Surface Ripples

A “Tech Free” Generation?

As apps and websites become increasingly become the tool of choice for delivering products and services, one issue has become obvious. 

This is that there is still a generation “out there” that are not as tech friendly as others. Most people have embraced technology, the internet and other online delivery and consumption channels (particularly the “young generation”), but I feel that there is still a non-tech generation out there.

Some of these will be simply those who do not have access to the internet (and this group exists!)

However, there also remains the generation that some kindly describe as “technophobes”.  Often, these can be found in the older generation who, quite simply, see little point in what to them may be “modern technology”. 

I was fortunate enough to work with some of this group for a very short time and found that it was not so much a question of being scared of technology (although this group definitely exists also!), but more that they didn’t see the point of it.  As soon as you could demonstrate a use that benefitted them, people generally tended to be more interested in learning how to use it.

One episode concerned, trying to interest a group of prospective “silver surfers” in what the internet could do for them. Once they had seen that it could be used for a number of projects near to their hearts, they were “on-board and wanted to learn.

Others may be happy with using a limited amount of technology, but otherwise will simply stop there.

The problem I notice is that more and more, institutions are requiring customers to use apps or websites to access services. They are missing out (or forgetting) a generation of customers who see little point in such services if they are still delivered face-to-face.

Give it another 20 to 30 years and the “technophobe generation” will be all but gone. In the same time span, internet penetration may have spread to more of the groups that are not, as yet, online. My feeling is that businesses and governments will still need to cater for those who are not yet online or “internet savvy”. However, by 2050, I suspect that the “technophobe” generation will all but have disappeared.

I’ve spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management.  I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email. My website provides a full picture of my portfolio of services.  For strategic questions that you should be asking yourself, follow me at @wkm610.

Labels: Customer Care, Selling, Strategy

posted by William Martin @ 17:04