The coronavirus pandemic has had a profound impact on the economy, with millions losing their jobs and millions more placed in highly precarious situations. As with so much, however, a new study from the University of Illinois Chicago highlights that the precarious nature of the labor market is largely a continuation of a pre-existing trend rather than something brought about specifically by the pandemic.
The study finds that precarious employment has risen by 9% between 1988 and 2016, with these jobs characterized by job insecurity, irregular hours, and low wages. That’s not to say that Covid-19 hasn’t exacerbated that trend, however, with the notable rise in gig-based delivery drivers an all too visible example.
Gig-based customer support
A new report from tech firm Limitless highlights how the gig economy is expanding into new domains, such as customer service. Indeed, the paper argues that so-called GigCX is now very much part of the mainstream.
They cite data from Gartner that claims that by 2023 the gig worker model will represent around 35% of the entire customer service workforce, with PWC data going even further and suggesting that it will be 50% by 2025.
“In the customer survey cited throughout this report, when asked what proportion of their customer service volume could be handled by the GigCX crowd by 2025, 40% of our customers stated ‘20-40%’ and half of them indicated over 40% and 90% said they were ‘likely’ or ‘very likely’ to invest more budget in GigCX in the next three years,” the authors say.
Much of this growth is driven by the fact that consumers often like to get help and support from their peers as much as from professional customer service representatives. They want people to help who have actual, hands-on experience of the service themselves.
There is also confidence that GigCX experts could take on a growing range of tasks than they do today. This would move it from something seen as an overflow resource to something that is given parity with in-house resources.
“GigCX brings a certain expertise and empathy meaning it can handle complex queries such as providing refunds, changing addresses, order updates, order processing, pre-sales enquiries, etc,” the report says.
While gig-based customer support is perhaps not the first thing that springs to mind when we think of the gig economy, the report reminds us that it’s a phenomenon that is very much here to stay.
