Customers

Customers are one of the most important stakeholders for the company, which understands that connecting with them is key for the Cellnex model to function successfully.

To this end, Cellnex has set itself the objective of guaranteeing that best practices are used in the performance of its services. All products and services are continuously reviewed to improve the health and safety impacts both of the employees dedicated to their installation and operation, and the possible impact on customers.

Likewise, the company maintains a constant and close dialogue with customers, through meetings and training sessions or webinars to explain Cellnex best practices, improving the engagement with them.

Moreover, Cellnex provides various communication channels with customers, such as those contained in the service-level agreement (SLA) reports. To guarantee a personal and stable customer relationship, Cellnex strives to focus its commercial force on market segments by enhancing the role of the account manager who looks after the specialist end-to-end relationship with customers by providing a comprehensive and personalised service geared towards their overall satisfaction.

Cellnex continued to manage complaints under the Complaint Management Procedure. A complaint is understood as the formal manifestation of disagreement or dissatisfaction with the service received by a client, a user or society.

• Customer Complaint: a complaint made directly by the customer with whom Cellnex has a contractual relationship.
• User complaint: a complaint made directly by the end user, received directly or derived from an external client.
• Society Complaint: a complaint made directly by a group of users that may be represented by Public Administration bodies and by private bodies (antennae organizations, neighbourhood communities, etc.).

In 2020, there were four user complains in Cellnex Spain and nine in Cellnex Italy (16 in 2019), of which 75% (100% in 2019) were processed and resolved according to the company's procedures before the end of the year.

In 2020, the relationship with customers was especially important, since Cellnex's services have been essential during the COVID-19 pandemic. The primary objective was to respond to crisis situations in Cellnex group by guaranteeing the provision of critical services. To achieve this, a Global risk committee and Local risk committees were set up and a daily report regarding the status of the services was established. A Global contingency plan was also developed to guarantee the continuity of critical services in the eight European countries in which it operates from the outset.

Furthermore, Cellnex has worked hard to preserve the security and availability of the services 24/7 while ensuring the application of the strictest protection measures for employees, minimising all control, maintenance or intervention operations on the ground due to network incidents, the risks of contagion and the spread of the disease. In a proactive and ingenious way, the Network Operation Centre (NOC) was reconfigured to be able to operate all the networks in Spain remotely from home. The networks have been monitored and operated remotely to full satisfaction.

Cellnex’s relationship with customers during the COVID-19 situation

The situation caused by COVID-19 has changed the telecommunications paradigm, driving it to unprecedented levels, since both individuals and companies have used technology to keep their day-to-day activities active. Because of this, Cellnex has made a commitment to its customers through several initiatives, for example a free expansion of data capacity to its customers to meet the needs of households.

In Spain, Cellnex helped with the contingency plans of its customers. For example, the company helped set up field hospitals by providing connectivity (for IFEMA field hospitals, and Sabadell hospital).

Moreover, within the global survey that has been carried out to customers in Cellnex Spain, they were asked about the management that Cellnex has carried out during the pandemic. Most of the customers surveyed point out that they have not noticed a change in the service received and consider that the service has been just as good prior to the situation marked by COVID-19. 85% of customers feel very satisfied or satisfied with company’s management during this period.

Likewise, Cellnex Italy collaborated to TLC Operators to improve the mobile connectivity for the COVID patients of the Niguarda Hospital (Milan) and it was offered for free during the period of the higher pandemic emergency.

In France, to promote the continuity of deployment, the works franchises were increased for two months (credit of 1.5 million to the main customer).

Cellnex works to continue improving its relationship with customers, developing new infrastructures that offer coverage for their services in an efficient and reliable way. In this regard, a new Global Marketing & Sales area was created to enrich the Cross-Country Opportunities, to improve the commercial approach in all the countries, to introduce new products and services for different segments, to create additional value propositions, to facilitate materials and collaterals to increase the Sales and to extend best practices to all sales reps. Moreover, the implementation of the Salesforce tool to all countries makes it possible to level and standardise the sales process and better coordination and knowledge of the commercial pipeline.

