DELIGHTING BABY BOOMERS AND MILLENNIALS: FACTORS THAT MATTER MOST

Are delight-producing factors different for baby boomers than for millennials? Does gender have an impact on this relationship? The authors utilize the critical incident technique to answer these questions. Results reveal an age-gender interaction indicating significant differences in drivers of delight for females only. Female baby boomers cite caring employees, expertise, and service failure recovery as key factors in creating delight. Female millennials place greater importance on friendly, attentive/helpful employees, and time issues. Significant differences did not exist between baby boomer and millennial males. Overall, the findings highlight the importance of understanding different customer segments when developing a customer delight strategy.