I never thought older women like my Mum would be savvy enough to use our site, but I was wrong. “Queen-Agers” are making up a growing segment of our online community and we shouldn’t be isolating them.
Like most well behaved children, I headed over to my mum’s place yesterday for brunch. Once the main festivities were over i.e. my brother had polished off the last pancake, we settled into a quality session with the Sunday papers.
It wasn’t long before this article, about older women dominating the web, started a nice ol’ family debate.
It was sparked by this statement: “Older women wedged between the baby boomers and Generation X are using their financial and social power to drive an online revolution.”
We’re constantly teasing my mum (who fits squarely in this bracket) about not being internet savvy. So to hear her generation was supposedly “ruling the net” had us in absolute stitches.
That was, until I gave it some more thought.
While she’s no computer whizz, my mum has definitely stepped up her internet usage over the last couple of years. She’s currently on the hunt for the perfect mother-of-the-bride outfit for my sister’s wedding and the internet was her first port of call – hell, she’s even thinking about joining Facebook!
It got me thinking about the age of customers who use ServiceSeeking.com.au. My mum has posted a job on the site, but since I work here, she’s obviously not a great case study (although she loves the site and says she would use it regardless!)
Although we don’t collect any data about demographics on our job posting forms, Facebook gives us some pretty good insight into the age and gender of our customers.
65% of our likes may come from customers who are 25-44, however 25% are 45+ and 10% of these are women. Not a bad number, especially considering Facebook is still dominated by younger users. You only have to take a look at comments on our Facebook activity feed to notice a real presence of more mature women.
Comments just like this one: “I wish to thank ServiceSeeking. I am an older, single woman who needed a brick paving job done and felt that a couple of quotes given me by so called male friends were over the top… But thanks to these guys Andrew answered my request. He checked the job out and did all the ordering etc, I had nothing to do. And saved myself $1500. Amazing. Good luck guys and I’m sure I’ll be using you again as well as recommending your services for what ever job anyone needs doing.” Go to our Facebook page to read more.
We’re seeing more and more comments just like this one.
I did a quick whip around our customer call team (who follow up with every person who posts a job) and most said that between 20-30% of the customers they speak to every day are “older sounding women.” They mainly list household jobs like cleaning, but some are interested in being put in touch with tradies too.
Although I’m not sure “queen-agers” are “ruling the net,” they are definitely becoming bigger players and shouldn’t be ignored. We’re trying to do our part by making the site as user-friendly as possible so these women (and customers off all ages) can compare quotes and prices and get the best deal for their job.
So sorry Mum, your digital IQ is much higher (and more important) than I thought.
Are you a “queen ager” who has recently used ServiceSeeking.com.au to get quotes on your job? How did you find it?
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