TAYLORSVILLE — Several thousand people have answered the call to work for a company handling millions of calls each day.

That company this week is marking its 30th birthday in Utah.

Convergys Corp., with 6,550 employees at five Utah call centers, started with one toll-free number and two clients in Ogden. Now the Cincinnati-based company provides customer care, human resources and billing services for clients in more than 70 countries.

Its Utah employees handle calls for clients in several industries, including telecommunications, satellite, technology, entertainment, health care, pharmaceuticals, financial services and direct-response marketing.

"I think there's really two elements that have to be in place to have the kind of longevity and growth we've had," Kevin L. Mansfield, director of human resources, said at a Wednesday open house at the Taylorsville center. "First of all, you absolutely have to have a quality work force to draw from and great community support. And, secondly, as an employer, you have to have a compelling reason for people to want to come to work for you.

"Convergys has been very fortunate to have both of those elements for the past 30 years in Utah."

Sonja Rowell can speak about several of those years. She started work as a phone agent in 1993 at what was then Matrixx Marketing in Ogden. Now she is a director of operations, in charge of 1,100 agents, managers and team leaders supporting the DirecTV customer service center.

"It's been a very exciting time. We've seen a lot of technology enhancements that have made our jobs easier," Rowell said. "We're able to do a better job for both the consumers and the clients with those advances, so things have gotten more sophisticated.

"But customers are always customers, and that part of it hasn't changed as much. They expect great customer service from the companies they're calling, and that's our objective, to provide that for them."

Convergys began its customer-care activities in 1976 in Ogden as Nice Corp. It became Nice/Apex in 1988 and Matrixx Marketing in 1989. Convergys was formed in 1998 with the spin-off of Matrixx and CBIS from Cincinnati Bell.

"I think if there's any misconception about Convergys it's that we're a telemarketing company, whereas the vast majority of our calls are inbound," Mansfield said. "Our outbound work is typically ancillary to the inbound customer support work we're doing for existing clients."

Taylorsville Mayor Russ Wall described Convergys as "a great business partner" for the city, where the company has about 2,600 employees.

"We enjoy having them. They employ a lot of students in Taylorsville, and because of their flex schedules, a lot of mothers can get jobs here. It's a great place. We're happy to have them. We hope they grow — double," he said.