One of the common misconceptions about Gig CX is that those of us who evangelize the concept are always looking to replace the traditional contact center. This is far from the truth. I spent many years working for one of the leading global customer experience suppliers and we managed contact centers in 80 countries. I’m not proposing that Gig CX is a direct replacement for this entire industry.
There truth is that there are at least three areas where I believe that Gig CX really shines and offers a new opportunity that can really help contact center operators:
- The replacement of an internal customer service process: if you manage your customer service processes in-house and struggle with the physical need for a contact center, the technology and regulatory requirements, and the constant need to hire and train new agents then why not just consider how your contact center might work in the cloud?
- Augmenting in-house customer service: if you are comfortable with your in-house service center, but struggle when new products are launched or at certain times of the year – for example the holiday season or Black Friday – then you could just augment the team by having some Gig CX resource on standby for when you need to ramp up.
- Augmenting a Business Process Outsourcing supplier: this is where a customer service specialist is providing contact center services to their clients, but they can then add Gig CX capability to their offer to dramatically increase their ability to ramp up and down. Instead of worrying about how to get more people into a physical contact center for Black Friday, add to the team by building a Gig CX layer on top of your regular team.
When you look at Gig CX from this angle there is the potential for it to be a useful tool for managers who run their own in-house customer service center or those who work with a supplier and find that their supplier constantly struggles during those periods when they need to stretch.
It’s not a solution to ban overtime and ask everyone to just work harder. Many companies face peak periods where demand can increase to be many multiples of regular demand. Think about sports teams releasing tickets for games or concert promoters announcing popular shows. I know we can’t visit any of these events right now, but they will be back.
A contact center handling sports events can require 30x the normal coverage when a major event goes on sale – you are not going to handle this kind of demand by just asking the team to work through their lunch break. Whether you are working with a BPO supplier or managing your CX processes in-house, there is a strong reason for you to explore Gig CX.
We are not out to replace contact centers, we want to make them better. It’s not Gig CX or BPO it’s Gig CX and BPO.
What do you think? Let’s keep the #GigCX conversation going. Please get in touch with me, I want to hear your perspective. Follow LiveXchange on LinkedIn to make sure you don’t miss our regular commentary on how Gig CX is changing the CX industry.