LYNNWOOD – A new Comcast call center in the Opus Northpointe business park could eventually employ more than 500 people after it opens next year.
The new facility, a $20 million investment, will not replace the company’s call centers in nearby south Everett or Fife. Instead, Comcast said it needs all three to keep up with a growing number of customer service calls.
“We’ve had a really good couple of years now. We’re adding customers basically to all our services,” said Steve Kipp, Comcast’s regional spokesman.
The company, which is Snohomish County’s primary cable television provider, signed a 10-year lease with Opus Northwest LLC, which will construct a new 87,000-square-foot building at its business park north of 164th Street SW. After making interior improvements and setting up equipment and furnishings inside, Comcast hopes to have the new center in operation a year from now.
Initially, about 325 people will work there, Kipp said. That will include about 70 people now working at Comcast’s regional headquarters in Bothell, which will be moved. Some employees also will be shifted from the Everett call center.
“Right now, Everett is filled to capacity. We’re just on top of each other right now,” Kipp said.
Tom Bohman, a senior director with Cushman &Wakefield in Seattle, helped Comcast look for a new call center location. He said the new building will include an open floor area of about 65,000 square feet for the main call center.
“It should work well for them,” Bohman said. Cushman &Wakefield handles leasing and marketing for the Opus Northpointe Corporate Campus.
Since the first building was completed at Opus Northpointe five years ago, it has attracted a few big tenants. Cypress Semiconductor moved there at the end of 2002, and Berlex is building the state’s first biotech drug-manufacturing plant there. A building of office condominiums also has been proposed, but not built.
Kipp said the business park’s central location and Comcast’s experience in finding good employees in the area made the Lynnwood site attractive. David Kleitsch, the city’s economic development director, said south Snohomish County has in the past successfully hosted call center and similar “backroom” operations for a number of big companies.
“We’re very happy a company like Comcast would identify Lynnwood as a good place to do business,” Kleitsch said. “This is good for our work force.”
Comcast is in the process of hiring 350 people statewide this year, and it plans to hire 200 more next year, Kipp said. Nearly all are for customer service representative or cable technician jobs, as the company’s high-definition cable offerings and new digital phone service have attracted new customers.
The new call center emphasizes a switch in strategy since Comcast purchased AT&T Broadband in 2002. When AT&T ran the region’s cable system, it outsourced most of its customer service functions. Now, nearly 100 percent of the calls made by Washington customers to Comcast are answered by an in-state representative.
The Lynnwood call center is one of nine new ones Comcast is building nationwide. The company also is expanding a dozen others and hiring 3,000 more customer service representatives to handle calls.
The three Western Washington service centers, with a total of nearly 1,000 customer service representatives, will operate as one seamless call center, just as the Fife and Everett locations do today, Comcast said.
Reporter Eric Fetters: 425-339-3453 or fetters@heraldnet.com.
Call center jobs
Starting pay for a local customer account executive, as Comcast calls its representatives, is between $11.63 and $12.50 an hour. Benefits include health insurance and 401(K) retirement plan options, free cable TV and high-speed Internet service. Potential job applicants can apply online at careers.comcast.com.
Verizon Northwest also has hired about 135 people locally this year, including 85 people for that company’s Everett call center. Information about that company’s jobs can be found at www.verizon.com/about/careers.
Call center jobs
Starting pay for a local “customer account executive,” as Comcast calls its representatives, is between $11.63 and $12.50 an hour. Benefits include health insurance and 401(K) retirement plan options, free cable TV and high-speed Internet service. Potential job applicants can apply online at careers.comcast.com.
Verizon Northwest also has hired about 135 people locally this year, including 85 people for that company’s Everett call center. Information about that company’s jobs can be found at www.verizon.com/about/careers.
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