Moreover, under the ESG Master Plan, some actions will be implemented to extend our commitment to ESG issues to our value chain. To this end, the company will offer ESG training and awareness for customers.

A specific Code of Conduct for customers will be drawn up in the coming years. This Code will include issues like labour conditions, human rights, anti-corruption and bribery, etc., to ensure compliance in ESG matters.

Cellnex is working to engage with customers through activities such as the “Cellnex Connectivity Days”, a brand-new initiative which looks to gather a broad range of telecoms industry stakeholders to debate the most pressing topics in the industry and their impact on society. The very last objective of these events is to position Cellnex as a key player in markets where the brand awareness is still weak and where Cellnex also offers a unique networking opportunity.

In 2020, in response to the evolving nature of COVID-19, and to stay close to our customers and stakeholders in general, Cellnex was forced to reimagine these “Cellnex Connectivity Days” by creating an on-line version. In those sessions, Cellnex and its stakeholders had the opportunity to debate directly with leaders and experts from the industry. The following webinars were held are and are all available on YouTube:

• April 2020: Indoor Connectivity Solutions.
• May 2020: The Next-Generation of Mobile Networks.
• October 2020: The impact of Smart & IoT technologies in the post-COVID era.
• November 2020: Boosting operating efficiency with private networks.

Cellnex Ireland: one year in business

A webinar was organised to celebrate the first anniversary of Cellnex Ireland in the group. Speakers from Dublin and Barcelona shared an overview of Cellnex Ireland’s plans and talked about some main topics such as next generation infrastructures and networks or Cellnex approach to diversification.

Apart from explaining the company’s plans, Cellnex Ireland made a donation on behalf of every attendee at the webinar to two social charities from the Irish community.

Customer Care Global Model

Customer Care is a strategic priority and a cross-cutting commitment that must be present in each of the actions by Cellnex Telecom to create sustainable value distributed to all stakeholders.

With the Customer Care Global Model, Cellnex aims to create a work environment to provide its customers the most demanding levels of satisfaction through a service management based on process approach and service support. This is achieved by collecting and analysing customer experience insights to incorporate the information into continuous improvement processes and to understand customer’s needs and expectations.

Cellnex delivers the optimal service to customers by understanding their current and future needs and expectations to plan, design and develop services to achieve maximum customer satisfaction.

For example, Cellnex Spain maximizes the satisfaction and quality of the services provided to its customers by providing the following interlocutors:

• Commercial: Each customer has an assigned Account Manager with end-to-end knowledge of all the relationships that Cellnex has with its customers to satisfy their needs and concerns from an overall perspective.
• Project Manager: These are the interlocutors with the customer, together with the Account Manager, in the feasibility phase and provision of a service. They play an important role in customer satisfaction, since this area, with its optimal performance in the design of the service to be provided, can influence customer satisfaction.
• Service Manager: These are the main interlocutors with the customer, together with the Account Manager, in the service provision phase. They are responsible for ensuring the availability of service levels, monitoring and optimising the service provided.

In this regard, In Spain, the continuity of the service is guaranteed through the Operation and Maintenance process, according to the contracted quality parameters.

The network operation and maintenance structure, which Cellnex Spain manages, is based on the support provided to the maintenance operations by the Service Operations Centre (SOC) and Cellnex’s employees on the field.

In other geographies, such as United Kingdom, Portugal or Switzerland, the volume of clients allows a face-to-face relation with them, and therefore a more individualized service. In this regard, feedback is obtained in the day to day conversations with customers, as each customer is managed by an account manager or an account director, some customers also have a service manager responsible for the service relationship.

In the Netherlands, the relationship with the client is established by holding at least two meetings a year with them, in addition to holding one event once a year. Individualized account plans are also implemented for each client and satisfaction surveys are carried out.

Customer satisfaction survey

Cellnex carries out studies to gauge customer satisfaction, the outcome of which feeds into action and improvement plans. The analysis of customer perception consists of evaluating the customer's satisfaction with the company, its main activities and the services it provides. This evaluation is based on customer satisfaction surveys and on the information obtained through the company’s management of the complaint.

