I noticed that one of my recent articles was mentioned in a recent feature on the Engage Customer website, commenting on how GigCX can support an in-house or outsourced contact center. Reading this led me to another article on their site talking about the future of the post-pandemic contact center.
It mentioned a normalizing of GigCX, but also suggested that as work-from-home is also more integrated into both in-house and outsourced customer service processes there will be another important trend – work from anywhere. Once you are no longer tied to an office you can literally hire from anywhere and therefore raise the bar on the people you are hiring to engage with customers.
This Nearshore Americas article suggests one path into the future. Many Caribbean governments are offering fast-track work visas for ‘digital nomads’ – meaning people who can easily work remotely and therefore only need a laptop and internet connection to work. Many of these countries are traditionally reliant on tourism, but they see a new possibility to attract well-paid residents who want to live and work in a Caribbean paradise.
It’s an attractive idea. Imagine if you are at home in a small New York apartment just wishing the summer would arrive faster. You have been working at your shoebox-sized home for over a year now and this experience has proven that your work can continue to be delivered 100% remotely.
Why not just go and spend a year or two on Barbados or the Bahamas instead? Kick back and enjoy the sand, sea, and Caribbean culture and continue to work in the same job. I’m sure those dollars also go a lot further down there than they do in downtown Manhattan.
71% of employees at US-startups would like to live overseas if it were possible or allowed in their role. Analysts expect that around 40% of US-based tech jobs will move overseas in the next five years as this idea that digital talent can be sourced from anywhere becomes accepted.
GigCX is already a part of the “work anywhere” movement. I have long argued that if you want to build a team of customer service representatives then the ability to build your team with people located anywhere creates significant opportunities:
- Hire fans: seek out fans of your products and ask those people if they want to help out other customers – build a network of part-time ambassadors
- Knowledge: raise the bar and only hire agents who already know about your products. You can’t train someone to understand fashion or support a complex software system inside a week so why not onboard people who already understand what needs to be supported?
- Commitment: most contact center agents don’t have a lot of commitment to their role – it’s just a job and a pay check. The two opportunities mentioned above mean that you can find people who love your products and are committed to your brand – that’s a huge difference when compared to a traditional contact center. Wave goodbye to constant attrition. These people actually care.
Compare this to the traditional model of building customer service processes from a contact center. Don’t you think you would get better support from some digital nomads who love helping your customers? Does it matter if they have moved to live by a beach?
Check out our company page on LinkedIn for more examples and ideas of just how flexible GigCX can be and subscribe there so you don’t miss any more news and ideas. Feel free to leave a comment here or use my LinkedIn to contact me directly.