How the Tech Industry Can Effectively Engage with Senior Citizens

The idea that senior citizens are technological luddites has long been proven false. Not only are senior citizens enthusiastic about the benefits of technology, but are confident that they’ll keep up with the rate of change, and do so without needing the assistance of others.

Research shows that four in five senior citizens are using social media, and that 84% of seniors are enthusiastic adopters of new technology, while 69% are confident that they will be able to keep up with future innovations in technology, and that three in five consider themselves tech-savvy.

These trends are likely to accelerate into the future. The COVID-19 pandemic was particularly dangerous for senior citizens, and so technology became their window to the world and allowed them to keep in touch with family and friends. Telemedicine services jumped by 300% among seniors during the pandemic, for example. Now that it has become ingrained behaviour it will likely continue on into this future. Fear of the pandemic will be replaced by a comfort for technology tools and an appreciation of the benefits of convenience and support from home.

What’s more, as a customer segment,senior citizens are ideal. Where 30% of Internet users aged from 16 to 24 jump from app and website to app and website, just 10 per cent of those aged 55 have the same behaviour. What this means is that technology platforms and providers stand to gain a lot by appealing to senior citizens, but at the same time, to earn their loyalty in the first place, the user experience for seniors needs to be considered and baked in from the outset.

What seniors need

The first and most important consideration for providing seniors with technology is understanding the accessibility needs that they have. For example, lightweight technology such as tablets are preferred over laptops, as they are easier to move around with, and have large, bright and clear screens.

Secondly, the way seniors interact with technology is often different, and it does need thought from those that want to sell them technology products. Providing access to a stylus and touch screen can be better than asking seniors with arthritis in their hands to type on a keyboard or use their fingers to navigate. On the software side of things, options for large fonts are essential for those with failing eyesight, and voice recognition can be a useful tool for faster interaction.

It’s also critically important to provide clear, accessible documentation for whatever technology is being used. Burying .pdfs deep into a folder system isn’t going to help. Nor are senior citizens going to benefit from instructions that are too filled with jargon and technical terms. Your technology should make it easy to find information, and then make that information easy to take action on immediately.

Take economic factors into account too

Senior citizens are less likely to have the purchasing power to buy expensive technology solutions, and so the costs involved to use the technology is important. A really good example of this is broadband bandwidth. Many senior citizens will not be able to afford high-end, fast connections, and will instead be on minimal speed Internet connections with low monthly data caps.

With that in mind, having an application that requires video streaming at high quality is going to exclude a lot of senior citizens from the application. Telehealth services, for example, need to be able to interact over video, but having the option for lower quality video streams is important. Another example would be social media that didn’t allow users to turn the video replay features off.

Another important economic consideration has to do with services that involve ongoing payments. Many senior citizens prefer subscriptions and “as-a-service” technology, as it can be acquired at a lower cost than buying upfront. However, at the same time, it’s important not to lock this group into annual subscriptions or billing. Month-to-month, allowing senior citizens to make use of technology as they need to, is the ideal way to go.

It’s also important that companies offering technology services provide a high level of service and support to go with it. While elderly people will generally look for lower-priced services, the cost savings from the business cannot come from the support offered. This means that it should be possible to pick up the phone and contact a support agent, or at the very least set up a support ticket quickly and have it responded to immediately. While chatbots and automation are all the rage for support service, for this demographic in particular, these things can be the source of frustration, and it’s important that they know that human-to-human contact is available too.

When it comes to technology services and solutions, senior citizens are a growing demographic, and a big opportunity for both hardware and services providers. However, it is important to understand that they do have different needs and ways of interacting with technology. Those companies that can meet those needs can expect to reach a demographic of loyal, repeat, and long-term customers.