These studies were established with the following specific objectives:

• To have a complete picture of customers’ overall perception of the company.
• To learn about the level of customer satisfaction, breaking down and parametrising overall levels of satisfaction into the various values and attributes in the study.
• To produce a map of customer indicators with the services provided by the company for each activity and segmented by business area and type of customer.
• To determine company recommendation and loyalty rates relating to each service, activity, business area and customer type.
• To determine critical points and strengths and establish an action plan based on the external customer satisfaction study.

A new model for measuring customer satisfaction in Cellnex Spain was developed in 2019. This model integrates various measurements of customer satisfaction to gauge customer satisfaction at all stages of the process. This new model makes it possible to obtain specific feedback on projects/services and to carry out more streamlined management of action plans, by receiving results directly from the customer/project managers and reducing the outsourced cost by increasing the time taken to carry out the global survey. 95% of customers were “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with the service provided by Cellnex Spain, according to the Satisfaction Study for the second half of 2020.

The following actions are carried out to gauge customer satisfaction:

• Registration and analysis of complaints according to the complaint’s management procedure.
• Assessment of customer perception through different types of surveys, regarding the satisfaction and loyalty to Cellnex, the main activities of the company, and the services provided.

The evaluation of customer perception through surveys allows Cellnex Spain us to detect points in which the customers are unsatisfied with the services provided and / or the attention received. To this end, we perform various types of surveys depending on the aspect or phase of the service provided for which satisfaction is to be analysed:

• Project management. To measure the satisfaction of the project management process, from the offer, provision, monitoring and delivery of the project.
• Incident management. To gauge customer satisfaction in the management of an incident: proactivity, monitoring and communication that takes place throughout the process.
• Service Surveys to some groups of customers (CAC, Fixed Operators, ...). To monitor the evolution of the general satisfaction of customers who make various service requests on a recurring basis during the year.
• Biennial Global Surveys, where all services provided and all processes in which the customer interacts are analysed.

The information available from the management of complaints is analysed each year with the data from customer surveys, to analyse customer perception, to generate associated actions to customers and perform processes and services actions.

In Cellnex UK, customers satisfaction is measured in the surveys. This understood as site access speed and quality of responses, delivery speed and management of suppliers, as well as poor communications. Service Development Plans are then drawn up and worked through with the customers to improve the service provided.

The Customer Satisfaction Survey is carried out in all geographical areas where Cellnex operates.

Customer Satisfaction Survey in the Netherlands

On January 16, 2020, customers of Cellnex Netherlands received an invitation by email to participate in the customer satisfaction survey, where TIS customers of Shere and Towerlink were included for the first time. To keep continuity of the information, the questionnaire remained as much as possible as the questionnaire of previous years, but a number of questions were added for TIS customers. The results showed that 78% of all respondents are generally very satisfied with Cellnex NL.

Customer Satisfaction Survey in UK

The Net Promoter Score (NPS) system is used in Cellnex UK and for 2020, the annual Customer Satisfaction Survey showed improved engagement, highlighting significant improvements relating to transparency, commercial flexibility and operational delivery.

Customer Satisfaction Survey in Spain

In 2020 the Net Promoter Score (NPS)’ results in Spain pointed out a 95% of satisfaction (44% in 2017).

Customer Satisfaction Survey in Italy

Cellnex Italia incorporated the annual customer satisfaction survey as a standard practice. The survey asks customers about their relationship with the company, the sales process, Cellnex project management, its after-sale service, administrative service, general satisfaction, and overall satisfaction with other competitors on the market. The results showed that 79% of all respondents are satisfied with Cellnex Italy.

Information security management

Security, whether physical or IT, is an important matter for Cellnex which is why the Company performs many activities to avoid and mitigate any possible threat that might affect its service.

