EVERETT – Verizon tapped its local office to play a vital role when the company launched a new software-based service designed to help people juggle their modern communications devices.
Inside Verizon’s near-windowless tower at the Everett intersection of E. Casino Road and Evergreen Way, the company organized a technical support team in time for the rollout of the service, called iobi.
Almost a year later, 20 employees and three managers work in the call center, helping to answer hundreds of calls and e-mail messages from iobi subscribers across the nation.
It’s the first national customer support center Verizon has placed in Everett, which also is home to the telecommunications giant’s Northwest headquarters and regional call centers. Across Snohomish County, the company employs about 1,400 people.
“They looked at a place where there would be space available and room for growth as it took off,” said Kevin Laverty, Verizon’s local spokesman. “And they were acutely aware of the market here in case they had to hire people from outside the company.”
As it turned out, only a few of the technicians recruited to handle iobi support came from Verizon’s ranks. Laverty said iobi’s support technicians require a different set of skills than those typically used by support staff for more traditional phone services.
Jim Fry, who works in the iobi support center, previously commuted daily from his Lynnwood home to a Microsoft call center. Then his job was moved to India. He now helps iobi subscribers on the early shift, which begins at 5 a.m., to handle calls from the East Coast.
Despite the shift from Microsoft, Fry said he feels at home in the new job.
“It’s not any different really. It’s knowing your product and knowing as much as you can about what will fix it and what will break it,” Fry said.
Rob Southern, who’s worked at Verizon for five years, said he and the other iobi technicians are not easily stumped. The Everett resident possesses self-taught know-how of computers and years of customer service experience.
“It may take a little time to figure the hard ones out, but we’ll eventually get it. Putting our heads together, we’ll find an answer,” Southern said.
On the rare occasions when it’s needed, Verizon has an upper-level technical wizard who can help to answer questions. The support center also can reach the developers of the iobi software, added Craig Lander, who supervises the support center.
Southern said the most common technical problem he’s dealt with is having the software synch up correctly with Microsoft’s Outlook Express e-mail platform. Fry said the majority of calls he handles are problems caused by user error.
While new software services sometimes experience a few more glitches than usual at first, both Fry and Southern said they haven’t dealt with many yelling customers.
“In the year that I’ve been here, I think I’ve had one upset customer,” Fry said. “Most are calm, cool and collected.”
Lander said the center, which began with a staff of 14, currently answers calls between 5 a.m. and 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
The staff and hours are likely to grow, however, as iobi does. Laverty said the company plans to have the service introduced in all of its markets across the U.S. by the year’s end.
“As we get busier, we’ll expand,” Lander said. “I anticipate when California rolls out (in the next two months), we’ll be hiring again.”
Reporter Eric Fetters: 425-339-3453 or fetters@heraldnet.com.
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