Why Your Account Holders Aren't Calling And What to Do About It
There's a conversation happening between your institution and its next generation of account holders, and most of the time, it never starts.
Not because those account holders don't have questions. Not because they don't need help. Because the channel your institution makes most available (the phone) is the one they're least likely to use. When the alternative is an online contact form promising a response within two business days, many simply move on. To another institution. To a Google search. To a competitor's chat window that answered in 30 seconds.
Understanding why this generation communicates the way it does and building your digital branch to meet them there are among the most practical, high-impact improvements a financial institution can make right now.
Let's Get the Nuance Right First
There's a misconception worth addressing upfront. Gen Z doesn't categorically refuse to make phone calls. McKinsey research found that Gen Z is actually 35–40% more likely to call a business than Millennials, particularly when they're dealing with a serious issue or a premium service they're paying for. For complex financial situations, they will pick up the phone.
Here's the distinction that matters for financial institutions: they won't call for routine questions, and they won't wait. Research from Five9 found that fewer than half of Gen Z prefer phone calls as a first-contact option. And a striking 38% of Gen Z and Millennials say they'll give up on resolving an issue entirely if they can't address it through self-service or digital tools first.
Read that again: more than one in three of your youngest potential account holders will abandon their question and potentially their relationship with your institution rather than sit on hold.
What Abandonment Actually Costs
When a prospective account holder visits your website with a question — What's your auto loan rate? Do you offer HELOCs? How do I open an account? — and can't find an immediate way to get an answer, there are a few possible outcomes. They might fill out a contact form. They might find your phone number and call. Or they might close the tab.
For Gen Z and Millennials, the third option is more common than most financial institutions want to believe. Research shows that 40% of customers leave a brand entirely after just one negative service experience, and Gen Z and Millennials are the most likely of any generation to do so. The unanswered question isn't just a missed service moment. It's a missed relationship.
38%Computer Talk/Gen Z Research |
of Gen Z and Millennials say they'll give up on resolving an issue completely if self-service tools aren't available. |
|---|---|
63%Tidio, 2024 |
of consumers are more likely to make a purchase — or take the next step — when a live chat option is available on a website. |
40%Five9, 2024 |
of customers leave a brand entirely after a single negative service experience. Gen Z and Millennials are the most likely to follow through. |
What Gen Z and Millennials Actually Want
This generation doesn't want to be handed off to a hold queue. They want fast, channel-appropriate answers that respect their time. What that looks like in practice is fairly specific:
An immediate response channel — chat, not a callback request
The ability to get answers without identifying themselves first or explaining their full situation upfront
The option to escalate to a human if the issue is complex, but not to be forced there for simple questions
A response that arrives in the same channel they initiated — not a follow-up email two days later
Live chat addresses all of these. It's immediate. It's low-commitment. It doesn't require a user to sit on hold or schedule anything. And critically, it keeps them on your website, in your ecosystem, rather than driving them to search for answers elsewhere.
But Don't Write Off the Phone
Here's the nuance the data points to: the goal isn't to eliminate phone support. It's to give digital-first account holders a first-contact option that matches their behavior, so that when they do call, it's because the issue warrants it, not because you gave them no alternative.
Institutions that have live chat handle more routine inquiries through that channel, freeing up phone staff for the complex, relationship-building conversations that deserve a human voice. Chat and phone aren't competing; they're complementary. But only if chat is available, staffed, and working.
The Branch Visit Paradox
Here's something the data reveals that most financial institutions find counterintuitive: a majority of Gen Z and Millennials say having branch access matters to them. But 45% of them don't remember the last time they actually visited a physical branch.
What this tells us is that the branch provides psychological reassurance — "it's there if I need it" — while the digital experience is where the day-to-day relationship actually lives. If that digital relationship lacks a real-time communication layer, the institution is essentially invisible outside transactions.
Live chat is the real-time layer. It's the equivalent of a greeter at the branch door, someone who can answer a quick question, direct a user to the right place, and make the institution feel present and responsive. Without it, your website is a static document, not a branch.
Gen Alpha Is Watching
One more consideration worth naming: Gen Alpha, the children of Millennials, born from 2013 onward, is beginning to approach the financial services age. This generation has never known life without smartphones, voice assistants, or instant digital responses. Their expectations for communication will make Gen Z look patient by comparison.
The institutions that are building live chat into their digital branches aren't just serving today's users. They're building the infrastructure for users who will open their first accounts in the coming decade.
The Bottom Line
Your users aren't calling because the channel your institution defaults to doesn't match how they want to communicate. That's not a criticism. It's a solvable problem.
Live chat meets the next generation where they are: online, on their phone, expecting an immediate response, and ready to abandon the interaction the moment friction appears. Adding it to your digital branch doesn't replace your phone support. It captures the conversations that are currently going nowhere.
OMNICOMMANDER's CHATCOMMANDER brings fully branded, real-time live chat to your institution's website, serving the users who won't call, before they leave.
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