Revolutionizing Freelance Workforce Management with Real-Time Tracking at Gigable
Gigable's Journey with HyperTrack for Enhanced Transparency and Client Satisfaction
The gig economy requires businesses to do a delicate balancing act of prioritizing efficient workforce management and operational excellence while providing the transparency and clarity that maintains client satisfaction. Gigable, a leading on-demand labor marketplace, had the goal to create a platform built on trust and transparency. The team realized that reliable location-based data would be an essential component to bring on-demand technology and efficiency to the staffing industry.
We recently had the opportunity to sit down with Conor Lyons, the associate founder of Gigable. His candid testimonial, captured in a revealing video interview, sheds light on Gigable's partnership with HyperTrack and offers valuable insights on their approach to innovation within the gigwork space. The following transcript has been edited for clarity and readability.
The Challenge of Freelance Workforce Management in the Gig Economy
Conor
My name is Conor Lyons. I am the associate founder at Gigable. Gigable is a marketplace that connects local businesses with local freelance workers in their area.
Interviewer
Beautiful. That was perfect. Alright, so we're going to talk a little bit now about before you found HyperTrack and what life was like back then. Starting with what kinds of problems or issues were you facing before you started working with HyperTrack?
The Role of Real-Time Location Data in Enhancing Gigable's Services
Conor
Sure. Before we started working with HyperTrack Gigable didn't have a way to accurately track or show our clients or our users where workers they hired on our platform had been or give them confidence that they did indeed turn up to a shift or completed the work that they claimed to have completed. So HyperTrack gave us a way to track these workers effectively through their GPS tracking and was a game changer for us in terms of the value that we could give to our clients and our users.
Interviewer
Amazing. So how did not having a system to know where people were, if they'd done what they said they were going to do, how did that affect your job and the business? Especially when you think about metrics of success, KPIs and performance,
Achieving Workforce Transparency with HyperTrack
Conor
It becomes very difficult to track success and if a job is being completed accurately. Yes. Without GPS tracking and without the ability to show our users or our clients where the workers have been throughout their shifts, it's very difficult to give our clients confidence in using our platform. We are trying, yes, but before we started using HyperTrack, it was very difficult to accurately measure success with different gigs, to have confidence that the work was completed correctly and we were relying really on the worker and their honesty in claiming that the work was done accurately. But with HyperTrack we have a kind of truth. We have a ground truth that we can show our clients and our customers that this work was done. It's tracked data that is kind of infallible. We can show that to our clients and our users and give them confidence that the work was done as stated by the worker.
Proof of Work Verification: Building Trust for Freelance Workforce
Interviewer
And why does that matter so much? What happens when you don't have that truth and what effect does it have?
Conor
When you don't have the ability to give confidence to your clients that the workers that they've hired have completed their work leads to higher friction with our clients dissatisfaction and indeed just kind of dates using our platform. So removing all these dates on our platform kind of gives our clients much more confidence using Gigable and therefore we have happier clients and more transparency about the work that is done on our platform.
Interviewer
Perfect. And how did it make you feel and how was it affecting your team knowing that you didn't have transparency and knowing that you had friction with your clients?
Introducing Transparency to Freelance Workforce Management
"Being able to offer a kind of source of truth to show clearly what has been done saves a lot of paperwork (...) and makes our offering to our clients much more transparent and much more engaging for them."
Conor
Not having transparency that we provide our users through HyperTrack made our life much more difficult. And being able to offer a kind of source of truth to show clearly what has been done saves a lot of paperwork, a lot of headaches on our side internally and makes our offering to our clients much more transparent and much more engaging for them. They get a lot of satisfaction themselves, being able to see a map of all the work that's been done to track their workers in a live sense during their shifts and makes our platform overall much more engaging and much more valuable to our clients.
Gigable's Decision Point: Choosing HyperTrack for Reliable Tracking
Interviewer
And when did you actually reach your breaking point? When did you start saying, okay, enough's enough, our current system isn't working for us, we need to find a solution?
