Pandemic-born struggles increase demand for alternative customer service models

Seventy-two per cent of customer service managers have added or plan to add gig talent to customer service or sales operations within the next two years – that’s according to the new research study by gig customer experience (GigCX) platform Limitless.

The survey of 400 respondents in the UK and U.S., also found that the demand for flexible working is the number one concern regarding staffing in 2022 (23.5%), followed by sickness absence due to pandemic (22%) and reluctance of staff to come back to work in contact center (21%).

With COVID-19 restrictions now minimal, over half (51.75%) of customer service employees are being encouraged to return to the office, while one in four customer service managers won’t allow staff to work remotely at all. Additionally, two-fifths (40%) of customer service managers say a work from home (WFH) model is difficult to operate.

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“With all the challenges facing them, customer service managers and CX leaders are struggling to achieve consistent quality in the current environment”

The research also unveiled the determination for employees to uphold a healthy work-life balance, with over half (56%) saying changes to schedule flexibility appear as an area of resistance for employees. To tackle these challenges, 78% of customer service managers now flag a need for alternative working models or platforms for service agents since the pandemic.

“With all the challenges facing them, customer service managers and CX leaders are struggling to achieve consistent quality in the current environment,” said Megan Neale, COO and Co-Founder at Limitless. “GigCX can help, handling high volume help requests that require deep product knowledge. Because GigCX leverages existing customers and advocates with existing knowledge and works on a gig model, it bybasses many of the pandemic related problems facing contact centers at this moment including: hiring, training, shift scheduling, quality, and other issues related to a WFH model.”

The research also unveiled the growing challenges regarding staffing, with 44% customer service managers saying hiring employees is harder now than it was pre-pandemic. Meanwhile, over one-third (35%) of customer service managers think staff resignations have increased when compared to pre-pandemic levels and 62% say they have had to increase recruitment spend in order to meet staffing minimums.

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