Are you ready for Generation Z?
When I say, I been working within estate agency since the last century, it makes me feel old but it does help me make my point.
Having had a successful career to date, I have prided myself on understanding the customer. I understand segmentation and pride myself on making decisions based on the fact that every customer is different.
If I have made one mistake it’s that I have made business decisions based on my own generational values. After all my generation is from the middle of the last century. My generation like the buying experience and like to be made special and we are prepared to pay extra for a good experience.
Then came the millennials came along and want it all, now and for free.
The best way to demonstrate this is looking at how the way we buy music has changed. I enjoyed flicking through racks of Vinyl in some backstreet record store that I was never really cool enough to be in. Then sliding the record out of the sleeve: magic. I was prepared to pay almost £6.00 for the experience. A decent amount of money back in 1981.
The millennials (Born between 1982 and 2000) are happy to miss the whole experience in order to spend a few minutes searching the internet for a piece of music for free.
We both end up with the music we wanted but the experience and cost were hugely different.
If you look at the rise of the internet estate agent you will see that the 1st millennials are now 35 years of age. The perfect age for a vendor, especially a First Time Seller. The High Street agent is still trying to satisfy my generations need for a pleasant experience.
The Millennials want communication on line, their questions answered and a speedy, cheap transaction (Free if possible).
So, is it too late to change. No, no and no because coming up behind the Millennials is the new and shiny Generation Z. To survive, agents must change.
Similar to the Millennials, Generation Z want it all now. However, they will see the value in a brand that will identify their issue and resolve it quickly and are prepared to pay more for this, what my generation call service.
To show “Traditional” agents how to change and effectively work with both the millennials, we will be running a series of regional seminars, delivered by estate agents with the support of some great “Tech” companies.
To find out more take a look at http://www.nigelstephens.com/agent-2-0
By Nigel Stephens.
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