Move Over Millennials, There’s a New Gen in Town

… social consciousness is front and center. They’re hyper-aware of income inequality, inferior treatment of minority groups and their own carbon footprints. There’s a current pending U.S. Supreme Court case where 21 young Gen Zers are suing the federal government over lack of action on climate change, for Pete’s sake.

Combine this with their social media savvy, and it’s a formula for a brave new world. Since birth, these influencers have lived their lives just as much in their online communities as their real ones, and they do their buying research by reading user reviews and forum threads. You cannot hide from social, and the more you ignore it, the further behind you’re going to fail. First of all, start devoting some real thought to your social media efforts if you haven’t already. And secondly, consider making your MSP stand for something larger than the generic “trusted adviser” line. Be specific. Maybe you’ve got equality and inclusion initiatives in place, you offer discounted services to firms with low carbon footprints or you’re heavily involved in your community. Then publicize the heck out of that on social.

The Tech Geek of 2000 Is Just the Regular Teen of Today

This generation has no idea what an offline world looks like. They’re social media natives. Their lives are lived at least as much digitally as they are physically. They’re naturally more digitally savvy than even millennials ever dreamed of being. They’re issued laptops instead of textbooks. As teens, we talked on the phone for hours. These guys prefer Snapchat and texting. They can install software at insanely early ages and were born into a world when everything is available on demand.

If you’re not on the front lines of bleeding-edge tech, they’re going to know it. And they’re going to care. Maybe not all of them will be able to craft advanced service offerings themselves, but they’ll all be able to recognize it when MSPs are phoning it in with the same old IT infrastructure packages they’ve offered for the last decade.

Keep up, partners.

Mobile First, Mobile Forever

Recall our “iGeneration” reference earlier? There’s good reason they’ve got this nickname. 

What does that mean for your marketing and sales operations? No matter what it takes, make sure your websites are mobile responsive. According to a recent study by the National Retail Federation and IBM’s Institute for Business Value, almost half of Gen Z members surveyed said the most important thing to their shopping experience is the ability to find things quickly, and more than 60 percent say they won’t use apps or websites that are slow or difficult to navigate.

This impacts your service offerings, too. Don’t even think about going with a solution provider that can’t offer you a mobile version of that “single pane of glass” everyone has bragged about for the last five years.

This all might sound daunting, but if you’ve done what you should have already and configured your business around the millennial buyer, then you’ve got a great start. Just remember, there’s no sitting pretty with Gen Z. The moment you’ve decided you’re savvy enough is the exact moment some 19 year old somewhere is creating something designed to put you out of business.