Vodafone announced today the very extensive set of measures it has taken in Romania in the context of trying to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus, and we are talking about many beneficial decisions both for the group's customers and for employees throughout the country.
"Bucharest, March 20, 2020 - The health and safety of our employees and customers is the number 1 priority of Vodafone Romania. The presence of COVID-19 in Romania has a significant impact on our everyday life, changing the way we interact, work, learn, and spend our free time.
"At Vodafone we make every effort to support all our customers, whether they are companies, authorities and government departments, medical institutions, residential customers, ensuring them the best quality connectivity and the communication services they need especially in this difficult period. Many companies rely on our services to ensure the continuity of their businesses. For those who work remotely, it is essential that broadband and mobile connectivity services support them in everything they need to do. As a provider of critical connectivity and communications services that support our digital society, Vodafone Romania has activated its Business Continuity Plan and implemented specific procedures to monitor and ensure rapid response whenever needed. Our main objective is to serve the Romanian society as best as possible in such difficult times in the way that Vodafone really can. I am very proud of our team that works tirelessly to do everything needed for our customers and to support Romanian society", said Murielle Lorilloux, CEO of Vodafone Romania.
Employees are our priority - work from home, wherever possible
Starting last week, Vodafone Romania intensified the work from home system, adopting this model in all business functions where this was possible. Currently, all our employees from all over the country who were working in offices are working remotely, including all customer relations teams.
"Our employees are at the center of all our actions, and their health and safety are essential. In just a few days, we managed to successfully move the entire client relations activity out of the office, into a work-from-home system, while maintaining, at the same time, the quality level of customer services. It was a huge challenge and the success would not have been possible without the remarkable effort and sustained work of all our teams, who made all the necessary efforts to move to the new way of working, continuing to be there for our customers, without interruption. I am very proud of our team and take this opportunity to thank them for their dedication! Andreea, who answers customer calls at *222, works safely from the office and, although it is the first automatic speech recognition service in Romania, we are working intensively to adapt her skills to the new requirements of our customers", said Ioana Mihailescu, Director Customer Operations, Vodafone Romania.
Vodafone Romania has taken protective and preventive measures for store employees. They remain open, with strict social distancing and the application of health and safety practices. Thus, we have already reduced the hours in stores to 6 hours a day. We have also implemented restricted access in stores, one person for each available agent. Floor indicators with the safety distance that must be respected have been installed in the store network. All changes to the working hours of Vodafone Romania stores are available at: https://www.vodafone.ro/magazine-vodafone/index.htm.
Our field teams - technicians, maintenance and installation teams - especially those who work directly with customers, they received protective equipment and were trained on the preventive actions they must take to protect themselves and their customers.
We will constantly monitor the situation at the national level and act accordingly to protect our employees, as necessary. We are in constant and close contact with the national health authorities to ensure that we comply with any additional recommendations.
The best services for our customers
Our mission, now more than ever, is to keep all customers connected and to provide them with all the communication services they need to work and learn, to stay in touch with family and friends, to have access to medical and emergency services.
Vodafone Romania has announced adapted offers to support customers by facilitating communication with family and friends. Thus, all our customers, subscribers or users of prepaid services, benefit from unlimited free calls to Romania from France, Italy, Spain, Germany and Great Britain until March 31. Also, Vodafone Romania has introduced for its customers a free bonus with 300 international minutes to mobile and fixed networks for calls to Italy, Spain, Germany, France, Great Britain and Austria, a bonus valid for 28 days for prepaid users and 30 days for customers with subscriptions. The bonus can be activated in My Vodafone or at *100#, International.
For corporate customers, Vodafone Romania offers several options, depending on the needs of their business: 300 free international minutes in mobile and fixed networks to Italy, Spain, Germany, France, Great Britain, Austria and all countries in the European Economic Area up to 31st of March. In addition, business customers can activate an additional option of unlimited national voice or data or 600 free international minutes within the European Economic Area, until April 15.
More adapted offers will be implemented in the shortest time to further help all consumers in a relevant way. All updates of Vodafone Romania offers and solutions will be posted on our official pages: https://www.vodafone.ro/personal/info-covid19/index.htm and Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vodafonero.
At the same time, we encourage all our customers to use Vodafone's online services. Customers of subscription-based services can view their invoice at http://factura.vodafone.ro and pay their invoice in My Vodafone or directly on our website: https://bit.ly/2xAnMND. Users of prepaid cards can recharge them using the My Vodafone application or on our website at www.vodafone.ro/reincarcare.
Vodafone Romania is well positioned to support an increase in network traffic, which has proven its capabilities over the years, a fact also reflected by the P3 certification for the Best Mobile Data Network in Romania (Best Mobile Network for Data) received in previous years. Our team is ready to offer the same quality of services for our clients. Vodafone Romania will expand the network capacity as much as possible to manage the growing demand. We will also take all measures to ensure that any possible network congestion will not have a negative impact on mission critical and other essential communications during this time, such as telephone and digital access to health and education, or the ability of people to work from home. In today's context where so many people work from home and education has moved online, it is important that all our customers understand that using communications services in a responsible manner will allow everyone to benefit from quality communications services. quality."
