Age Differences Impacting the Success of Marketers’ Digital CX Initiatives

Marketing executives are fairly confident in the benefits of utilizing digital customer experience technologies, but their prospects’ opinions vary. Furthermore, research indicates that the differences are closely associated with age.

IBM’s recently published “The Experience Revolution” report looked at why marketers are launching digital CX campaigns and how customers are responding to their initiatives. The study found that executives believe digital CX can improve their ability to quickly service customers, data capture capabilities, customer insights, and the ability to solve customer problems.

While 63 percent of Millennials are “excited” to see how companies will use digital CX technologies, only 48 percent of Generation X said the same. In addition, just 39 percent of Baby Boomers said they were excited.

The report indicated that a lack of awareness of digital CX technology may be to blame for the results. For example, 49 percent of Baby Boomers claimed that they were not familiar with digital CX features that allow them to interact with a computer, robot or device via voice command, and more than 35 percent of Gen Xers said the same.

“Baby Boomers, more so than others, often don’t even know companies are launching these digital CX initiatives,” wrote the authors of the report. “Millennials, on the other hand, are far more tuned in to the innovations companies are introducing to make engagement more digital.”

Age Divisions and Digital Marketing

The age divide does not only impact the results seen among customers but marketers as well. In the “From Main Street to Madison Avenue: Millennials Disrupting the 50 Year-Old Balance of Marketing Power” report from Magisto, data showed that Millennial marketers at small businesses spend 58 percent of their budget on digital media. In comparison, just 14 percent of Baby Boomers do the same.

“In contrast to long-winded planning and creative cycles and monolithic ad campaigns, millennials are agile,” wrote the authors of the report. “They have adopted Silicon Valley’s ‘failing fast’ mantra as the core to doing business and the best way to build products, brands and marketing campaigns.”