The giffgaff Solution, as presented by Robbie Hearn, Head of Member Experience. Reported from the Lithium Network Conference in San Francisco.
Started in 2009 in the UK, giffgaff sells mobile phone SIM cards. Its tagline is "The mobile network run by you," and they say that literally. Their elevator description is, "Our members get rewarded for running parts of our business like answering questions in the community, getting new members or helping make us famous. This means we keep our costs low and pass the savings back to our members."
giffgaff took a leap of faith in entrusting their customer service to the customers themselves, and they have set up an ecosystem where customers also influence their product development and provide expert advice for users of specific phones and specific telecomm providers.
It's a 100% online business that operates in a way that breaks down barriers between the company and the people it refers to as "members." Members have direct contact with giffgaff staff in a relationship Hearn calls "mutuality."
The community was actually launched before giffgaff had product to sell. From the interaction involving avid cellphone users, the company learned more about what to sell and how to sell it. It learned where the boundaries existed between different subcommunities of users with different levels of skill.
In one example, Hearn told how a member voluntarily took on the role of answer provider for one of the phone-based groups. He delivered service above and beyond any expectations, and in doing so he validated the model that giffgaff hoped would work.
The values underlying giffgaff include "playfullness" and members earn points through their participation and contribution of time and expertise. Members serve as product testers and idea submitters - over 200 such ideas have been implemented.
Members are allowed to set up their own sites through which they market giffgaff products and services, and when the iPhone4 was released with its microsim format, giffgaffers on their own trimmed down giffgaff SIMs to fit the new phone, all with the company's approval. Members created their own distribution network to support iPhone4 users.
giffgaff does very little traditional or online marketing, relying almost entirely on word-of-mouth publicity. Their operating model has proven itself financially, with high customer satisfaction in the UK. Hearn describes the management of the community as "more tools, less rules," where more value is put on educators than on moderators.