Conor
Gigable works closely with HyperTrack and we have a very valuable relationship with them. I think the thing that Gigable values most in our relationship with HyperTrack is that they're very accessible. As our development team can ask questions, we have a Slack channel, a shared Slack channel with HyperTrack, which we find invaluable with rolling out new releases. If we're updating an SDK that we might have from track in our product, we can just ask them a quick question and they'll be quick to respond. So having a very open relationship, we frequently talk at all levels in our company with people at all levels in HyperTrack and we have a very open and honest relationship and it benefits both of us, both Gigable and HyperTrack work closely together and HyperTrack understand the value in working closely with us and making sure that we're happy as their clients and that makes our lives a lot easier.
Utilizing HyperTrack for Efficient Worker Shift Management
Interviewer
Perfect. So can you talk to me a bit about how you and your team are using HyperTrack?
Enhancing Client Confidence with Real-Time Location Data for Freelance Workers
Conor
Sure. Gigable uses HyperTrack in a number of ways. Primarily we track our workers who are hired for shifts to our platform and when a worker begins a shift, they'll check into the Gigable app and to start their shift, which initiates a trip in HyperTrack and for as long as that worker is checked in, they can be then viewed in what we call our business portal, which is a web app that we make available to our business users and they can track that worker for the duration of their shift. So as long as they're checked in, they can be viewed on our live map and the business has visibility of all of their workers and who's checked in where they are at all times.
Interviewer
Excellent. What is your favorite thing about HyperTrack?
Conor
My favorite thing about HyperTrack is probably working with the people inside it. I think I've had some great relationships and great conversations with members of their product team, development team and indeed at their C level and everyone's very easy to work with. They have a great culture and a great vision and it's been a pleasure to work with HyperTrack over these last couple of years.
Interviewer
Great. What would you say is the main problem that HyperTrack solves for you?
Solidifying Workforce Transparency and Proof of Work Verification
"The main problem HyperTrack solves for Gigable is providing transparency around the work that's completed on our platform, [the] proof of work that comes with HyperTrack. "
Conor
So before we had HyperTrack, the kinds of problems that we were facing was that we'd have work completed on our platform, but business users wouldn't have a lot of confidence that work was actually completed or completed the way that the freelancer might've claimed or invoiced for that work. Once we started using HyperTrack, that problem was solved, we could now show our business users a very transparent tracked view of exactly where that worker was at all times and it really alleviates that concern from the business user. Was that person where they said they were, did they turn up to the shift on time? Did they do the work as completed? Did they do all their deliveries? Where were they at a particular time during their shift? All of these questions are now resolved. So before we started using HyperTrack, we would have to try and figure out these things ourselves.
The main problem HyperTrack solves for Gigable is providing transparency around the work that's completed on our platform. There is a proof of work that comes with HyperTrack. It allows us to show and prove to business users that the freelance workers that they hired on our platform did indeed turn up for their shifts and did the work as described. They can see exactly when and where they were at all stages throughout their shift, which gives business users a lot more confidence in using our platform and really helps bring value to those business users.
Before HyperTrack, we would try and talk to the worker, maybe talk with the business and if there's any dates about payments, it often became a bit of an impasse and was a bit difficult to solve because it's one version of truth against the other.
However, with HyperTrack we are now removing any kind of opinions from the equation and we have a kind of version of truth. We can show them exactly where the worker was at all times. There's no more doubts, there's no more concerns. The freelancer worker can now invoice their work appropriately and the business user paying the gig can have confidence that the work was done as the freelancer claimed.
The Revenue Impact of Real Time Location Data
"As Gigable starts to grow, we're moving into new markets and new verticals and we're reconsidering some of the features we have with HyperTrack and looking at new ways to take advantage of a lot of the features that they have."
Interviewer
If you don't have that source of truth, what impact would that have on your business? what are the ramifications to your business?
Conor
There are serious ramifications to your business if you don't have confidence in paying your shifts or paying your workers. And I think primarily the biggest, most obvious one is lost revenue. One of our most trusted clients and one of our bigger clients is a security company here in Ireland and they'll often have maybe a hundred plus workers on site at one particular time and it's very difficult for them as a business to know for sure who turned up and who did what work.
It just becomes very difficult to manage, especially when you have a high number of workers to a low number of managers on site. So what our platform is able to do is give them confidence, it solves that problem for them.
They know exactly when people checked in when they left, and if there's any kind of concerns about that, they're able to then check that data in HyperTrack and replay an entire shift for each worker or indeed just see all of their workers at one time.