In 2019, Cellnex devised a Strategic Global Security Plan for Cybersecurity and Physical Security that allows high-impact events to be anticipated in accordance with Reference Frameworks. The Plan applies to all geographical areas where Cellnex operates and covers all aspects of corporate security regardless of the type of threat, whether physical, IT, or hybrid. The following actions were rolled out under this plan:

• Integral Security Assessment.
• Definition of a risk map.
• Development of a global action plan.
• Three-year budget approval.

During 2020, Cellnex deployed the security model as defined in the Strategic Global Security Plan, which establishes the implementation of comprehensive security risk management, both physical and logical, with well-defined roles and functions at both corporate and country levels.

An important aspect of the Strategic Plan was to analyse company security based on standard frameworks (NIST cybersecurity and ISO 27001). An internal audit of the Information Security Management System (ISMS) was carried out in September 2020 to determine whether the management system meets the requirements defined in ISO 27001. Among the conclusions of audit on the Information Security Management System are:

• A consistent, coherent and well-structured Information Security Management System (ISMS).
• The Information Security Management System remains alert with the incorporation of new companies/countries.
• Good ISMS definition. Focus on implementation in Corporate &and Business Units.
• Focus on active responsibility in Data protection and awareness for all employees.

An external audit of the Information Security Management System was carried out in November 2020 to determine whether the management system meets the requirements defined in ISO 27001.

The ISMS will include documented information determined by Cellnex as necessary for the effectiveness of the Management System. Documented information will be checked to ensure that it is available and suitable for use and is adequately protected (e.g. from loss of confidentiality, improper use, or loss of integrity).

Cellnex’s ISO 27001 certification for the whole group was renewed in the wake of the internal and external audit of the Information Security Management System during 2020., Corporate, Spain, Netherlands and France, and Switzerland were audited in 2020, and following the audit rotation, Corporate, Spain, UK, Ireland and Portugal will be audited in 2021.

The Global Security Office was deployed to support in Information Security at a global level and provides the following services:

• Threat Intelligence and legal surveillance.
• Continuous monitoring of vulnerabilities.
• Continuous improvement of security incident monitoring (Red Team).
• Update of threat catalogue and security risk map.
• Technical consultancy and auditing in security matters.

The following actions were also rolled out in 2020 regarding Information Security Management:

• Analysis and deployment of a risk management tool enabling automated management of global security risks.
• Deployment of a security event monitoring model in all integrated countries.
• Implementation of Azure Information Protection (AIP) for sensitive information.
• Replacement Mobile Device Management (MDM) to ensure unified management of mobile devices.
• Regularisation of administrator users to ensure that users have access to the necessary privileges to perform their work.
• Implementation of Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) to apply security controls on Cloud applications.
• Deployment of 2-Factor authentication to reinforce access to network resources.

As a result of the Security Awareness Campaign that the Global Security area started in July 2020, a series of mandatory online training activities will be assigned through The Hub until April 2021. These sessions aim to raise awareness of the dangers of cyberattacks among all Cellnex employees.

With regard to the personal data managed by the company, the entry into force of the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) on 25 May 2018 led the Group to make several changes to ensure full compliance. One of the main changes under the GDPR was that it became compulsory to appoint a Data Protection Officer (DPO). At Cellnex, these duties are performed by the company's Director of Legal Affairs, who will periodically report to the Committee of Ethics and Compliance on the status of GDPR implementation and compliance in the companies of the Group. As the company was fully compliant with the previous European regulation and already had a mature and robust system, it was able to adapt quickly and effectively.

An audit of the Information Security Management System (ISO 27001) was carried out in Corporation, Spain, Holland and France in the last quarter of 2020 and was passed successfully. The results of the data protection part of the audit were positive, and no non-conformity or observation was pointed out.

The company has adapted to the new paradigm imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic situation. Solutions planned for 2020 and beyond have been adapted to the new context of high remote working regarding:  

• Information protection.
• Endpoint protection.
• Cloud environments protection.

In this context, security awareness programmes including online trainings and phishing campaigns were prepared for all employees.

In 2020 there were no data leaks, theft or loss in Cellnex, nor were any complaints received in relation to information security and data protection.