Businesses today face a unique challenge: four generations (Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials and Gen Z) interacting as colleagues and customers, each with distinct communication preferences. Understanding these preferences is crucial for workplace collaboration and customer engagement. This post explores how each generation prefers to communicate in professional settings and as consumers, backed by recent stats and how companies are adapting.
Generational Communication Preferences at a Glance
Research confirms clear generational splits in communication habits. Younger adults have grown up digital-first, often favoring quick messaging, while older audiences lean toward more traditional channels.
Text Messaging:
Millennials and Gen Z overwhelmingly prefer texting for quick exchanges. A Pew Research Center study found 72% of Millennials and Gen Z choose texting as their top method for work communication, compared to just 18% of Baby Boomers. In personal life, around 69–74% of Gen Z and Millennials rank text as their most-used way to connect, far higher than older generations. Additionally, younger people often see phone calls as intrusive or time-consuming with a 2024 survey reporting that 70% of 18–34 year-olds prefer text messages over voice calls, and a quarter of them said they never answer calls at all.
Email:
Email remains a staple across all ages, but especially for older professionals. Email is the top communication channel for 58% of Baby Boomers when interacting with brands, reflecting their comfort with more formal, long-form communication. In fact, 95% of Boomers use email in their personal lives, and many carry those habits into work. Younger generations use email, too, often as a secondary channel but are generally less email-dependent for casual conversations. They lean towards email for work tasks, shopping receipts or account verification rather than chatting with friends. For instance, one study noted Gen Z and Millennials are far less likely to email friends and family (only 29–35% do), whereas 63% of Boomers still email loved ones regularly. Gen X may prefer email because it allows them to be efficient and respectful of other people’s time.
Phone Calls and Voicemail:
Baby Boomers and Gen X grew up using the telephone and often still value speaking live. They are comfortable with phone calls and in-person meetings. In contrast, younger generations can find phone calls anxiety-provoking or inefficient, thinking, “this could have been a text or email.” A U.K. survey revealed that many under-35-year-olds keep their phones on silent and screen calls, citing calls as disruptive to their workflow. In that survey, one Boomer business owner observed his Gen Z employees “rarely respond to phone calls” and often divert them. He noticed “a visible communication gap” and adapted by texting his younger staff since “if employees are more comfortable with texts, then it’s my responsibility to respect that choice.” Even in customer settings, phone calls are still used for urgent issues by all generations, but younger customers may only call as a last resort. Notably, voicemail usage is plummeting as many Millennials and Gen Z simply don’t listen to them, expecting a text or email follow-up instead.
Social Media and Instant Messaging:
Instant messaging and social platforms are second nature to Millennials and Gen Z. They often prefer the informality of chat apps like Slack and Microsoft Teams for quick workplace questions and use social media direct messages or brand accounts to engage with companies. More than 60% of TikTok’s users are Gen Z, and this generation is most likely to interact with brands on that app. Millennials similarly embrace platforms like YouTube, TikTok and Instagram for customer service inquiries or peer recommendations. Other generations use social media, too, but typically not as their primary channel for serious communications. Although Gen X has become very active on social media, even more so than Millennials in some reports, they may still default to email or phone for business matters.
Adapting to Generational Consumer Preferences
Just as employees span generations, so do customers, and businesses are learning to meet each group on its preferred channel. A one-size-fits-all communication strategy no longer works for customer service or marketing. Instead, business leaders are adopting an omnichannel approach to be present on the channels each generation favors without neglecting the others.
Email and phone remain staples for customer communications. Baby Boomers, in particular, are responsive to email newsletters, detailed product information and phone support. A marketing survey noted that among the generation, email is the top channel for brand communications for a majority (58%) of respondents. Gen Xers still appreciate the assurance of a phone conversation for complex issues, and when a matter is urgent or sensitive, consumers of all ages tend to pick up the phone to get help. That said, all generations have grown more digitally savvy over time.
Younger consumers are pushing businesses toward texting, live chat and social media interactions. These digital natives expect on-demand support and quick answers and may bypass email support altogether in favor of a chat widget or text message. According to a consumer survey, Gen Z and Millennial consumers want almost 70% of their interactions with brands to be digital. However, older generations also appreciate the speed and ease of texting with more than half of Boomers (age 54+) and an equal share of Gen Z (53% of each group) saying receiving marketing texts from brands is useful. And when it comes to engagement, clicking or responding to those messages, Baby Boomers (42%) and Gen Z (43%) were the most likely to engage with branded text, outpacing Gen X and Millennials.
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