“Community” is a fashionable word at the moment, both in political circles and in the virtual world of online social networking sites. What does it mean in practice when applied to a mobile phone network? giffgaff was formed by Gav Thompson, the Head of Brand Strategy at O2, in 2009, inspired by some of the Web businesses that he came across in the US. It now has over 100,000 members – and the term is members rather than customers. The business is actually partly run by its community, who deliver the main technical and problem-solving support through the online customer service forum, and are also integral to marketing and innovation.
For those who haven’t come across them, giffgaff is a pay-as-you-go service, that runs off O2’s network. Given that O2 has one of the best coverages nationally of all the major network providers, this is certainly not a disadvantage. Interestingly, 30% of new members who signed up last year switched from pay-monthly deals.
giffgaff’s core product is a sim card which supports all standard 2G and 3G services, and over the past three years they have built other offerings around their core product. Sim card deals from giffgaff include the offer of a free card when you join the community and cashback for recruiting other members. If you know of someone who is already a member of the giffgaff community you can order a card through them and gain an additional £5 airtime when you activate it and add a minimum £10 top up.
Of course with a sim only scheme you need an unlocked phone; if you are already with O2 then your current mobile will work with a giffgaff sim card. Tariffs are very attractive – on a market comparison with the main network providers, giffgaff appears to offer one of the lowest per minute prices.
Comments most frequently heard from members of the giffgaff community refer to their appreciation of the flexibility offered by the pay-as-you-go structure, allowing you to choose to change your tariff from one month to the next, depending on your circumstances. You can also decide to “bank” your goodybags (bundles of text and voice minutes, and unlimited Internet access) by piling up several in your account so that when one runs out the next automatically kicks in.
New services are being added to the core offering all the time, and in February 12 Blackberry Services were launched. More recently dual format sim cards were introduced, which can be used both in GSM phones and those that use micro sims. giffgaff community members also take part in the testing of new products, and suggest designs themselves – two apps that are now available were contributed by giffgaff’s community members.
