Despite the fact that some may label it a newfangled fad, the concept of the “gig economy” has been around for more than a decade. Beginning its ascent in popularity around the height of the financial crisis in 2008-2009, task-based labor has definitely seen its fair share of evolution.  

While more traditional gig-based jobs for musicians, photographers, food workers and drivers still exist within the framework of a gig economy, one emerging take on the model is benefitting the worker and the business alike. It’s called GigCX—or gig customer service—and today, I will explain how it can help your business.

What is the GigCX model?

In short, GigCX is the application of utilizing gig-based workers to handle a company’s customer service efforts. This model can be deployed in a variety of ways, including both in-house, through a third-party agency or a combination of both, and most often through an online platform and telephony services.

With businesses navigating uncertainties related to COVID-19, the GigCX model proved to be a beacon of hope for those who struggled with keeping an entire customer service staff active in the throes of a pandemic.

The model has become so popular in recent months that McKinsey & Company, one of the world’s foremost management consulting firms, penned a lengthy article singing its praises. In that piece, “An on-demand revolution in customer-experience operations?” the author notes that decades-old outsourcing strategies once used simply to cut costs have been replaced with GigCX approaches that are bringing the business a bounty of benefits.

How can the GigCX model help your business?

If you’ve spent much time on our blog, you know we’re big fans of the GigCX model because of the many ways it benefits the businesses we work with. The word most associated with the GigCX model is flexibility. That’s because it caters to workers who no longer wish to do the same job 40 hours a week by providing an alternative.

At ShyftOff, we take the GigCX model a step further by instituting 30-minute microshifts that agents can self-select for businesses they are certified to handle. This format keeps agents fresh, engaged with your business and providing a better form of customer service.

And because our agents aren’t necessarily beholden to a 40-hour customer service schedule, many of our agents are accomplished professionals interested in making a few dollars outside of their day jobs. About 80% of our agents are college-educated, which means your business is improving the quality of its workforce and expanding its talent pool.

Lastly, the GigCX model can save you money. Unlike traditional full-time models that pay workers for inactivity, ShyftOff only pays agents for the time they spend actively working on your account, a valuable point of differentiation that becomes especially important during off-peak times. And since agents use personally owned devices, your business can save money on its capital expenditures.

Would you like to learn how ShyftOff can improve your customer service efforts and substantially save you money along the way? Reach out today, and let’s chat.