DISPATCHING FOR MILLENNIALS

If you attempt to dispatch a Millennial for your profits, then you will have trouble on your hands. Millennials don’t value profits over a happy personal life.

This creates a challenge for the on-demand service company.

Prior to the millennial generation, there were 3 Golden Standards for Dispatching.

Before Millennials, the 3 Standards for Dispatching

1. First Come First Serve. In this method, a dispatcher schedules calls as they came into the office. This method is easy to manage. However, it limits profits.
2. Regional Dispatching. This method works well when your service company covers a large area. It limits road time. This leads to increased Technician Productivity. However, it leads to miss on profitable opportunities.
3. Dispatching Purely for Profits. This has been the Golden Standard for residential services companies since the proliferation of the flat rate business model. This method sends the best service tech or salesperson to the call that has the most potential for profit.

RELATED: The Best Dispatching Methods

The Challenge with Dispatching Purely for Profits

Life balance. This is the biggest challenge with dispatching purely for profits.

This method will have your best service techs and salespeople working long hours. It will focus their life on work, as opposed to a healthy life balance.  RELATED: Killing the Service Tech

Dispatching Purely for Profits means that your service techs have to be company and goal driven.

Consider this excerpt from a recent Gallup Poll:

29% of millennial workers are engaged in their jobs, while 25% of millennials are fully engaged customers. As employees and consumers, millennials’ engagement trails that of other generations.

This means that 71% of millennials are not going to be dispatched for YOUR Profit.

They don’t care, and will quit if you push them too hard.

Can You Do It Without the Millennial?

No. You can’t go into the future without the millennial team member. Sorry.

Millennials are the largest generation in American history. There 75.4 million Millennials today.

The Millennial generation also has the largest generational span. The first millennial was born in 1980, and the last was born in 2004.

• The first Millennial started working in 1996 at the age of 16.
• The last Millennial will retire in 2069 at the age of 65.
• The Millennial Generation will span over a 73-year work cycle.

Now, take this into consideration: most service techs come off their tools around the age of 50.

The service industry today is aging. I’ve heard that the average age of today’s service tech is 43.

That means the older generation will be moving into management, or new fields soon. Millennials will replace the previous generation.

The Millennial Mind

In order to Dispatch and Manage a Millennial, you most know what is important to a Millennial.

1. 55% of Millennials are not engaged in with “jobs.” But, they want to be engaged. They want to work for a company that has a goal greater than money. This is about culture, and purpose.
2. 87% of Millennials Want a Professional Development Plan. They see companies as responsible for their education and professional development after high school or college. The Millennial wants training, and wants a professional development plan.
3. 30 Hours is enough, 50 is Too Much. The Millennial values personal time and experience above pay and overtime.
4. Millennials are waiting on Marriage and Children. This limits their motivation. Many Millennials live at home well into their mid-twenties and early-thirties.

I’ve essentially laid out the argument that Millennials will not be controlled by your agenda.

This is a huge source of frustration for Service Company that has an On-Demand Nature.

So, how do you Dispatch Millennials in today’s Service World?

Here’s how you do it:

How to Dispatch for Millennials

1. Establish a Cultural Goal. Define “why” your company provides service. This must be beyond profit. It must be about contributing to a worthy cause. You’ll need this to keep the guys motivated when you demand some of their personal time.
2. Make Personal Time a High Priority. Your team wants experiences. If a Millennial has to choose between a dream vacation, and work. He’ll pick the vacation. Make it easy for your service techs and sales professionals to take advantage of life. This doesn’t mean that you create a culture of whimsy service professionals. It means you value their time.
3. Be Firm and Fair. The Millennial will work hard for you if there is respect. The Millennial will also push your boundaries to test them, and will respect you if you response is firm and fair.
4. Establish Time Boundaries In Advance. Accept that the Millennial doesn’t want to work lots of hours. The Millennial wants a schedule s/he can plan around. Discover the working hours in advance, and either build around it, or don’t hire the person.
5. Know Your Team Member Beyond the “Millennial” Label. I manage a team of 10 here at Service Excellence Training. 9 of us are older than the Millennial Generation. Chris Loudermilk is a Millennial. Chris is highly motivated. He’s not afraid of work. If he were a technician, he’d work from 7am to 2am if there were a goal to achieve. As a matter of fact, I have to be intentional about forcing him to take time off so that he stays fresh. Chris is a Millennial, and doesn’t play by the millennial rules. Knowing Chris as a person is more important than knowing him by a label. This is true with your people as well.

RELATED:  How to be a Manager People Respect

The Millennial Generation is now. This generation is loaded with potential. The companies that will win with the Millennials are the ones that learn to adapt and apply these lessons.

Todd Liles is the CEO of Service Excellence Training. SET is Business Consulting and Training Company specializing in Service and Sales Training for Techs, CSRs, and Sales Professionals.

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