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Utah Becoming a Haven for Call Centers

By Oliver VanDervoort, Contributing Writer

The call center market is an interesting one because of its rather temperamental nature. When a town or a community is seen as a sort of a haven for call centers, businesses tend to flow there. Tulsa, OK, has built itself up over the last 20 years as a place where call centers come to set up shop because the business community is friendly to them. Ogden, Utah, is starting to stand apart from its neighbors as another community that is conducive to the call center market and one major retailer -- Home Depot -- has certainly taken notice.

The Standard Examiner reports that the company has set up a call center shop that employs more than 700 people in its Ogden office. The large number of employees means that the call center is able to service phone calls and web chats 364 days a year, 24 hours a day (They close for Christmas).

The mostly young call center staff has been handling the majority of Home Depot’s online business as well as specialty items for Home Decorators and B2B solutions. The interesting thing about this particular call center is that it is done up to look as though it’s just another Home Depot location. The walls are adorned in the company’s trademark orange paint and some of the staff still walks around wearing the aprons most recognize as part of the company’s traditions.

"I love the little nuances," the center's director Dawn Colwell told the Standard Examiner. "The orange paint and all that, it feels like Home Depot." The center is actually one of many call centers that have moved into Utah over the last few years. Last October, Allstate insurance announced it was going to be opening up its own call center.

The state Office of Economic Development said that Utah offers a low cost of doing business, including lower taxes than normal, lower property prices and very little regulation. Just like Tulsa, areas of Utah are finding ways to lure call centers and other businesses in by making it too attractive to pass up.