Banks and super funds run the risk of losing their Gen-Y members, who will represent half of their membership base in 10 years' time, if they don't drastically change their communication channels today.

Rocky Scopelliti, a senior executive at Telstra, authored one of the most comprehensive research ever to be released in Australia on Gen-Yers and how they use technology to access financial products.

The study found that as far as Gen Y-ers are concerned, phone and e-mail just won't cut it anymore. Instead banks and super funds that want to keep their "younger" members in the books should invest in richer customer service channels - all available, literally, from thin air.

"Gen-Yers have taken "instant gratification" to a completely new level and guess what, technology has enabled them," said Scopelliti.

"They prefer and are, in fact, adopting new styles of interaction and that's going to present big challenges for financial institutions," he added.

The study found that the three key drivers to a fundamental change in customer service for banks (and soon, for super funds) are social media, mobility and video.

That is, financial services providers need to look at how to use social network sites like Facebook and Twitter to communicate to their members. Mobility is best explained as making sure that in the future, banks and super funds provide information wirelessly and globally.

And while YouTube has been widely popular as a non-commercial communications channel, financial services firms need to have video links that will allow their customers to talk to staff on the net.

Scopelliti acknowledges that many social media users are resisting the use of sites like Facebook and Twitter for commercial purposes.

"Yes, that's true but the challenge is how do you springboard from social media to you, as a finance institution?"

The point is not so much to have customers as Facebook fans or Twitter followers but that they use these sites to advocate products and services, not to damage brand reputation.

Phone-based enquiries could soon be replaced by internet-driven communication too.

"Gen Y-ers are the most connected generation of our time...to the point that voice has taken a back seat and they're using mobile networks to exchange video and text based information," he said.

"Video channels are important because Australia is consuming on average 4.6 hours of online video per week versus 2.5 hours a year ago."

For the skeptics, Scopelliti points out the experience of a bank in Spain.

"Bank Inter is the sixth largest bank in Spain. In 2007, it deployed a multi-channel strategy that traverses commencing an interaction with bank customers online then engaging in a full blown video interaction for advice, including financial planning."

He said the bank is now taking 1,000 video calls per day and the conversion rate of people buying other banking-related products was 25 per cent, versus 18 per cent using other channels. "More importantly, customer satisfaction is up 85 per cent, the highest customer satisfaction level compared with other communication channels," he said.

Admittedly, Scopelliti said Gen-Yers are relatively happy with the customer services they are getting today because they still have low banking or superannuation balances. But the dynamics will change as soon as they get a mortgage or start earning a high salary.

"Wealth through time will naturally transfer to this generation, as well as employment, and financial institutions need to consider how to serve these customers better," he said.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Gen-Yers, or those born between 1979 and 1989, make up 21 per cent of today's population but will make up a high 42 per cent of the workforce by 2020.