"WUC/WUG" (Text speak for, "What you see is what you get")

Known for their social "tolerance," millennials can also be the first to demonstrate intolerance of anything that smacks of spin or hypocrisy or which harms the planet or the poor. It is all too easy for a slight blunder to provoke a millennial's sharp digital tongue of rebuke. A company's reputation may depend on quick damage control and how well they convey sincerity in both the apology and plans for restitution.

What you should know about millennials as customers:

1. Make it snappy: As customers, millennials expect rapid feedback -­‐-­‐ and hold the Armed with the tools to quickly disseminate withering critiques, millennials understand their power and don't hesitate to use it if service has been pokey.

2. Publicize your philanthropy: More than 50 percent of millennials try to buy products from companies that support worthy causes! Spread the word about the good things you do!

3. Sin no more: If you commit a PR gaffe, be quick to get ahead of the social media morass that may follow. For this digital generation, communication is condensed into "tweets," and what was once a company's reputation is compressed into "brand." More things are viewed as black or white. A brand can be made or ruined, is good or bad -­‐-­‐ and when there has been a blunder -­‐-­‐ forgiven or not! When a company makes a social conscience blunder, in particular, they can only hope to recover a millennial customer base through profound measures....and smart social media damage

4. Remember WUC/WUG: Give it to them straight. Even as millennials conjure up "brands" for their companies and even personal brands for themselves, there is an intense revulsion over "spin" when they sense they are the targets. Evasion, euphemisms and half-­‐truths are all abominations to this smartest of generations, whose peripheral sensitivities were honed on Xbox, and whose potential for developing reverence for anything was squashed by The Simpsons, South Park and Jon Stewart.

More than any other generation, millennials judge organizations by their commitment to a better world. To them, it's okay to make money, but your carbon footprint had better be small, you must work for global causes, treat people fairly and be the “real thing,” whatever it is you purport to be! Treat them wisely. If the customer is always right, 76 million customers are just plain brilliant!