How Millennials are Paying it Forward to Other Generations

How the younger generations will influence the future is a perennial question across industries. I see some of their impact up close with Millennials of my own, and whether you know it or not, they’ve already had a hand in shaping some of the things we’ve come to rely on in financial services.

Recently I was invited to speak at the inaugural Fortune Brainstorm Finance event, which brought together established firms with fintechs, to discuss what’s driving innovation in finance.

It didn’t take long for a common theme to emerge on the future of finance: the connected consumer.

In truth, it’s the connected person. But when you’re CEO of a financial services company built to power partners in the retail, home, auto, and healthcare spaces, you get conditioned to think in terms of the consumer.

We are all consumers, choosing where to spend our time and money. We choose to align with companies that match our values and the causes in which we believe. And the different generations living and working together inform each other -- and the market – on what works and what doesn’t.

There are lots of myths (and some facts) in the market about what Millennials like and don’t like when it comes to financial services. However, one thing is clear: Millennials are helping companies think differently about the design of financial services and as a result, we have them to thank for several advances. Some of these include:

*  The power of mobile – Millennials, and all those who come after, are mobile-centric. If they didn’t grow up with a cell phone from childhood, they soon had one. As our digital Swiss Army Knife, the financial industry had to harness this tool to serve not just those constituents, but Generation X and Boomers as well, who quickly adopted the technology. This continued emphasis on mobile technology across industries is a reaction to younger generations reliance on their smartphones, but we are all benefactors.

*  Apps – The 2018 Synchrony Digital Study showed that consumers were using twice as many apps as they had been the previous year. To help merchants meet the rising demand, Synchrony offers SyPI – a mobile plug-in that integrates payments, discounts, and loyalty into one app. All of us in the banking/financial services space should keep experimenting with this kind of thinking.

*  Subscription services – It’s been heavily documented that the younger generations are driving demand for subscription services. In May, Yahoo Finance reported that 38% of Millennials plan to start a new subscription services within six months. And there’s still more opportunity specifically for banks as research shows Millennials – and ostensibly Gen-Zers – would be open to getting bundles of nonfinancial products from their banks; think identity theft protection, prescription discounts, roadside assistance, and cell phone protection, amongst others.

These trends inform every company on how to compete for business, but underlying it all is creating a great customer experience. Some ways to maximize the mobile-centric world include:

*  Omnichannel –Mobile phones integrate on- and off-line commerce, which makes for a better customer service experience; that’s true whether you’re looking for merchandise or trying to lodge a complaint.

*  POS makeover – the point-of-sale experience is being completely transformed by mobile technology. At Synchrony, we think in terms of “apply, buy, pay.” The first step is making the application process easy, as we’ve done with digital apply, or D-apply, which reduces the number of fields a customer fills out from 15 to three; then we allow for a frictionless purchase; and finally, we can enable mobile bill pay.

*  Personalization – it’s no secret that customers want personalized attention and offers from the companies with which they do business. Mobile phones have the power to serve this up now and to provide a way for further personalization in the future. For example, as new ways to leverage Bluetooth are created, consumers will be well positioned to take advantage of the technology, given that mobile is already such an integral part of their lives.

Whether you’re ready or not, life will only get more connected. According to Cisco, there will be 28.5 billion networked devices by 2022, up from 18 billion in 2017. That same report says that globally, between the same time frame, mobile traffic specifically will increase sevenfold. How are you going to provide value to customers of all ages through this device?