Member name change - trial

[#1]

Hello everyone,

My name is Shiv, and I work in one of the development teams here at giffgaff. I've been really excited about talking to our community for a while and I’m happy to announce a new trial we are starting tomorrow.

What sparked the trial?

From our investigations, we can see that quite a large number of people that want to join giffgaff get a bit stuck when it comes to choosing a member name and don’t continue with the journey. If you pop on over to our member ideas platform, giffgaff Labs, we’ve seen our fair share of ideas related to the member name and improving that journey, so we know that this is something our members care about.

So, what are we trialling?

We decided to put our heads together and came up with a prototype that we think it could be the foundation for many beneficial changes in the future.

When a new member signs up giffgaff for the first time and goes through activation, we will now provide an auto-generated member name for them. They don't like the name? No problem. They’ll be able to change or confirm this member name when they first log into their account after activation.

To make sure that everyone knows what their member name is and how they can change it, we have a follow up email after activation that will guide them into the process. There will also be a confirmation screen on their first log in, just to double check that they are happy with the member name.

Want to see how the journey looks? Have a look in the spoiler below.   ( we will come back with more screenshots)

Click to reveal

Registration pageConfirm member name pageChange member name 

How long will this trial last?

It depends on how quickly our new members can trial it. Because this is quite a significant change if we go ahead with it, we want to make sure we have a representative number of members going through his journey. As soon as we hit that number we will stop, regroup, share the findings with you and make a decision.

What are the benefits and ambitions that come with this prototype?

The one clear and immediate benefit is that, by making the joining journey smoother for any new members, the process becomes quicker and easier. For the long term, we see this trial as the first step into looking at opportunities when it comes to the member name. Starting small and giving everyone the chance to understand what is needed in order to make even more changes is, we believe, the best way to move things forward in making the experience as smooth and enjoyable as possible.

Exciting times ahead, folks!  Hope you all are as excited about this as we are.

Here are some Q&As that might help:

Click to reveal

So how are the new members going to access account without member name ?

Behind the scene we are auto generating member name for member and showing it on the order page after successful activation.

I forgot/missed my auto generated member name ?

We are sending a welcome email which has the auto generated member name front and centre.

But what if I don’t like my auto generated member name ?

We are still allowing member to change their member name. After successful activation there will be a link to change/confirm member name where member can change their member name once. This information is also presented in the welcome email sent after activation and just in case they missed that, when they first log in after activation they will be presented with a Confirm/Change member name screen.

How many times I can change my member name ?

Currently we are running prototype test so for now you can change only once.

I am an existing member can I change my member name ?

Unfortunately, not this time but we are working on providing that feature in future.

[#2]

Thanks for the update @shivanshuit914

I think you should highlight, if you're not doing so already, in the email and on the name change screen that:

• members are only allowed ONE username change
• their username will be displayed on a publicly viewable forum if they decide to post at any time
• they should take their time to choose a replacement username which they won't regret later

[#3]

Thanks @endorphin! valid points. We just need to find the right balance in displaying the right info without it becoming overwhelming. But that is what trials and prototypes are for, I believe. We all learn from them and there is always the chance to improve.

I am really looking fwd to this and what it can become in the future

[#4]

Unfortunately @roxy_r no matter how hard you stress those points there will always be some who overlook/ignore/don't fully understand them!

[#5]

endorphin wrote:

Thanks for the update @shivanshuit914

I think you should highlight, if you're not doing so already, in the email and on the name change screen that:

• members are only allowed ONE username change
• their username will be displayed on a publicly viewable forum if they decide to post at any time
• they should take their time to choose a replacement username which they won't regret later

@endorphin Thanks for the feedback. On each point:

• There's copy present that states this, but it's admittedly currently in "fine print" that could be overlooked.
• That's implied in the copy currently, but could be made clearer probably.
• There's "choose wisely" copy, but it's again in the fine print.

We'll discuss these points with our written words experts and see what we can come up with. Both you and @roxy_r make perfectly valid points.

[#6]

@shivanshuit914  @alex_w @roxy_r

This does have the potential to be a good development  ,  It also has the potential to go wrong  ( be confusing  ) , I think the points made by @endorphin are  things that DO need top be made clearer  ( to avoid people missing the information )  , if the implementation  ( trial ) of this goes well it should be a worthwhile step forward ....Hope it goes well . 

[#7]

This is fantastic

[#8]

@shivanshuit914 @roxy_r@alex_w

This is good for new members but what about existing members how will they be able to change there membername?

[#9]

Hi @shivanshuit914 @roxy_r @alex_w

This is so awesome.

Benefits apart from this would be that their will be less time activating (and trying to figure out a username)

Also no more swear words, phone number etc. (however i would be interested to know would the creating a account for forum only still exist as part of this process ? (personally i would prevent this option and focus on the need for creating a new username for forum to be eliminated (changing username once would be one step)

Improvement - would the user get a text message to say Nice one you sim cad is fully activated. Here is your login username. Just wonder as it would help tell the new comer of their username and that the sim card is activated. One hammer two nails haha. 

This is the idea - https://labs.giffgaff.com/idea/14406707/ability-to-change-username (it has 156 votes currently but i am sure their was and are more vote around somewhere) So today giffgaff has made 156 people and more happier

[#10]

Wow this is great long awaited feature for alot of members, I can't wait to see it being rolled out for existing members aswell, and to see who actually changes their username.