Teleperformance expanding in Utah

Teleperformance USA is answering the call for its largest client.

The Salt Lake-based company said Tuesday it will open a new customer-care center in Lindon that it hopes soon will employ up to 1,000 people to handle calls for a wireless phone company.

Teleperformance officials said they hope the 40,890-square-foot center at 380 Technology Court will open Tuesday with 200 people starting a four-week training period and that the facility will grow by that same number each month.

"Provo has been an excellent market for us for about nine years. We have a smaller center there," said Carrie Bohren, vice president of recruiting, training and human capital resource management. "We have a very large client that continues to expand for our organization. It's about 53 percent of our company right now. Due to Provo's success, they want us to expand in that market, so we chose a center in the Lindon area."

With about 420 seats, the facility can accommodate 800 to 1,000 agent and management positions. It will be entirely dedicated to the wireless company, which has asked Teleperformance to keep its identity secret, and will handle only inbound calls.

"We're taking care of all of their wireless customers," Bohren said. "If they have billing questions, if they want to add services to their plan and phone, if they want to change any of their plan types, add a family member — we take care of all of that for them."

Three or four years ago, about 80 percent of the company's operations involved outbound calls. A turnaround since then means that now about 90 percent are inbound. "That's a huge shift in that amount of years," she said.

Ramp-ups at other facilities usually have yielded about 125 new staffers per month, but the company hopes 200 people apply to start Tuesday.

"We are looking to promote management from within, as we always do as a company, so the individuals who get into the training class by Nov. 1 will be some of the first-round picks for the supervisors, quality assurance staff, etc. There are some great immediate opportunities for advancement," Bohren said.

"That (initial 200) gives us that good base to pull from for management. The lower that number, the harder it is to move people up as quickly as we want to."

Applicants for full- and part-time positions may call 866-509-7161.