18 years of KeepCalling, a story about hard work and success
On June 1st, is turning 18! 18 years since KeepCalling first began its activity. What a beautiful age! Remember your 18 years anniversary? Well, we don’t feel like teenagers anymore, although there is still so much to learn and so much to do. Our journey so far has been so complex and, with small steps, we managed to grow a strong business, one of the best in this field. So, these 18 years represent a story about hard work (and fun work) and success.
18 years ago…
Let’s go back in time and see what 5 first ingredients were needed to start the business.
- It all started back in 2002, in Americus, a small town in Georgia, USA. Florin Miron, a Romanian journalism graduate, was working as a video editor for Habitat for Humanity when it became obvious to him that using phone cards was as much his routine as any immigrant’s.
- The first platform for virtual calling cards was launched in 2002 and it was dedicated to Romanians living in the US.
- The initial investment was $100.
- At first, Florin bought the actual phone cards himself and scraped the PINs to deliver them to the customers. He transformed his apartment into a home office and started learning e-commerce and web tools.
- As the business evolved, three friends offered their help to Florin (one experienced in Finance, one in Customer Relations, and one in Human Resources). KeepCalling’s Customer Support voice was also one of Florin’s friends, providing assistance in English and Spanish, from her own home office in Cochabamba, Bolivia.
What came next?
Our pilot site was SunaRomania.com where we focused on delivering methods to help Romanian expats stay closer to their relatives back home. But not only Romanian expats miss home, right?!
After SunaRomania.com KeepCalling launched various ethnic websites dedicated to specific nationalities like SigueLlamando.com, HablaCuba.com, AlloFrance.com. The purpose was the same: help them get in touch easier with their home country.
Once the method test, succeed, repeat helped KeepCalling reach the main telecom players league, the time came for adapt & succeed. The company added new products to satisfy the needs of its customers: Mobile Recharge in 2010 and MVNO in 2015.
What customers say…
We have reliable products and features and we approach our customers with transparency and simplicity. We had to learn fast and adapt even faster to the current market, to the dynamics of the online environment, and to the telecom industry. The quality of the service is very important to us. Our customers are treated as real people with real wishes, just like any of us.
Our customers have always guided our steps with constructive reviews, always letting us know what we still have to improve and what works well for them. Some reviewers even added personal touch, coming up with original feedback. Here are 2 recent ones on Trustpilot. 🙂
What KeepCallers say…
The KeepCalling team members, just like everyone out there in so many places in the world, have been through difficult times caused by the Coronavirus pandemic. We are hopeful that we will get through this together, and that this experience will make us cherish what we have, from our health to the presence of the people we love. Some of our mates shared their thoughts with us and with you, on this 18 years celebration.
