On Thursday, Arizona’s Governor Doug Ducey announced the exciting news that southern Arizonans will have more options in call centers for employment. Already, southern Arizonans have mostly low-paying call center jobs, but with the announcement that over a thousand more will be available a sigh of relief was heard across the fifth poorest metropolitan area in the country.
The new 100,000 square-foot facility to be built by Comcast will be staffed by 1,125 customer service representatives and managers. Comcast will begin filling positions this year. With the addition of the call center, Comcast will have more than 1,250 employees in Tucson. Comcast plans to have at least 15 percent of the new positions at the Customer Support Center to be filled by military reservists, veterans and their spouses or domestic partners.
Nationally, Comcast is committed to hiring 10,000 reservists, veterans and their spouses or domestic partners between 2015 – 2017 across all levels of the organization.
Their presence in Tucson might come just in the knick of time should Tucson lose the Davis Monthan Air Force base.
One Tucson resident said, “Hey, at least the jobs aren’t going to India.”
Customer service representatives in the center will assist customers with billing and repair questions – and sales and customer service. Specialized teams will handle more complex customer needs. The center will also be home to our new Spanish speaking employees specializing in social media.
Opening the Customer Support Center significantly expands Comcast’s presence in Tucson. Comcast already serves 67,000 customers in Tucson including hundreds of businesses. In 2014, Comcast paid more than $732,000 in property taxes, provided $3.3 million in franchise fees to local communities and invested more than $200,000 in Comcast Foundation grants, and contributions, public service announcements, campaigns, scholarships and community volunteer efforts.
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“The Tucson Customer Service Center is being designed from the ground up with training resources and equipment to help the customer service representatives provide exceptional service to our customers,” said Michael Eastman, Senior Director, Customer Account Executive, for Comcast. “When our customers reach this call center, they will be connected with agents who are best equipped to provide an outstanding experience.”
“This was a competitive national search, with Tucson combining a multitude of qualities to clearly emerge as the ideal site for this project,” said Joe Snell, president & CEO, Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities, Inc. (TREO), who has failed to bring any jobs other than call center jobs to the area.
When the building renovation is complete, the 100,000 square-foot, customer service center will include several resources for employees including product training labs, training rooms, video conference facilities, a cafeteria and fitness center. Employees will also receive Xfinity products and services from Comcast at no-cost and reduced cost so that they can continue to learn about company products.
Comcast has begun advertising and posting new positions. Those interested in employment opportunities with Comcast can learn more at upcoming area career fairs and are encouraged to review job profiles and opportunities at jobs.comcast.com where they can also apply for positions.
The Customer Support Center in Tucson is one element of a new, multi-year plan Comcast announced recently to reinvent the customer experience and to create a culture focused on exceeding customers’ expectations, at all levels of the company. The plan centers on looking at every decision through a customer lens and making measureable changes and improvements across the company.
The core elements of the strategic plan include: creating more than 5,500 customer service jobs over the next few years and setting a goal to always be on time for customer appointments by Q3 of 2015. It also includes major investments in technology and training to give employees the tools they need to deliver excellent service. The company will also simplify billing and create better policies to provide greater consistency and transparency to customers. Additionally, the plan includes the renovation of hundreds of stores across the country and the development of new technologies that will enable customers to interact with us how and when they want.