Lehi, Utah—June 14, 2018 —“Spend, Borrow, Save,” a financial habits poll recently completed by MaritzCX, showed the top financial concerns spanning four generations. The majority of survey respondents across each generation said their top concerns were having enough savings for retirement and needing help with budgeting.
The generational study encompassed 1,500 respondents comprised of 600 non-fulltime student Millennials living on their own, 300 Gen Xers, 300 Baby Boomers and 300 in the Silent Generation.
All generations express concern about having enough savings for retirement as well as needing help with budgeting, according to the study. Uncertainty regarding how much is enough retirement savings is likely attributable to a fundamental shift from pensions and relatively few self-funded plans among older generations to the reverse of primarily self-funded 401k and IRA retirement plans for those currently in the workforce.
More than half of Millennial and Gen X generations are unsure how much they’ll need to invest for retirement. Fueling this uncertainty, more than 70% of respondents in these generations are worried that Social Security won’t have any money when they are ready to retire. The result, more than 60% of Millennials and Gen X worry they will need to continue working to pay bills rather than retire full time.
The concern about having enough savings decreases with age but does not disappear. While nearly half of Baby Boomers and nearly 90% of Silent Generation have retired, almost half of those still working are not sure that they can save enough to retire.
To address this concern, the majority in every generation does want help with their investment and retirement goals. Eighty-two percent of Millennials and 76 percent of Gen Xers had interest in getting help with investing. While interest was lower in older generations, the majority of Baby Boomers, 69%, and Silent Generation, 53%, expressed interest.
And when selecting an investment firm or traditional bank for help, both reputation and customer experience (CX) matter.
“Across every industry, CX is playing a significant role as a differentiator in acquiring and maintaining customers,” said Aaron Fransen, vice president financial services at MaritzCX. “When navigating complex and challenging pursuits, such as budgeting and understanding retirement saving needs, the stakes are even higher. CX is shown to be a main differentiator for customer selection, satisfaction and staying with a financial services firm.”
When choosing a firm for help with investing, 71% of Millennials cited CX as extremely or very important, as did 66% of Gen X, 80% of Baby Boomers and 79% in the Silent Generation.
The CX attributes measured in the poll included value, convenience, customer service and innovation. The findings showed the majority of respondents in every generation do not see any firms where their CX offerings differentiate themselves.
“With a majority of every generation giving customer experience consideration when selecting an Investment firm, those firms that can deliver on CX expectations stand to position themselves to attract multi-generational customers seeking help saving and investing for retirement.”
About MaritzCX
MaritzCX is customer experience (CX) management for big business. High-value CX programs are critical for every organization. We combine CX software, data and research science, deep vertical market expertise, and managed program services to help accelerate client success. CX programs that are most impactful drive the right kind of actions throughout the company and support a strong business case. MaritzCX seeks to partner with companies that insist on effective and high-ROI CX. Our customers include global brands from the Automotive, Financial Services, Travel & Hospitality, Consumer Technology, Telecom, Retail, B2B, Energy and Utilities industries.
