Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 29, 1994 TAG: 9404290136
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By MAG POFF STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
When First Union transferred its Card Products Customer Relations Center to Roanoke from Charlotte, N.C., last July, bank officials said their target for employment was 240 people.
Now, 350 people work at the center, and it is recruiting another 15 people to begin work immediately.
Joe Dyer, a First Union vice president and head of the center, said Thursday he expects an additional 60 persons to be hired before the year is out. "That is a significant amount of growth," Dyer said.
That number could go much higher. The company has told its workers in an employee newsletter that total employment at the center will stand at 450 by year's end .
About eight of the workers came from Charlotte; the rest were hired in Roanoke.
The center handles calls and mail from customers who have questions about First Union credit cards, automated teller machine cards, check (or debit) cards and home equity line cards. It serves First Union's entire system in seven Southeastern states and the District of Columbia.
Of the employees, 16 are members of a bilingual team that helps customers who prefer to conduct their business in Spanish. A few others speak French, Dyer said, although the demand for that language is not great.
The center has extended its hours, which was responsible for earlier expansion.
When it moved to Roanoke, the center operated from 7 a.m. to midnight Mondays through Fridays and during daytime hours on weekends. At the start of the year it began operating from 7 a.m. to midnight seven days a week. Beginning April 1, it went to round-the-clock operation.
Further increases in employment, Dyer said, are attributed to "incremental customers." He said the center is receiving more and more calls as the bank's card-related businesses continue to grow.
The Roanoke center also fields questions about other bank products at night when First Union's other customer service centers have closed. All the service phone numbers are listed on statements, Dyer said, meaning customers call until they find somebody working.
The employee newsletter said personal service representatives were able to answer only about one of three customer calls when it moved here from Charlotte. That improved to nine out of 10 calls by the end of the year. Delay time for answering calls fell from more than four minutes to 14 seconds.
by CNB