Gender and what it means for customer engagement
As of 2020, Gen-Z makes up 40% of the consumer market. This has significant implications for organizations trying to reach and serve the younger generations, particularly when it comes to gender. Both millennials and Gen-Z see gender as both more expansive and more fluid, and are embracing more diverse language to describe themselves and their experiences.
Even for organizations that understand gender matters, it might be hard to know how to take gender into consideration for interactions with customers, clients, or constituents in a way that will be respectful and efficient. Here are a few thoughts to get you started.
Determining when and why you need to know
When creating a form, it might be a matter of habit to ask for gender. That’s just basic info, right? In reality, it’s not always relevant to know gender. It does help understand which people you’re reaching (and therefore, who you’re missing), but it also might affect your thinking about who these customers are and what they want. Less than half of Gen-Z says they always buy clothes designed for their own gender. Millennial dads are more active and engaged in raising children than previous generations, yet 98% of baby, household cleaner, and laundry ads still target women.
Always start with the question: Why do we want to know their gender?
This information can be valuable to know if you’re trying to better understand the demographics of your customer base, and if you’re unintentionally missing or excluding anyone. But if you’re using it to segment customers by gender alone, consider how to dig deeper. If more women than men (for example) are drawn to your product, you might assume it’s a product for women. But are there characteristics linking the women who like it (and the men and non-binary folks who like it)? Maybe it’s not women who like your product, but busy professionals who also love to cook. Maybe it’s people who juggle working from home and taking care of small kids. The more nuanced understanding of your customer you can develop, the better!
By restricting certain products or services to a specific gender you might not only be missing potential customers, you may even be alienating customers by using gendered marketing which assumes certain things about their wants and needs. In fact, 48% of Gen-Z says they value brands that don’t classify items as male or female. You may be surprised with the creativity and results your team is able to achieve without gender-based constraints.
If you are going to ask for gender identities, be sure to do so in a respectful and inclusive way (see this brief on how to ask for gender in online forms).
Using neutral and inclusive language
Another area where gender comes into play is customer service, where representatives directly engage with patrons and may make incorrect assumptions about a person’s gender. There are many gendered terms that can pretty easily be switched for more neutral language. This can help remove the need to ask for gender, and can reduce the risk that someone on your team will mis-gender someone by sight alone. Gender is complex and highly personal, and it’s impossible to tell what gender someone is by their looks.
See below for some suggestions about common gendered words and how you can use more inclusive language. For examples on ways one field is adapting language to be more inclusive, you may want to check out this article.
Titles and honorifics can be difficult to navigate. Mx. is the most commonly used honorific when someone is looking for an alternative to Sir/Madam or Mr./Ms.. It has been around a number of years and growing in usage. RP, which stands for Respected Person, is also used to show respect. This would be used as RP Smith, or spelled out as Respected Person Smith. Some companies choose to skip the honorific altogether as they are increasingly unpopular with people of all genders. In this case, someone might simply use “Dear Bob Brown,” etc.
As part of your gender and diversity training, be sure to cover how to properly use inclusive language, especially for team members who work directly with customers and clients.
Respect pronouns
One reason to want to know someone’s gender is to know which pronoun(s) to use for them. However, in short or exclusively one-on-one conversations, pronouns likely won’t come up. In a short interaction, it’s probably best to just not ask. Some people are still grappling with their pronouns, and some people may not feel comfortable sharing their pronouns in a public space. Try using specific language in these cases. Instead of “She has a question”, say “This client has a question”; instead of “I have to go to the back, can you help her?”, say “I have to go to the back, can you help this customer?”. It takes practice to get used to avoiding pronouns in these situations, especially if it’s not something you’ve done before. Be sure to train your team, and give them space to practice. While it may feel odd at first, with practice it will become comfortable.
For longer conversations, or discussions with multiple people where you might need to refer to someone in the third person, it’s best to ask for pronouns. You can give people the option of designating their pronouns in their online profile so the information is handy if your team can pull that up. You can also ask for pronouns in a quick intake form or when scheduling an appointment (for example: “What is your name?”, “What can we help you with today?”, and “What pronouns would you like us to use for you?”). You can also signal in other ways that your business understands gender diversity and welcomes people sharing pronouns with gestures like having customer service representatives share their pronouns first, or have their pronouns along with their name on name tags, if the customer service representatives are comfortable with this. See here for more guidance on pronouns.
Something to keep in mind is that there are some people who don’t use pronouns at all, and prefer to be only referred to by their name. Your team should practice using people’s names when speaking about them in the third person, rather than a pronoun. This isn’t as hard as it sounds! Example: Instead of “She can’t join the meeting” say “Sarah can’t join the meeting.”
Gendered spaces
In some cases, products or services marketed for men or women may be located in different places. For example the men’s bathroom is in one location while the women’s is in another, or men’s shoes and women’s shoes are sold on separate floors. If you have the power to do away with these divisions, you should, even if it’s just putting the products in the same immediate area. Separate spaces makes anyone who doesn’t identify as a man or woman feel alienated, and creates an awkward and even unsafe experience for customers who don’t traditionally “fit” the targeted gender trying to shop there. It also places a barrier to purchase for a customer who may be interested in products marketed to one gender when they identify as a different gender.
If you don’t have the power to change where bathrooms or products are located, if a customer asks where something is located, just have your staff explain the location of both, rather than assume the gender of the customer. For example: “The restrooms are located straight back, the women’s are on the right and men’s are on the left”, or “Women’s shoes are located on the 1st floor, men’s shoes on the 2nd”.
Customer needs and expectations are changing as our understandings of gender transform. Initially, new things can feel uncomfortable, but it doesn’t take long for the new language to feel normal. Some relatively small changes can make non-binary, trans, and ungendered people feel much more welcomed by your company, and can help make sure you’re not missing or alienating any potential customers based on assumptions about gender. These changes also give cisgender people (people whose gender matches their sex assigned at birth) not only more options, but also more ways to express their gender.
Integrating gender into your approach to customer engagement improves the experience for all of your customers, regardless of gender.