But what do I do without my cell phone? Go outside and play?

We're through the second day of the 2011 NACCM conference and a major sticking point came during lunch through candid conversation. Now at our table, whilst picking over our salads, fellow attendees were discussing our "Generation Z", the people who will be handed the reigns, describing them as possibly apathetic (in so many words). When I say "apathetic" I may be too harsh in translating their words. But when they look at this generation they see young people with their noses, and 90% of their attention, stuck in their hand-held devices. The concern related to customer support is that they won't have that classic smile, hand shake, greeting, etc. that's been so intregal to the customer experience. What we see is customer experience changing forms.

Judy Ferrell from Verizon expressed at yesterday's loyalty summit the importance of making an online support presence highly available and easy to use. A vital aspect of her site is a forum, with a great deal of material and assistance that's provided by users themselves. Of course not all users are contributors to this type of resource. But to search a forum for help on issues, or Google a product for user-submitted reviews, is proof that our younger generation does care. They just show it differently. So should these technological dependencies bring about a need for us to worry about the future of support? Or should we embrace these transformations and harness what it offers? Or both?

Your friendly guest blogger,

Chris Black

Director, Customer Support and Rollout

SalesQuest