1) Value
o Do your staff know of the value and importance of your maturing customer?
o How are your customers made to feel welcome and valued?
o Do your staff hold negative stereotypes of aging?
o Watch your assumptions that older person may have created the original user
manuals for that computer you are using!
2) Inter-action
o Have your staff been trained in how to communicate effectively with
different age groups?
o Do your staff maintain eye-contact?
o Are your staff interested in providing solutions for your customers?
o Do your staff take extra time if needed?
o Do your staff address your customers as they want to be addressed?
o Do your staff speak directly to a customer, or do they speak through a
spouse, or caregiver?
o Do your staff assume cognitive decline in older persons?
3) Respond to Key Issues and Concerns
For professionals serving the Boomer and Senior markets, do you understand the
communication strategies, values, and concerns that will resonate?
For instance Boomers are and will continue to re-define what retirement is
all about! The Japanese call it Second Life and the French call it Third Age.
These life stages are defined by life transitions, not simply by whether or
not someone continues to work for money. It is about meaning and lifestyle.
Speaking someones emotional language we buy emotionally and justify logically
but why do we still provide specifications before we make the hart connection?
Do you know what crystallized thinking is and how to work around this with
your clients?
Do you respond to Boomer stereotypes do you think that all Boomers are into
extreme sports, in debt, and only concerned about themselves???
What about caregiving? Many boomers are working, raising teenagers and
looking after aging parents does your business offer solutions without adding
more stress and hassles?
