I was recently in a retailer and witnessed a young sales assistant helping a customer, who I estimate to be in her early 70’s. Not only did the retail worker overtly assume the woman was ‘shopping for her granddaughter’ (which she wasn’t – eek), she was borderline shouting at her, seemingly assuming she had a hearing issue.
As this situation unfolded, it was hard to watch. The young sales assistant was oblivious to how uncomfortable and embarrassed she was making her mature-aged customer feel. The woman left the store empty-handed and I was left feeling sad about what I’d witnessed.
Not just sad for the customer, but for the business that had probably just lost a sale because of something I refer to as ‘the danger of the disconnect’; a situation where generational gaps create misunderstandings, assumptions and a misalignment in the customer experience.
And I get it – as a retailer who employs young team members serving mature-aged customers, I have been witness to this dynamic in my own business. But I also know how to bridge the gap.
With training. Training, training and more training. If we fail to educate our teams and give them the tools, understanding and techniques to engage consumers of all ages and demographics, we can’t expect them to interact with customers in an educated way.
With the generational divide potentially widening as consumers live longer, now is the time to invest in training your teams. The future of your business could depend on it.
