What Every Field Services Business Should Know About Crowdsourcing Gig Workers

By Anand Subbaraj, CEO of Zuper

More and more field service businesses are crowdsourcing gig workers to fill talent shortages or even gaps caused by seasonal demand surges. For instance, many snow removal, landscaping and swimming pool maintenance service businesses keep huge lists of gig-workers who can easily be called in to help fill workforce gaps that would otherwise force the business to turn down jobs.

Yet contracting businesses need to reassess the way they have been approaching crowdsourcing talent. Excel sheets won’t cut it in an environment where the health and safety of your customers are at risk. Despite recent regulation in states such as California that impact gig workers, companies like AirBnB and Uber offer an interesting model for using technology to crowdsource talent for your field service business. Here are four things you should consider:

1. Don’t Forget to Conduct Background Checks

Just because someone has the tools or skills to perform a job, doesn’t mean that your business should bring them in for gig work. In the residential setting, customers need to be 100% confident that the technicians or workers that come into their homes have a squeaky clean background.

Conducting background checks can be a tricky procedure, however. To conduct a credit, criminal, and past employer check The Fair Credit Reporting Act of 1970 (FCRA) mandates that you use a verified third-party Consumer Reporting Agency (CRA).

Due to the complex and time-consuming nature of conducting background checks for gig workers, many field service businesses have no formalized procedures in place to effectively screen them. However, as the gig economy has evolved, the CRA ecosystem has evolved with it. In fact, some platforms now leverage AI to quickly screen criminal records, saving you time and money.

2. Communicate Health and Safety

Maintaining the health and safety of your employees should be a primary concern until the vaccine(s) have been widely distributed, and even after. Best-practices can be found in OSHA’s Guidance on Preparing Workplaces for COVID-19 Report, some of which include training on hygiene and respiratory etiquette, clear mask policies, and testing procedure. But of equal importance is how you communicate this to your customers.

Proactive email campaigns can go a long way in reassuring customers of the steps you are taking to hold your crowdsourced talent accountable. For instance, Uber recently launched an email campaign that highlighted one-touch safety feedback and promised to remove drivers who weren’t following its mask policies. You can do a similar thing to reassure your customers that your gig workers will keep them safe.

3. Handle Increased Demand with Chatbots

If you’re dipping into the gig economy, you’re also likely getting an overwhelming amount of leads. Even if you try to focus most of your customers to the booking software integrated into your website, you still might be getting several inquiries per day on your social media handles, and few field service businesses have the time to monitor these messages 24/7. Don’t let this increase in demand hold you back from getting your gig workers on the job. One way to alleviate the time spent chatting with customers and coordinating with your team is to leverage chatbots.

For example, many field service businesses are turning to WhatsApp chatbots to conduct booking conversation with customers. These chatbots can be seamlessly integrated into your website or social media handles to instantly reply to, book, or direct customers to the appropriate resources. Some chatbots merely give customers a few limited options while others can actually improvise replies based on context. Ultimately, you’ll want to connect these tools to your booking software to streamline how you allocate jobs to your pool of gig workers.

4. Efficiently Onboard and Allocate Gig Worker Jobs

Because gig workers are taken on an ad hoc basis, onboarding them can often be an overlooked process. Yes, you should streamline the onboarding process to take advantage of the flexibility gig workers offer your organization, but don’t rush it. Some simple ways to more efficiently onboard gig workers are to digitize training materials and handbooks, highlight important checklists for them to consult on the job, and standardize notifications and alerts.

You should also incorporate intelligent dispatching into your operations to get the right gig worker to the right location at the right time. Far too many field service businesses spend all their time scheduling and dispatching their workforce, and an intelligent dispatcher can really be a game changer.

Crowdsource Gig Workers Like The Pros

In the end, crowdsourcing talent for your field service business can save you money and add a much-needed layer of flexibility to your business. With demand shrinking and growing unexpectedly as COVID-19 continues to spike, this flexibility allows you to ramp up your team when and where you need them. Use this more flexible workforce as an opportunity to modernize your booking experience and transform how you communicate with your customers and your team.

About The Author

Anand Subbaraj is the CEO of Zuper, provider of a leading intelligent workforce management platform for service businesses such as residential & commercial cleaning, HVAC, electrical, Internet Service Providers, plumbing, and landscaping. Anand is a seasoned product leader with over 17 years of experience in technology and 13 years at Microsoft, specializing in the areas of Big Data, BI & Analytics, Cloud Computing, Digital Transformation, and SaaS.