Work-at-home or Work from Home/Gig Agent CM BPS has reached an important milestone by achieving mainstream adoption status in Gartner’s 2021 Hype Cycle for Business Process Services.
It’s hardly come as a surprise given the mass exodus of the call centre due to the pandemic, but it’s important progress all the same. Work from Home (WFH) has always suffered a ‘distance breeds distrust’ stigma, but in the wake of the global pandemic, the practicalities of overcoming unprecedented business disruption to customer service appear to have finally set in.
It’s important to note that WFH Gig Agent CM BPS (the use of at-home agents by a BPS or BPO but under a hiring contract or regular employment) is not the same as crowdsourced customer service or ‘GigCX’, which works on a gig model for payment for services rendered.
GigCX sources support agents who are actual users and customers of these companies products and services. Imagine a model with no shifts, no schedules, no attrition and no wait times and you won’t be far away!
They aren’t the same, but that doesn’t mean that GigCX isn’t benefiting from the WFH for BPS move into the Gartner Hype Cycle. Widespread use of WFH proves the model of remote-based customer service is a realistic way to continue helping customers and prospects despite mass business disruption.
It All Comes Down to Innovation
Innovation will always follow any widely adopted business practice and WFH is no exception. Businesses have always known the importance of being flexible and having strategic innovation programmes to help them weather disruption and stay ahead of the curve, but with the pandemic, firms have really had to put these to the test. While WFH is portrayed as being more flexible than traditional call centres, companies still have to pay people hourly and commit to schedules and resourcing around predicted volumes. It’s important to note that GigCX is very different, with unrivalled agility to cope with bursts and costs that are linked to demand and successful outcomes.
During the pandemic, many companies have had to move forward ten years in how they’ve approached customer service, and this is just to address the gaps caused by the pandemic and remote working. COVID-19 has brought to light many significant operational issues and the need for a much more proactive, flexible approach to customer service where businesses can tap into fluid pools of talent.
The broad support for WFH reduces the perceived risk of the new model. And even late adopters are seeing GigCX as viable and beneficial for their organisations. Early adopters of GigCX are adding new capabilities, such as the capacity to answer pre-sales queries from people looking for more information, and proactively coaching new customers to help them get started.
The flexibility of GigCX experts being able to work remotely when WFH has been the only option has underpinned the strength of the model, and for many businesses, helped to bridge a gap and maintain continuous delivery of great customer experience. The model is arguably model fairer and better for GigCX experts than zero-hour WFH contracts, where people have to commit to shifts in advance or even pay for the opportunity to be on the platform and receive training. GigCX provides fair rewards and involves no entry costs or commitments.
You Can Believe the Hype
The GigCX methodology and the technology’s broad market applicability and relevance are clearly paying off. Sage is achieving a CSAT of 98% with GigCX (which, according to the Institute of Customer Service is far higher than the UK industry average of 76.8%)
Microsoft is successfully using GigCX to leverage its fans’ knowledge and enthusiasm to resolve customer queries regarding managing user accounts, billing and subscriptions, providing troubleshooting and tech support with a response time of less than 60 seconds.
With GigCX, eBay has experienced a 98% resolution rate, an average 2 minute response time, a 96% average customer satisfaction score and a value uplift for their merchandise (GMV), driving positive ROI within four weeks.
GigCX is changing the way CX leaders view the traditional customer service model. Bit by bit, they are rethinking their existing customer service roadmaps to include it as a flexible channel to drive up the quality of CX and meet the demands of their digital-first customers.
The pandemic has been a WFH innovation trigger, and GigCX is one of many models and associated technologies that it has supercharged. The continued recognition and support for WFH will only help to propel GigCX into the mainstream, as it continues to prove its worth as a flexible solution fully deserving of a place in the future of work.
