EE to reopen retail stores in England with virtual queueing measures and enforced social distancing as lockdown eases

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• New physical safety and social distancing measures introduced in EE and BT stores to abide by Government Covid-19 social distancing and health and safety guidelines

• Phased roll out starts in England on 15^th June – with half of stores in England open by the end of the first week, where we can safely do so

• EE’s GreetMe virtual queueing system enables customers to book an in-store appointment

EE and BT are re-opening their retail stores in England from the 15th June as part of a phased roll-out to help customers with personal, local support and the best possible customer experience.

After an enormous amount of hard work to prepare our stores for reopening, and as the Covid-19 lockdown eases, we’re introducing a range of measures to help ensure the safety of our customers and colleagues. We’ve gone over and above Government guidelines to ensure every store has its own tailored set of social distancing standards and introduced safety measures such as screens between customers and our retail team, with optional face covering and visors for colleagues.

A limited number of people will be permitted in stores at any one time in order to help enforce social distancing. EE’s GreetMe virtual queueing system will enable customers to book in-store or callback appointments. Customers will be given an allotted time, or alerted via SMS when a retail advisor is ready to help them.

We want every single one of our people and customers to feel safe when they return to work – and ready to play their part in rebooting the high street.

We’re reopening our stores only where it is safe to do so, starting with two of our stores in Northern Ireland on 8^th June.

Lee Frankham, Retail Director at EE and BT, said: "At this difficult time for everyone, there is no substitute for personal, local service. We're ready to re-open our stores to help our customers with the connections and help they need.

"Keeping our customers and our people safe is our number one priority, and we’ve been working tirelessly to introduce measures so everyone can be confident to visit our stores knowing that we can look after them and each other. We’re thankful to our amazing retail colleagues who have been helping customers online during the past month, and we are looking forward to welcoming customers back to our stores."

Many of EE’s retail colleagues have been working at home throughout the past 10 weeks, assisting their contact centre colleagues over the phone and online in managing customers’ general enquiries, technical support and advice for those who need it. 

With more than 90 EE and BT retail stores getting ready to re-open their doors to customers from 15th June, a dedicated training module will be completed by teams to reinforce health and safety, retail social distancing and hygiene measures.

These new measures include, but are not limited to:

• An EE colleague welcoming customers safely and appointing a retail advisor to help them

• GreetMe virtual queueing system: if a customer visits when the store is at capacity, they will receive a message when the shop is ready to welcome them back, or be given an allotted time to return

• We’re also introducing callback appointments

• A limited number of people in stores and floor markings in order to help safely observe social distancing

• Screens in key areas of the store between customers and retail colleagues

• Optional face covering and visors for our people

• Hand sanitiser stations and increased cleaning. We’ll thoroughly clean any device a colleague or customer needs to touch before and after handling, and we’ll be regularly cleaning our stores, including displays

• All stores will now move to contactless payments only and only use chip and pin where necessary, no cash will be exchanged on the premises

The stores will have virtual demos available, complete with images, specifications, and comparison tool, showing customers our full range of products while observing social distancing guidelines. 3D Views enables customers to see a device in full, rotating as needed, with help guides detailing step-by-step instructions.

Rachel Corrales, store manager, said: “I honestly can’t wait to get back to the shop floor. I’ve really missed the daily personal interaction with my customers, and of course my team. But we’ve all been in this together, keeping each other motivated.

“We know it’s going to be different for us all going back to our store, but we’ve found new ways to demo products to customers through our Product Finder tool and our new virtual queuing system GreetMe will enable us to safely manage customer visits to stores. For example, if we’re at a capacity in store we’ll be able to take a customer’s details and send them a text when it’s time for them to come back.”

The safety of our colleagues and customers remains our number one. We’ll be listening to retail staff and customers to be able to adapt to changes, whilst continuing to provide the best service and keeping our colleagues as safe as possible.