Gen Z customer service is killing the high street and driving customers to online shopping, a UK journalist has claimed.
In her latest column, Rhiannon Picton-James claimed that the ongoing fall in customer satisfaction in high street shops is linked to Gen Z’s arrival to the workforce.
She said many young people lack a basic willingness to work, with eye rolls and a lack of interest in assisting customers now par for the course in many shops and cafés.
On Newstalk Breakfast said the young generation’s lack of proper "social skills" mean many are unable to offer proper customer service.
"I think the issue is that they're the online generation," Ms Picton-James said.
"Their experience has been defined by the digital age, and I think their communication skills are lacking."
"It feels a bit like you're babysitting someone else's kids," she added.
"I've gone into these shops and no one knows how to help you. There's no basic willingness to do anything - it's just an eye roll and 'go and look for yourself'."
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Basic willingness
As a millennial born in the 90s, Ms Picton-James said she believes Gen Z workers lack a "basic willingness" to actually "do anything".
In her article, Ms Picton-James said she was met with terrible customer service on a recent trip to Clarks shoe shop in the UK.
The journalist needed to buy her young child her first pair of school shoes and turned to a well recognised brand for an in-store experience.
After being met with eye-rolls, a lack of help finding shoes in her daughter's size, and generally rude staff, she left the store to buy the shoes online.
"I would say there are some great young people but they are not working in Clarks," Ms Picton-James said.
"The data actually shows that 80% of customers are abandoning their trips and buying online because of how bad the experience they are getting in stores is these days."
The positive
Turning to the positive, Ms Picton-James said she does admire the generation's attitude towards office work.
"I know that they don't take emails on their work phones, they don't take calls after business hours, and they're really pushing back with a lot of office culture," she said.
"I think that's great.
"I think when it enters the High Street and it starts affecting customers, which we know it is, then it's a problem."
The journalist said that she doesn't think poor customer service skills can be true of "every single one of them", but that in general evidence shows that Gen Z's social skills are lacking.
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Shopping bags for high street fashion retailers Brown Thomas and Arnotts on the arm of a woman. 24/12/2021 Photograph: Leah Farrell / RollingNews.ie
