Who are the digital natives? Does such a term really exist?
Mark Prensky in his article “On
There is still debate around the term:primarily because of the age discrimination that has arisen as a result of such a distinction. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology cites a 2017 study in which scientists concluded that there is no significant difference between millennials and the older generation in terms of their skills in using technology. Young people's exposure, experience and comfort in using technology is far from homogeneous, and factors such as socioeconomic status are much more likely to influence digital skills than age.
Even Mark Prensky himself, who also coined the term "digital immigrant" (a person born before the digital revolution - approx. "Hi-tech"), believes that people took this division too literally.
However, in Tecnopedia, the term "digital native" has been fixed for several years. True, they nevertheless decided to move away from the generational interpretation, preferring to focus on the skills of a person.
So, a digital native is a person bornafter the widespread use of digital technologies. The term does not refer to a specific generation. Instead, they are a universal category of people who grew up using technologies such as the internet, computers, and mobile devices. It is believed that exposure to technology in the first years of life gives digital natives a better understanding of them and an advantage over digital immigrants.
What skills define digital natives? Do they perceive reality differently?
Prensky argues that being born at a certainera does not at all mean that a person becomes a digital native from the first years of life. Familiarity with technology does not equate to the ability to use it. Research shows that not all young people are tech savvy or even interested in learning more about it. Nevertheless, numerous surveys on digital adaptation prove that it is precisely representatives of the so-called zoomer generation who are able to master new technologies faster than older generations.
Experts agree that certain features of perception and communication among digital natives still exist. They have a key influence on how the communication market is changing.
So, what distinguishes a digital native from an immigrant:
These skills have also changed the way (as well as the requirements for) communication of digital natives:
It turns out that Prensky is still at the beginning of the 2000s.predicted a paradigm shift in business-to-customer communication. And here, of course, we are talking not just about the implementation of digital services and automation, but about the seamlessness of communication.
Today, omnichannel (namely, this principleincludes all of the above) becomes the standard and hygiene of online and offline communication with the client. But this is what the digital native himself sees. Behind this is the work to deploy systems and algorithms that allow you to process any incoming information, classify it, analyze and communicate with the client, MegaFon notes. And it is desirable that all this be embodied in a single window.
So, in order to communicate with digital natives, you need omnichannel?
According to the Huffington Post, the term "digitalAboriginal" is actively used by companies to form a new approach to communication with clients. It is based on two concepts: digital literacy and omnichannel.
Omnichannel means complete seamlessnesscommunication: the user can write to the company - on social networks, instant messenger or via SMS, and the company accumulates all this in one place, processes it and then sends it for a decision.
Misunderstanding of the needs of the target audience leads to a drop in key indicators, a negative reputation arises in the network and the effectiveness of communication channels decreases
Let us dwell on this in more detail, sincea seamless approach to communications has not only become a new standard, but also shows the level of technological equipment of the company. But here we must make a reservation: this is not always difficult from the point of view of implementation and use, and does not mean a global restructuring of business processes. You can implement a boxed solution based on the existing infrastructure, as offered by MegaFon. Why is this important to note: because, despite the abundance of publications that talk about the “digital hygiene” of communication with the client and the imperative of omnichannel, many businesses, especially those far from IT, think that this is just an additional function, without which they will cope just fine with the help of a regular call center operator or SMM manager. Unfortunately, their consumers have a different opinion. As a result of such a misunderstanding of the needs of the target audience, key indicators drop, a negative reputation arises in the network and the effectiveness of communication channels decreases.
How are omnichannel services organized?
In essence, the omnichannel system is software,allowing to organize communication between clients and business, as well as to integrate information systems and telephony of the company in a single window. This facilitates the work of the contact center operator with data arrays.
Absolutely all incoming messages and callsstored in the system database (DB). Short voice messages are processed by an external speech recognition service, and the resulting text is also sent to the database. Voice transcription uses natural language processing algorithms based on neural networks.
Of course, an important function in omnichannelis synchronization, because the same client can write a message in any of the channels available to him, and maybe in all at once. Therefore, the system saves all possible information for each person (phone numbers, email, etc.) and combines it into a common history. In other words, whether the client called or wrote to WhatsApp, all his messages will be displayed in the database and visible to the operator. In addition, all personal data of customers remains protected, in accordance with modern standards.