So it's kind of getting rid of spreadsheets and manual processes that are prone to human error and a lot of admin work and instead it alleviates all of that stress and allows you just to focus on what's important for your business and not be worried about who turned up or did they turn up. All of these questions are answered.
Interviewer
And is there anything that isn't working for you or that you'd like to see improve?
Conor
There's nothing that comes to mind that needs to be improved with HyperTrack internally in Gigable, I wish I had more time and more resources to fully take advantage of all of their offerings. There are a lot of features that Gigable plan to release next year and in the coming months to fully leverage and fully realize all the capabilities that HyperTrack has. We're working in a lot of different verticals and offer a lot of different features primarily around delivery, but as Gigable starts to grow, we're moving into new markets and new verticals and we're reconsidering some of the features we have with HyperTrack and looking at new ways to take advantage of a lot of the features that they have.
Interviewer
So how do you and your team feel now that you have HyperTrack up and running?
Conor
HyperTrack is a bit of a game changer for Gigable and certainly has been and it's definitely a feature that, or a partner I should say, that we really, really value. We're really excited for the future of our relationship with HyperTrack. As I kind of mentioned, we are only just starting to tap into the value that we can get from HyperTrack and I think we're having some discussions internally with HyperTrack about our roadmap and some exciting new features. So HyperTrack has been a game changer for Gigable and we are delighted to have this partnership with HyperTrack.
Now that we use HyperTrack extensively in our products, we are looking forward to fully taking advantage of all of the capabilities that HyperTrack has to offer. Gigable is expanding into new markets, new verticals, and each of those pose new challenges and new requirements. We primarily focus in food delivery and delivery and security at work as well at the moment, which HyperTrack lends itself to quite well. And as we look to new markets and new verticals, we're looking to work with HyperTrack to develop new features still based on GPS tracking, be it geofencing or any other kind of custom features we need to build around tracking and we're looking forward to that kind of partnership only strengthening in the future with HyperTrack.
Elevating the User Experience: Gigable's Advanced Tracking with HyperTrack
"The feature for us being able to offer this live tracking map and this transparency piece through HyperTrack for our business users has greatly increased their confidence in our platform."
Interviewer
Perfect. What are some of the main results that you've seen?
Conor
I think some of the most obvious results for us is retention and user satisfaction. The feature for us being able to offer this live tracking map and this transparency piece through HyperTrack for our business users has greatly increased their confidence in our platform. It's greatly increased our retention and our engagement. They've a lot more value to get out of our platform. It's not just about scheduling and managing and paying your gigs. They also have an interactive map that is very kind of visually communicates a lot of information and it's very valuable to them, especially when they're managing large numbers of gigs at the same time and they need to know where their workers are.
Interviewer
Where would you say are you seeing the biggest benefits from HyperTrack?
Conor
The main benefit for HyperTrack for Gigable is its flexibility. We work in multiple different verticals and different industries and tracking and GPS tracking has proven itself to be invaluable in all of these different verticals. Whether it's in security and events, delivery drivers, couriers, any kind of industry where tracking can provide value now means that that's an industry that Gigable can potentially operate in.
So being able to partner with HyperTrack and provide value through the GPS tracking has allowed us to enter new markets and new verticals potentially by providing this unique value and this kind of USP that other providers or other platforms in those spaces don't have.
Interviewer
Awesome. Are there any particular features that are most valuable to you? And if so, why?
Conor
One of the features Gigable was most interested in recently is HyperTrack's nearby search. It's not something that we've actually leveraged in our product yet, but that's something that's on our roadmap for 2024 and this will allow us to find nearby workers in the event of a cancellation or if we want to find if there's a certain number of workers in a certain area, we can easily do that using this nearby search.
Why HyperTrack
"I would absolutely recommend HyperTrack to anyone looking to incorporate tracking services in their products."
Interviewer
Great. And that last question here, would you recommend HyperTrack? And if so, why?
Conor
I would absolutely recommend HyperTrack to anyone looking to incorporate tracking services in their products. Gigable has had great success working with HyperTrack over these last few years and the people in HyperTrack have been extremely supportive, a joy to work with and their product has been extremely valuable to integrate into Gigable.
Read more about Gigable here.