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Giffgaff

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Giffgaff
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustryTelecommunications
Founded25 November 2009
HeadquartersBeaconsfield, United Kingdom
Area served
United Kingdom
Key people
Gav Thompson,

Mike Fairman (CEO),

Vincent Boon (Community Manager)
ProductsMobile telecommunications products and services
Number of employees
20+
ParentTelefónica O2 UK Limited
Websitegiffgaff.com

Giffgaff is a mobile phone service based in the United Kingdom. It operates as a mobile virtual network operator using the O2 network. It is wholly owned by O2 and launched on 25 November 2009.[1]

Giffgaff differs from conventional mobile phone operators in that the users of the service may also participate in certain aspects of the company's operation, e.g. sales, customer service and marketing. In return for this activity, the user receives remuneration through a system called "Payback".

History

Giffgaff was founded by Gav Thompson, the head of brand strategy at O2, who is reported to have come up with the idea after studying Web 2.0 businesses in San Francisco in 2008. The principles behind the formation of the company were set out in the Giffgaff manifesto.[2]

The word giffgaff is Scottish English meaning mutual giving and was chosen to fit with the principles outlined in the manifesto. The strapline for Giffgaff was "the mobile network run by you" to reflect the fact that some users of the service help run various aspects of the operation.

During the first year of operation in 2010, giffgaff won two industry awards, the Forrester Groundswell Award in November and the Most Innovative Community Award at the Social CRM Customer Excellence Awards.[3][4] In November giffgaff was also nominated as one of the five finalists for the Marketing Society's Brand of the Year, but lost out to the department store John Lewis.[5]

On 16th March 2012 GiffGaff had a service outage due to a burst water pipe[6], All of the website except for the community and the home page went down, and users were unable to access their settings. The community scrutinised GiffGaff for this failure and some threatened to leave the network, since along with the network going down, the back-up servers to enable the service to continue running did not function correctly.

Products and services

SIM card

File:Free-giffgaff-sim.png
Giffgaff SIM card

The core product is a SIM card, which supports all standard 2G and 3G services. It can be obtained in two ways, either ordered directly from the website or as a gift from an existing member (the "member get member" scheme). A card ordered from another member has an additional £5 airtime added when it is activated by the recipient and topped up with a minimum of £10. Further top up payments can be added through the website either using a UK credit or debit card or by redeeming an eVoucher purchased from a payzone epay or PayPoint.[7] Unlike other networks, there are no swipe cards that can be used to purchase top ups directly in store. The eVoucher method of payment was introduced in June 2010.

The member needs to have an unlocked mobile phone in order to use the SIM, although phones locked to the O2 network will also work.[8] The terms and conditions prevent the use of tethering, except when gigabags are purchased for the SIM (see below).

On 15 April 2010 the first major new tariff product was launched called goodybags. These offer bundles of text messages, mobile internet and voice minutes from a varying price range, which last for one month at a time. Goodybags may be purchased from the prepaid account balance or by credit or debit card at any time.

In June 2011, the Hokey Cokey product was launched, which combines a £5 goodybag with free extra minutes for every minute of Incoming calls. This was followed later in the year by data only bundles called Gigabags, launched on 17 October. This allows a giffgaff SIM to be used in USB modems or other data only devices such as the iPad.[9]

BlackBerry services were launched on1 February 2012. They can be purchased with some goodybags for £3 monthly.[10]

Customer service

The main method of customer service relies on members of the network providing answers to questions raised by others. There is also a small customer service team which provides further support when issues cannot be resolved directly by members, for example credit card issues. A forum on the website has an active community where these questions are raised, but answers may not always be definitive. Integration with facebook and twitter was introduced in October 2010 to provide other channels for customer support.[11][12]

Giffgaff labs

New product ideas are tested initially in Giffgaff labs, available to all members for a short period.[13] If they are popular, they may be incorporated into the main product, and are withdrawn if not. The labs' products are also beta tested by selected community members before release.

The first product from Giffgaff labs was introduced in September 2010. It provided calls for 2p and texts for 1p in return for a £5 monthly payment. This product was withdrawn after the trial period.

The second labs product, nicknamed "Hokey Cokey", was introduced in December 2010. For £5, the customer got 60 minutes, 300 texts and a free extra minute for every eligible incoming minute.[14]. This product left the labs in June 2011 and became an official product.

BlackBerry services left the labs on February 1st 2012, after many delays.

Community provided applications

In July 2010, two iPhone apps and a Nokia app were released to help users manage their account and access the forums.[15][16] A notable part of these announcements was that the apps were produced by members of the giffgaff community rather than the company itself.

Payback

Giffgaff enables members to earn points that can be exchanged for money, which is redeemed in one of three ways: either as airtime credit, as cash which is sent directly to a PayPal account, or as a donation sent to a community-nominated charity, the value of which is matched by Giffgaff. Each point is worth one penny; these are redeemed every six months, on 15 June and 15 December. The first payback was made on 15 June 2010 and on the most recent payback in December 2011 Giffgaff paid out over £700,000 to its customers.[17]

References

  1. ^ Bradshaw, Tim (3 January 2010). "Original ideas suggest customer knows best". Financial Times. Retrieved 13 January 2010.
  2. ^ "The giffgaff manifesto". Giffgaff.com. Retrieved 23 December 2010.
  3. ^ giffgaff embrace prestigious social media award. "Forrester Groundswell Award". Community.giffgaff.com. Retrieved 23 December 2010.
  4. ^ giffgaff: winner of Most Innovative Community award (20 May 2010). "Social CRM Excellence award". Community.giffgaff.com. Retrieved 23 December 2010.
  5. ^ "2010 Marketing Society Brand of the year finals". Brandrepublic.com. 19 November 2010. Retrieved 23 December 2010.
  6. ^ "GiffGaff Community forums - Problems with the service 16/03/2012". 16 March 2012. Retrieved 16 March 2012.
  7. ^ "eVouchers roll out plan". Community.giffgaff.com. Retrieved 23 December 2010.
  8. ^ "Giffgaff sims in o2 phones". Community.giffgaff.com. Retrieved 25 January 2011.
  9. ^ "Giffgaff Data Goodybags". giffgaff.com. Retrieved 25 October 2011.
  10. ^ [1]
  11. ^ giffgaff Facebook integration (5 October 2010). "announcement about facebook integration". Community.giffgaff.com. Retrieved 23 December 2010. {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  12. ^ Integrating Twitter and the community. "announcement about twitter integration". Community.giffgaff.com. Retrieved 23 December 2010. {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  13. ^ "launch of giffgaff labs". Community.giffgaff.com. Retrieved 23 December 2010.
  14. ^ "What is the giffgaff labs". Community.giffgaff.com. Retrieved 26 January 2011.
  15. ^ Our first giffgaff iPhone apps (20 July 2010). "Launch of first iPhone apps". Community.giffgaff.com. Retrieved 23 December 2010.
  16. ^ First giffgaff app in the Nokia Ovi Store (30 July 2010). "Launch of app in Nokia Ovi store". Community.giffgaff.com. Retrieved 23 December 2010.
  17. ^ Payback Email Update (16 December 2011). "£700,000 payback". Community.giffgaff.com. Retrieved 15 December 2011. {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)

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