Receiving a message from an unknown address or fromperson, the contact center operator during the dialogue can clarify who is applying, find the corresponding client and attach his appeal to a single story. For a new client, accordingly, a card is created in the database.
But such integration raises concerns amongbusiness: will the information be sufficiently commercially protected, who exactly will have access to it. Current off-the-shelf solutions and custom developments are fully deployed in the customer’s infrastructure, which means that information will be protected as much as the IT architecture of the business allows. For example, when exchanging data with text channels (Telegram, Viber), a secure network connection is used.
Because even in this case, with informationthe operator is working, the human factor must be minimized. This means, in addition to high-quality information processing, omnichannel communication systems provide for transparent control over the operator’s work, assessment of the quality of his work and the presence of supervisors.
As for the work of the operator himselfcontact center, then, unlike retro telephone centers, a modern employee has a convenient single window interface that allows him to process a huge amount of information per shift, operate all communication channels at once, and also solve the client's problem at once. The system allows you to switch between business applications in one click, and a single window controls the positioning of windows so that the operator is comfortable and most efficient.
If omnichannel is so effective, what results does it lead to?
According to the data provided to us by PJSCMegaFon, the introduction of omnichannel communication systems made it possible to reduce customer service time by 30% in one of the Russian energy supply companies. On the contrary, the quality of service has increased: clients rated it 4.8 out of 5. Of course, automation could not be avoided: about 20–30% of requests received in instant messengers were processed by a robot. This means that the client received an adequate response, and not just an unsubscribe from the chatbot.
The problem of "transferring a client to an operator" is solveda simple function: the client can immediately say or write that he does not want his question to be solved by a chat bot or voice assistant. Then the company's specialist seamlessly enters into the dialogue. A similar approach is applied to conflict situations when the client who applied is dissatisfied with how the issue is resolved using algorithms. As a result, the level of customer service Service Level shows an increase of up to 15%.
Voice assistants increase customer service levels by 15%
In case of voice interaction, ifalgorithms cannot understand the diction of the caller, they will transfer the call to a specialist, and he, according to the instructions, will make sure that the client does not feel irritated by repeating all the information. The number of lost calls is also reduced: Lost Call Rate in the banking sector can be reduced by 40% by optimizing the load on the operator.
For business, omnichannel systems are alsothe opportunity to increase employee efficiency: specialists can be transferred to busier communication channels by giving simple requests to robots. You can also engage customers through more interactive channels, such as pop-up chats on your website instead of calling call centers.
If all this is implemented, will digital natives be more willing to apply for a service / product?
Definitely yes.A company that takes into account the needs of a digital native not only deserves trust, but also gains its loyalty: online communication for such clients is often more important than the quality of a service or product.
For a business that is not even related to IT, the implementationAn omnichannel system does not mean a headache for its maintenance, but for its client it is not a know-how or an innovation, it is a communication standard: without borders, a fixed working day and formalities.
But if clients are not digital natives, then what? Can you do it the old fashioned way?
You still need omnichannel.Mark Prensky believes that digital immigrants are no less inclined to use IT, it just takes them a little more effort to master or use it, it is less natural for them. Therefore, communication methods should be configured in such a way as to “injure” an uncertain user as little as possible. Once having received an unsatisfactory response from a “cold-blooded” chatbot, the client may no longer return to this communication channel. It is not for nothing that many large IT companies are launching call centers for a more adult audience after the fact as an alternative to mobile applications. However, omnichannel systems allow the introduction of telephony and digital communication, responding to the needs of both digital natives and immigrants at the same time.
To sum up: how to communicate with digital natives?
The most important thing in communication with digitalnatives means not to miss their requests and to open all possible channels of communication for them. Efficiency plays a significant role in building a strategy, so it is important for businesses to automate the processing of messages from customers as much as possible and optimize the load on contact center operators. Special work should be done to train the algorithms of chatbots and voice assistants: they should not annoy the client or be the only form of communication. And the transition between communication channels and “chatbot - operator” should be absolutely seamless. A digital native becomes so accustomed to technology that he is not ready to notice it. Therefore, the more organically the communication with him is built, the more loyal he will be to the business.
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