand are 50% more likely to recommend a company than ones who are “Very dissatisfied.” For employers, “Very satisfied” employees are 44% more likely to recommend their employer than those who are “Very dissatisfied.”

Exceptional experiences lead to a willingness to advocate for brands and employers. Given the importance that younger generations place on reviews and recommendations, this disparity could have a big impact on a brand’s ability to attract future customers or employees.

This underscores the importance for organizations to address the unique needs and expectations of each generation, whether they are customers or employees. By doing so, companies can cultivate a loyal customer base and a committed workforce, driving both their market success and workplace productivity.

Willingness to recommend a brand or a company to family or friends by satisfaction level

Q: Customers/Employees–On a scale of 0 to 10, with 0 being “Not likely at all” and 10 being “Definitely, without hesitation,” how likely are you to recommend buying from this brand/working at this company to others based on your most recent service experience/employee experience?

(Average scores across generations)

Guidance for the future

In many ways, preparing for the preferences of a multigenerational customer and employee base means accelerating existing CX and EX transformation efforts. Regardless of generation, customers want their issues addressed in a timely manner, for customer service agents to be knowledgeable, and to have personalized experiences.

That said, younger generations have expectations that differ markedly from Gen X and boomers. Organizations need to invest in experience orchestration to ensure they’re prepared to meet not just the evolving preferences of Gen Z and millennials, but also deliver empathetic, personalized customer and employee experiences for all.

Consumers expect the actions of brands to mirror their stated values and will switch to a competitor when they don’t. For younger consumers who value reviews, ratings and recommendations, brands have a great opportunity to authentically engage in those conversations, demonstrating their values.

The strong preferences for digital, channel-less interactions and self-service support provide a clear roadmap for evolving how customer experiences are delivered. Brands need to embrace the ability to orchestrate remarkable, deeply personal experiences that don’t just solve customer issues, but also build loyalty and lead to more business.

Employee preferences are also evolving, with younger employees expecting more from their employers — more empathy, flexibility and growth opportunities. While Gen Z’s attitudes and expectations about work are still forming, employers that lean into shaping those expectations and learning from their preferences as consumers will differentiate themselves from their competition.

Both consumers and employees express cautious optimism about AI. Brands should embrace the promise of AI to improve customer outcomes, while recognizing concerns and operating with transparency. Employers should ensure they’re bringing employees along on the AI journey, so employees experience firsthand how AI improves their role and brings value to the organization.

Along with the inextricable connection between customer and employee expectations, there’s an equally powerful link between satisfying experiences and a willingness to recommend among consumers and employees. It’s clear that experiences matter and it’s incumbent on every organization to keep evolving both their customer and employee experiences if they are to remain a brand or employer of choice. The future of extraordinary experiences awaits.

Methodology

The data presented in this report was gathered through a global survey of 12,997 adults who play a role in their household’s decisions for purchasing goods and services. In addition, some of these adults were engaged in either full-time or part-time employment.

Genesys commissioned Savanta, Inc., to conduct a global survey, which was fielded during February and March 2024. The questions explored expectations, perceptions and experiences from a consumer perspective as well as an employee perspective. Specific quota thresholds were established for each of the 21 countries to ensure a comprehensive and balanced representation from all five global regions within the sample.

About Genesys

Genesys empowers more than 8,000 organizations in over 100 countries to improve loyalty and business outcomes by creating the best experiences for customers and employees. Through Genesys Cloud™, the #1 AI-powered experience orchestration platform, Genesys delivers the future of CX to organizations of all sizes so they can provide empathetic, personalized experience at scale. As the trusted, all-in-one platform born in the cloud, Genesys Cloud accelerates growth for organizations by enabling them to differentiate with the right customer experience at the right time, while driving stronger workforce engagement, efficiency and operational improvements.

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