3 new projects members are involved in

Over the last 6 months, we have needed to adapt our approach for member involvement at giffgaff. With members no longer able to travel to the office to test new features, we’ve been doing more surveys and remote testing through video calls.

No matter what happens, giffgaff will always be able to involve members in everything that we do. Read on to find out what we’ve been up to, together with our members.

2020 Brand Campaign

It’s important to giffgaff that we continue to hero our members. You’ve been selflessly donating money to some really good causes and we wanted to be able to give something back. Everyone has been facing these difficult and challenging times so it felt right for us as a brand to talk about community. You can read more about the campaign here. If you want to read some behind the scenes tidbits, then keep reading.

The team managed to get some ad time on the radio (as we know more people are listening to the radio since being home) but how are we going to meet and record audio of members if we need to keep to social distance rules? The answer: Zoom.

I’m so delighted to say that member @bluemoonbaz is the star of our campaign this year. He’s been a member at giffgaff for many years and has done so much for giffgaff and his fellow members so it’s wonderful to give him the spotlight. And if you like hearing about what goes on behind the scenes, the recording was actually recorded by bluemoonbaz himself. How cool is that? A true run by you moment.

You’ll hear our campaign on multiple radio stations, across social media, YouTube, and the giffgaff site. Oh, and we are also taking his message to TV so you can see how the audio comes to life visually. You can listen to the advert below.

Nice one @bluemoonbaz, you’re a legend.

Improving the ‘joining giffgaff’ experience

From one exciting news to the next. Being an online only business it’s really important that we give members a positive and trustworthy experience the moment they activate their SIM.

The part of the joining experience I’m talking about is called the “Setup wizard”. This nifty tool guides members through:

• checking their coverage,
• making sure their data settings are right,
• finding and getting help,
• checking their voicemail,
• bringing their number to giffgaff.

Some really useful stuff to help every member get started. We also have the missions which are more of a nice to know experience.

The product team looking into improving this experience is called “the member team”. They carried out 3 research methods. The first was to gather some quantitative insights. We asked giffgaff pioneers to answer a survey asking them what they expect when they first join giffgaff.

That helped the team know what their hypothesis is which helped shape the second part of their research. The team spoke to 5 members to find out what their experience was like, as well as testing a few activation journeys. Below is a picture detailing some quotes from 2 of our participants.

The team was able to establish the best terms to use for activation, how easy or difficult it is to bring their number to giffgaff and whether there’s enough instruction on the SIM packs that are received in the post. Other important details that were highlighted as nice to know’s, is having access to handy numbers. Like your voicemail number.

New app updates

Some of you may have seen that the giffgaff app has been going through lots of changes over the last few months. Originally we were developing the app as a “beta” and invited some giffgaff pioneers to help us by using the app and giving us any feedback or ideas that will make their lives simpler.

The team has taken all the feedback they have received within the app and community and they decided it was a good idea to add biometric login. This extra level of security is really important for lots of members. Another example of how our members keep us honest and make sure we deliver something that’s right for them. Thank you!

This isn’t the end of the journey. Will, the product manager for the app, has shared the latest update about rolling the app to the rest of our member base. If you have any ideas or suggestions for the team, come and talk to us on the community here.

And for those of you who are interested in seeing what the app’s roadmap looks like, check out our Trello Board. We’re currently working on building the SIM activation journey with goodybag card payments and continuing to monitor the app’s performance while we roll out the app to the rest of our member base.

Coming up

I couldn’t just finish this blog without telling you what’s coming up so you can get involved too.

• Ongoing research to find out how members behaviours have changed and adapted to the new normal from Covid-19 which will hopefully shape future deals, around Black Friday.
• We’ve been busy improving the technology in our payment systems. Currently we can only offer a few things at once, like goodybags and limited amounts of credit. The best thing about this new system is that it’ll let us add more of the features and services that members like you have said they want. We’re not saying that you can now pay for flying unicorn taxis through giffgaff. But if they were real, then with this system maybe you could.
• With so much going on, we’re inviting more members to join the giffgaff pioneers community. We will be emailing a random sample of our member base - new and old members, all around the UK, to come and get involved. Keep your eyes peeled!

And that’s it.

Thank you for reading and keep safe.