Millennials really don’t like calling customer service. In fact, 34 percent would rather visit the dentist than call a representative.

While the nation’s largest living generation detests voice-based service, that doesn’t mean Millennials don’t expect great service. Seventy-six percent of customers see the customer service experience as the true test of their “value to a brand,” and most Millennials say they’ve switched brands in the past year after a poor service experience. 

Fortunately for brands that do manage to woo Millennials with seamless customer service, they’re also the most brand-loyal generation. Here’s how to deliver a winning customer support experience that inspires a new generation of brand ambassadors:

1. Meet them where they’re at.

To deliver the customer experience Millennials want, you need to learn where they’re communicating and meet them there. Begin with social media: Eighty percent of Millennials would prefer to seek customer support through social channels. In the U.S. and the U.K., Millennials use Facebook Messenger most heavily, while German Millennials prefer WhatsApp and their Japanese counterparts use Line.

2. Open up a variety of channels.

Millennials are the ultimate multichannel communicators, so an all-of-the-above customer service strategy makes sense. Lower barriers to service by offering support via email, Twitter, Facebook Messenger, Snapchat, and phone. Apple — which already offered service via phone, email, and in-person visits — recently began offering support via Twitter, and it’s answering a query every 15 seconds. 

3. Use the cellphone as a central identifier.

Although Millennials don’t use their phones for calls, the cellphone number remains the global universal identifier, used by many applications to build networks. For example, nearly everyone using Snapchat signs up with their cellphone number.

Fortunately, 51 percent of Millennials are willing to share information if incentivized, so use Millennials’ cell numbers to tie your communication channels and platforms together with a single identifier. Storing these contact details also opens up SMS as a powerful service tool: Ninety percent of text messages are read within three minutes of being received.

4. Preempt the customer service call.

According to research by Nuance, 85 percent of American consumers wish to receive proactive service from companies. And considering that nearly two-thirds of Millennials prefer self-service to contacting a company representative, your brand has probably already lost the customer experience battle if Millennials are calling.

The on-demand generation wants a proactive service experience, which means intercepting potential issues. Lyft, the on-demand transportation network, notifies customers of drivers’ locations through its app with an approaching car icon. When a driver comes within a few blocks of his or her passenger, Lyft’s software sends a text to notify the passenger that the driver is approaching.When customers are informed, they’re usually happy; Lyft’s satisfied customers outnumber dissatisfied patrons by a ratio of 25:1.

5. Enhance the service experience with automation.

You may have heard that the future overlords are coming in the form of chatbots, but they offer the perfect way to deliver the level of service Millennials desire without incurring high labor costs. 

Facebook is expected to announce an app store within Messenger, meeting the existing stores seen in apps popular outside the U.S., like WeChat. These app stores allow developers to build experiences within Facebook Messenger that users converse with for service. One of the first demonstrations within Messenger was an Uber integration, allowing customers to tap an address to start a chat thread with the car service. The chatbot sends in-thread updates, notifying the customer of the driver’s approach and offering helpful options. However, WeChat’s more developed ecosystem offers everything from movie tickets to dictation apps — all within one texting app.

The trends are clear, but change rarely happens quickly. Even though 53 percent of U.S. consumers aged 18 to 34 say they prefer electronic media to phone calls when conducting customer service transactions, phone-based customer service still comprises 68 percent of contact center communications. 

It could be five or more years before tools like SMS and social media overtake voice for customer support, but the fastest-growing companies were built around these new, much higher expectations of service. How are you ensuring that new customers entering the market are talking to you? 

Ash Rust is the CEO and co-founder of SendHub, the leading business SMS solution. He’s a coach at the Alchemist Accelerator. Ash served as an officer in the British Army before studying computer science at Exeter College, Oxford. Connect on Twitter @AshRust.