“Please Hold” is officially cancelled. This is a departure from a degree new poll from Gartner. Almost half of it Gen Z customers it will simply hang up when asked to hold a call. But that's just one way generational change is reshaping the customer service industry.

As the founder of a customer service platform, I've seen first-hand how attitudes toward technology and brand loyalty are—and certainly have been recently—evolving. even chatbots are in question. One Gen Z team member summed it up nicely: “When a chatbot sends me a link to a company's FAQ page, I like to say, 'Don't ME do the work, just give the answer!'”

There is a bigger paradigm shift here – and not just for “kids these days”. Everyone is learning to expect more from customer service. We used to automatically meet with businesses on their home turf (we would match their hours, their procedures, their language, etc.). But now we are waiting for businesses to meet us where in are.

For companies, this presents a challenge. They have already thrown millions of people to the customer service problem, and yet we are more frustrated than ever. The reality is that expectations around speed and efficiency are exceeding even the most skilled of people.

Here are three ways customer service mail is moving and how companies can use technology to meet rising expectations:

1. No more waiting time, but no more dirty worlds

The moment is now the expectation. For teenagers these days, it can be socially devastating if you get “left in reading” for as little as 30 seconds. That means being on hold with customer service is definitely out. But so are hours of waiting for an email response or being told to stand by while someone ” “escalate” your complaint to management.

What is the way forward for businesses? AI agents they definitely have the potential to wipe out hold times; they can answer your call (or email or DM) immediately. And they give up the concept of “calling” during business hours.

The challenge, of course, lies in raising the quality of the interaction. A quick result is worthless if it is not useful. Over the past decade, many customers have grown frustrated with basic customer support automation. This is why it is so important Old chatbots are now being replaced from full AI agents with some really powerful abilities.

Related: What you need to know about the next generations of consumers

2. Not just omnichannel, but multimodal, too

For Gen Z (and certainly Gen Alpha), talking to someone on the phone can be deeply suspicious. As much as a quarter of those under 34 never answer phone calls. (We've come a long way from the nineties when hours-long phone calls dominated teenage life.)

Since a growing percentage of customers don't like phone calls, companies need to offer omnichannel options. This means that email, text and social DMs should be sustainable paths to any solution – not just a stop on the way to your preferred business channel.

However, to truly accommodate customers, we need to go beyond simple channel choice. New customers expect to be able to switch between channels without losing the thread of the conversation. Say I'm messaging an AI agent at a bike company and upload a photo of my broken gear shifter. Moving from there to an email containing an insurance document should involve zero friction.

This is extremely difficult to do with traditional human agents. But increasingly, AI agents are able to synchronize all of these inputs into a single conversation. Going forward, the gold standard will be like this omnichannel multimodal support, allowing seamless interactions across platforms. And, in a world where customers have their choice from a global group of businesses, this level of efficiency becomes a powerful differentiator.

Related: Is the future of multi-channel or multi-channel customer service?

3. So long, FAQ; hi, current solutions

Back to my younger colleague and her vendetta against the FAQ: the fundamental problem with directing people to a help page is that it puts the onus on customers to solve their own problems. But Gen Z doesn't want homework; they want results.

Historically, that's what's been so nice about getting a human agent online. In the best case scenario, they have the expertise and authority to guide you through that complicated installation, refund that damaged product, or open that new checking account.

When it comes to chatbots and even the most sophisticated of them the generative counterparts of AIvery often, the best we can hope for is : INFORMATION — tips on how to fix a problem rather than a fixed problem. But Gen Z is asking for trouble RESOLVED in a single interaction.

This change requires us to give AI agents more executive powers along with access to customer stories so they can personalize service. Going forward, AI agents should be able to act in the real world on your behalf, rather than simply directing you to the “next step.” A customer's request or complaint should be resolved immediately without diving into layers of approval or human intervention.

A change for everyone

Importantly, these are not the smallest requests of a small group of consumers. Gen Z is already the largest generation in history and its spending power is PREDICTION to reach $12 trillion by the end of the decade. Ignoring their customer service preferences would be fatal.

Customer service teams have been saying for years, “Your call is important to us…” Now, it's time to prove it. And, of course, the reality is that we're all looking for better customer service, regardless of demographics. In the end, pushing himself to accommodate General Z and General Alpha it will make customer service more useful for all of us.

Because the next generation knows how good this technology can be. They know what a clumsy chatbot sounds like; they know when a business is dropping the ball. These higher standards should guide us as we build the services of tomorrow. Smart businesses are finding ways to meet new consumers where they are and level things up for everyone.