Generation Z is defined as people born between 1995 and 2015. Gen Z holds up to $143 billion in spending power, but they aren’t tied to a specific brand or product as they tend to not have brand loyalty like in previous generations. Their complete lack of experience in a pre-digital world is what sets Gen Z apart from Millennials. Most Gen Z'ers haven’t even started using financial products other than a bank account. For banking providers, attracting these young customers represents an opportunity to capture lucrative lifelong relationships. Understanding what makes Gen Z ticks is critical for financial services looking to cater to the younger demographic and build a suite of products, services, and tools that they’ll want to adopt. In this article, we’ll lay out the foundations to make your bank prepared for Gen Z.
How to prepare your bank for Gen Z
While most pundits like to group Gen Z and Millennials, Gen Z is turning out to be its own self and inheriting attitudes from older generations.
Banking Cafes
A recent CivicScience study on consumer’s uses of branches found that Gen Z is the heaviest user, often visiting branches several times a week. This rate is higher than Millennials and four times the rate of those older than 55. The study also finds that Gen Z is more apt to be daily users of their bank location due to the lack of zeroes they have in their bank account. Due to their daily or weekly visits to their branches, Gen Z overwhelmingly favors the idea of branches that have cafes inside, hold events, and host other activities- for example, Capital One Cafe's offer a hip new spin on branches of the past. “Taking into account free food and community, perhaps a free cup of coffee and the opportunity to buy a croissant — assuming all else is equal — might be all it would take for a bank to gain a young customer for life,” CivicScience concludes. [caption id="" align="alignnone"]
