Comcast opens Lynnwood call center

Published 1:44 pm Tuesday, July 31, 2007

LYNNWOOD – Comcast has opened a new regional headquarters and call center in Lynnwood that will work with call centers in Everett and Fife to deal with its 1.2 million customers in Washington state.

“One hundred percent of all our calls made by Washington customers will come to one of these three centers,” said Comcast spokesman Steve Kipp. “They will work as one virtual center.”

The Lynnwood, Everett and Fife centers will employ about 1,000 people. The Lynnwood center alone will employ about 350 people now with the capacity for 500, Kipp said.

He called the new building at the Northpointe corporate campus in Lynnwood a $20 million investment that includes a 10-year lease and new equipment. The 88,000-square-foot building will be Comcast’s regional headquarters as well as a call center and cable store where customers can pay bills and test and exchange equipment.

The corporate campus is a 90-acre business park that will be developed over the next two years. Other tenants include a research facility for pharmaceutical company Berlex Laboratory and a design office for Cypress Semiconductor of California, according to developer Opus Northwest.

Kipp said the location was selected because of its proximity to I-5 and to skilled call-center workers.

He said the company wanted a local call center rather than one out of the area because it makes good business sense. “We find that our customers respond really well when they talk to somebody who is local. He said earlier local call centers “saw sales and customer satisfaction scores increase dramatically.”

Mike Benbow: 425-339-3459 or benbow@heraldnet.com.