Many converged at Convergys, now closing its Ogden call center
This March 26, 2002 photo shows employees working the phones from their cubicles at Convergy's call center in Ogden.
This March 26, 2002 photo shows Ogden resident Candy Erp working the phones at Convergys call center. The site will shut down in May.
The Convergys call center in Ogden will close May 26, along with the Orem and Cedar City sites as well. Many local folks worked there before moving on to more long-term careers.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Due to incorrect information from a source, a March 28 story on Convergys incorrectly stated the company shut down call centers in Missouri and Tennessee. Some program closures did occur, but the call centers remain open. The Standard-Examiner regrets the error.
OGDEN — After many years in Ogden, Convergys is consolidating its Utah call centers and will shutter its campus next to the Ogden-Hinckley Airport the last week of May.
The sign hovering above its four-building campus at 1400 W. 4000 South reads “Fond memories since 1979,” and a notice on the first building says “Recruiting is closed, Convergys in Ogden will close May 26th.”
A March 21 email from Convergys Corporate Communications Director Ed Loyd said that up to 209 workers could be affected by the Ogden closure.
“We are consolidating remaining work to our Salt Lake City location. Employees will have the opportunity to apply for work at home programs or transfer to another Convergys location,” Loyd said by email, adding that Convergys sites in Salt Lake City and Logan will continue to operate with more than 1,000 team members.
Cathy McKitrick
Convergys Corp. will close its call centers in Ogden, Orem and Cedar City on May 26. The Cincinnati-based company will continue to operate facilities in Logan and Salt Lake City, as well as in other states and countries.
The Herald Extra and Iron County Today reported that Convergys will also shut down its Orem and Cedar City facilities at the same time, affecting up to 130 employees in Orem and 77 in Cedar City. In February, the company also announced program closures in Tennessee and Missouri.
Convergys Corp. got its start in August 1998, according to the Cincinnati Business Courier, when Cincinnati Bell Inc. spun off its billing and customer management divisions, Cincinnati Bell Information Systems and Matrixx Marketing, to launch the new publicly traded company.
A February 1989 Deseret News story detailed NICE Corp. as another telemarketing predecessor at the same location. At that time, NICE Corp. become a division of Matrixx Marketing, which was described as a new subsidiary of NICE’s parent company, Cincinnati Bell Inc.
As of Dec. 31, 2015, the Cincinnati, Ohio-based Convergys Corp. employed 130,000 workers at more than 150 sites worldwide, the company’s 2015 Annual Report said.
Global reach, local ties
John MIles, 34, who works in database management and also chairs the Weber County Democratic Party, reminisced about his two stints at Convergys, once during high school and later as a college student.
“This is still in my head: ‘Thank you for calling the information line for Nasonex brand of mometasone furoate monohydrate nasal spray,'” Miles said of how he answered certain incoming calls.
As a teen, Miles said, Convergys gave him his first non-food-service job, one where he learned to be on time and show up consistently. While waiting for phone calls, he would socialize with co-workers and fiddle with a mini-skateboard on his desk.
His second round of work at Convergys involved making outgoing calls, which taught him how to deal with angry clients. MIles said he listed that customer service experience on his resume for a long time.
But many viewed working at Convergys as short-term, Miles said, a decent job to fill gaps from one career step to the next.
Standard-Examiner photo, THE STANDARD EXAMINER
This March 26, 2002 photo shows the Convergy’s call center in Ogden. The site is set to close on May 26.
Layton resident Pat Pearson worked at the Ogden call center for about two years around 2005 — during a rough patch in her life. She was a single mother in her early 50s with a college degree, and at that point “just happy to have a job.”
“I filled the slot of an operator standing by. And you read from a script, but you also tried to counter their arguments to try to make a sale,” Pearson said. “It was the people I worked with that made it enjoyable.”
Some women would bring their knitting to fill the time between calls, Pearson said, and then there were moments of bizarre quirkiness that interrupted the boredom.
“We had the panty caller,” Pearson said of the crank customer who listened to their script and then asked about the color of their underwear. “I got one call and just hung up. But after that, I learned that a lot of people on all shifts were getting them.”
She also had some youthful co-workers who could do Chewbacca imitations at inopportune times. “The caller said, ‘you’re having a good time there, aren’t you?'” Pearson said with a laugh.
Washington Terrace resident Brad Parr, 35, remembers the love-hate relationship he had with Convergys from 2002 to 2009.
“I did both incoming and outgoing calls, and had been on quite a few projects there,” Parr said. One such project involved the launch of Medicare D, during which Parr spent much of his time conversing with elderly people who just wanted to know their medications were covered.
“Some of them rambled because they were lonely,” Parr said. But lonely was preferable to condescending, which he encountered when activating American Express credit cards and trying to “upsell” customers with additional services. He also helped with the company’s initial launch of DirecTV and AT&T’s outbound calling for long-distance service.
“It feels like another lifetime compared to where I’m at now, even though I’m still doing phone work,” Parr said. Now a father of two, Parr sells property and casualty insurance for AAA Member Services.
“So many people have gone in and out of there,” Parr said of Ogden’s Convergys campus. “It’s for sure a steppingstone . . . it definitely beats doing fast food, but it’s a small step from one to the other.”
Cathy McKitrick
The sign towering over the Ogden Convergys campus touts fond memories since 1979. Convergys first formed in 1998, but Matrixx Marketing and NICE Corp. were predecessors to the publicly traded corporation.
Angil Lee, a recruiter for All Trades Staffing Services LLC at 205 26th St., Suite 14, in Ogden, said her agency does not fill telemarketing positions, but does have openings for unskilled labor and clerical jobs, some that start at $12 per hour.
“If they want or desire to go into a skilled trade, we can help further that opportunity,” Lee said.
Contact reporter Cathy McKitrick at 801-625-4214 or cmckitrick@standard.net. Follow her on Twitter at @catmck.
