SANDY — A huge group of AT&T Broadband employees have had a new home base for a few months but received the official housewarming on Thursday.
About 300 employees work at a new customer service center at the Sandy Commerce Park, 9602 S. 300 West, through the consolidation of five Utah centers. But while they started working at the 130,000-square-foot, $20 million facility during the winter, Olympics preparation and activities caused the official opening to be pushed back.
About 33 positions still need to be filled, and Gary Boles, senior vice president for AT&T Broadband in Utah, said an expanding work force can be expected in the future.
"If you realize, we have four floors here. We're ready for growth. This facility was necessary to accommodate that growth," he said. "AT&T Broadband is using the bottom two floors, but it is our intention of growing into the top two floors."
AT&T Broadband offers cable television, high-speed Internet access and local phone service. Customer service centers in Lindon, Logan, Ogden, Park City and Salt Lake City were consolidated to create the Sandy facility. Including about 100 company workers involved in engineering elsewhere in Sandy, that city now is home to nearly half of AT&T's 900 Utah workers.
Byron Jorgenson, Sandy's chief administrative officer, commended the company for choosing Sandy — particularity its selection of a site on the west side of I-15 — for the facility. He noted that AT&T is now one of the city's top 10 employersand that the city was so impressed with the building that it named Big-D Construction of Salt Lake City as the city's Contractor of the Year.
"In spite of the weakened economy, businesses can not only survive, but thrive in Sandy," said Glenn J. Cobb, president and chief executive officer of the Sandy Area Chamber of Commerce. "The addition of the AT&T Broadband customer care center is a testament to our successful ability to attract quality businesses."
Boles said the center will handle some duties that had been outsourced to a facility in Idaho. While it will handle all sales and billing calls for customers along the Wasatch Front, the center potentially could be a site for other AT&T operations in the future, he said.
In the meantime, it will provide consistency in customer service and employee training, he said.
Customer service representatives field an average of 155,000 phone calls per month and usually answer 90 percent in 30 seconds or less. Customers also can use e-mail or interactive voice systems for communication and can use online billing, direct account payment or traditional billing methods.
Information about employment at the facility is available by calling 401-3400.
E-MAIL: bwallace@desnews.com