OPINION Gutierrez: Building lifelong relationships with Generation Z

Håfa Adai! They say it’s costlier to convert a new customer than it is to keep one who’s already hooked. And that’s probably still true.

But today, the realm of global commerce from north to south and east to west is ruled by fingertip selection and instant gratification. And it’s driven by a restless, come-of-age generation whose radar is always sweeping for the most rewarding customer experiences their money can buy.

This long-term trend reverberates through every line of business and has special implications for the visitor industry.

Whether your operation sells products, services, or even a bit of both, you may have noticed that younger customers tend to want it all. High quality is the bare minimum acceptable to them, and personalized attention is not only the new standard but also a key to piquing interest and keeping up-and-comers satisfied with your brand.

But wait. There’s more on their list of demands. This rising generation also wants to know that you’re treating your workers well and protecting the environment.

And you’ll probably earn even deeper respect if you and your brand can show them proof of the ways you give back to the community through volunteerism, impactful monetary donations or in-kind contributions, perhaps even through historical, cultural, or ecological preservation. Take note. They keep tabs.

In other words, they want to know you’re making an uplifting difference in the community that patronizes whatever you sell for profit. And they will remember this when it comes time to make a purchasing decision.

Who are these people?

Make no mistake. A lot of shoppers born between 1995 and 2012 are hair-trigger ready to bounce off your patronage list and onto greener pastures while playing the Pied Piper unless you’re giving these “Centennials” all the right reasons to click with your brand and stick with it.

They don’t hold back from reporting their experiences on social media or in public chat rooms, whether your brand fell short or saved the day.

This bleeding-edge digerati, the same kids who grew up showing us how to use our own digital devices, are now old enough to earn, save, spend, drive, fly, cruise, drink, and cast ballots.

Even more critically, they think for themselves, vote with their money, and propel the customer relationship management trends that tend to raise all of our expectations as consumers, regardless of age.

Generation Z knows how to use digital tools to rake up the best possible value while they shop around for the items and experiences that align most closely with the sustainability clauses that seem hardwired into their collective conscience.

And their power is compounded by the fact that they relish running in packs. They treasure sharing new experiences with friends and family not just on social media but in person, creating team wins and good memories.

And they love it when you blow their minds with intrigue. They tend to enjoy surprises, especially if those novel insights challenge them to be better people.

To understand their motives, it helps to remember who their parents are: the highly educated, entrepreneurial and flexible Millennials and the skeptical, authority-challenging latchkey kids known as Generation X, who taught themselves independence and whose own “Boomer” and “Silent Generation” parents often worked away from home.

Because short-term Centennial decisions have long-term consequences, your business better be ready to meet or beat Generation Z’s expectations, or else. Failure to hit the mark makes any customer on your data list liable to fly the coop.

Entitled, yet somehow not so selfish

All this posturing seems a little self-centered, doesn’t it? But is it really? Or has the generation now learning to become responsible adults always been right about the important things the rest of us got wrong?

And is it a blessing or a curse that they feel like they and their altruistic priorities deserve to be respected and heard?

Generation Z is entrepreneurial for substantive reasons grounded in a yearning for stability, sustainability, and self-control.

Consider the generational experiences, beliefs, and values that drive Centennial behavior.

Centennials have grown up in an era of socioeconomic volatility marked by upheaval beyond their control:

• The massive outflow of capital from Asian markets in the mid-to-late 1990s.
• The U.S. housing crisis built on the toxic mortgages of the mid-to-late 2000s.
• The Occupy Wall Street and cryptocurrency backlashes that soon followed.
• Endless warfare.
• The pandemic of 2020.

It’s been a time of ruinous profiteering, climate crisis, extreme weather, and scorched-earth wildfires; of violent culture wars and virulent political divisiveness.

Then COVID hit and killed jobs, clogged logistics, shut down international travel, and prompted the government to spend trillions of dollars in high-inflation bailouts.

Global challenges have forced Centennials to be resourceful with their time, money, digital technology, health, and personal capabilities.

Is it any wonder that Centennials want to take matters into their own hands and do things their own way? So, they can save and invest while they build and run responsible small businesses that they can nurture along the path to good corporate citizenship?

Gen Z has a strong sense that whatever’s good for one must also be good for all, whether they’re buying your products and services or selling you theirs.

They are driving sales-and-purchasing trends now and are the future of business worldwide. Better join them now or get beaten to the punch by businesses that respond to the consumer priorities championed by today’s Centennials.

The prevailing economic environment has kept Generation Z on the ready to trade their talents quickly for money, so they can assert control over their own lives in the midst of the whirling chaos.

And their adroitness online renders their supreme digital skills priceless in a world commanded from the top by aging Boomers who are scrambling to optimize operations for machine learning, artificial intelligence, automated scaling, ever-increasing speed, blockchain recordation, and Web 3-era privacy on a global scale.

With digital tools allowing people to produce penetrating and expansive results from anywhere on earth, is it any wonder why CEOs have given in to worker demands for remote work and flex time?

When you’re scaling your business up for future success in an increasingly digitized world begging for navigators who were weaned on glass screens before they took their first steps, who’s best equipped among those of working age but the youngest of the qualified labor force?

A few more things to keep in mind while you’re thinking long-term about how to adjust your operations to changing demands as tourism rebounds from COVID and Typhoon Mawar.

Members of Gen Z are naturally frugal savers, choosy spenders, and protective of their personal downtime.

Even though they embrace social networking online, they take steps to secure their data and protect their privacy.

Credible assurances that cybersecurity infrastructures are protecting their browsing and purchasing data during online interactions and transactions are paramount.

Centennials lean into travel and are likely to spend more of their hard-earned pay on unique experiences and less on luxury.

So, if you’re in the optional tour business, don’t be afraid to spice things up in a safe but adventurous way. A taste of culture shock has its appeal.

If you sell finished goods, consider how your products can enhance the experiential value of the tourist adventure.

Nowadays, businesses of all sizes are running out of excuses to be anything but sellers of extraordinary value in comparison to ages past:

(1) Now that purchasing decisions and customer rewards programs are digital, highly sought-after, and eagerly used by discriminating spenders

(2) Now that transactions and rewards points move at the light speed of our touchscreens

(3) Now that we constantly interact with nonstop digital data, day and night

(4) Now that selection is squarely in the hands of digital interfacers

(5) And now that everyone and their mother is an accidental 24/7 shopper scouring the Internet for ideas and entertainment while being saturated with ad-rich media content.

Such is the domain of the digerati.

Notes on the Centennial personality

• Entitled in a way that no prior generation has ever been
• Socially fluid
• Justice crusaders who vote with their digital wallets
• Entrepreneurial
• Value independence and self-sufficiency
• Attracted to opportunities for proprietorship and self-employment

We’re eager to please the relentless digerati

Indeed, Gen Z-ers’ ability to navigate cyberspace puts them in command of top-flight customer service while they rack up extras along the way. Their contemporary patronage is the gold standard leading consumers of all ages today.

The quicker we learn from them and begin to meet and exceed their expectations as powerful customers and conscientious workers, the better off our businesses will be.

Now is the best time to nurture lifelong relationships with Gen Z and their families. Post-COVID Destination Guam is “starting over” just as Centennials are “starting out” as young adults who aren’t afraid to hop aboard new adventures.

With affordable access to an expanding market of low-cost air carriers, Gen Z considers travel both a personal right and a rite of passage, not just a privilege. And the promise this holds for making travel a lifelong priority is priceless for businesses that are willing to change with the times.