Giffgaff's data-based collaborative culture should make GDPR compliance easier, says head of BI
'We want to listen, we want to collaborate, and we want to create mutual benefits using data', says Helen Mannion
Telecoms operators are among the most data-centric companies in the world. Not only do they manage the routing of phone calls and internet traffic, they also have access to highly personal customer data, including where we've been, who we've spoken to, which websites we have visited and much more.
Giffgaff, the UK mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) that runs on the O2 network, is determined to use that information for the benefit of both company and customer (or "member" as Giffgaff describes its users).
That is according to Helen Mannion, head of business intelligence. While it may be owned by Spanish telecoms giant Telefonica, Giffgaff is built on a cooperative model, she says.
"We want to listen, we want to collaborate, and we want to create mutual benefits using data. We are rooted in community and mutuality," says Mannion, speaking to Computing at a DataIQ event.
The company, which was formed in 2009 and now has 200 staff, bases as many of its decisions on data as possible.
"The management have embedded a good culture of data," says Mannion. "They want the data to inform their decisions. This makes my job a lot easier; to sell them data solutions that can deliver benefits from the data."
Mannion's team is embedded as a centralised function, using data to improve operational efficiency, and to inform the decision-making of sales, marketing and finance, among others. "This gives us full overview and reduces duplication," Mannion explains.
So how is Giffgaff using its members data and what benefits do they see? Mannion mentions 'member lifetime value' and econometrics overlaid with MLD (mean log deviation, a measure of income inequality) as two examples. This latter measure feeds into Giffgaff's credit vetting programme .
"Lots of people are not accepted by traditional credit agencies, so we ask, 'Are we okay to accept them based on what we know about them?'," she says. "That way they get a phone loan or retail loan that they wouldn't otherwise get, and we sell more phones. It's a win-win."
Mannion's team has also been working on machine learning for automated modelling systems for next-best-action analyses and cleaning up their data sources.
"We've been getting our behavioural data in order", she says, adding: "We are looking to add more attitudinal data now. We want to understand our members better, what their needs are."
Preparing for the GDPR
The benefits to both company and customer from using behavioural and attitudinal data are easy to understand. What is much harder to gauge is how much of this data Giffgaff should use and how. With the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) coming into effect next year, much more clarity is required around the use of sensitive data.
Mannion acknowledges that big changes are coming, but believes that Giffgaff's culture of collaboration and listening should give it a good start, although she says it's early days in the company's journey towards full compliance with the GDPR and other similar legislation.
"We are doing a lot of work to get the language right," she says. "We don't want anything to be hidden away. We want to be transparent and helpful in order to build relationships with members - which will hopefully get them to stay with us longer."
Asked whether members will be able to opt-out of certain forms of tracking and data collection, Mannion said that this had not been decided yet. But she pointed to examples where Giffgaff has quickly taken members' feedback on board.
"We used to have an opt-out checkbox for recurring [monthly subscriptions]. The members said they didn't like that so we took it out. But then, later, we found that most people wanted subscriptions to recur so we asked them shall we make that automatic, and they said 'yes' so we put the opt-out box back."
Members also asked for their credit-card information to be removed from the site. "They said, 'We want more freedom to check that you've really deleted our information and it won't be re-used', so we said 'fine' and we did it."
This culture should make compliance easier for Giffgaff than for other less digitally-oriented firms, she suggests.
"It's pretty rare to find a company with that kind of joined up view."