Bank of America to Close Dallas Call Center, Lay Off 500 Workers
Aug. 29 (The Dallas Morning News/KRTBN)--Bank of America is closing one of its
Dallas call centers and laying off about 500 service representatives as it
transfers call-center duties to more high-tech sites in other states, the bank
said Monday.
The bank plans to open a new call center in the same building, however, for a
variety of other Bank of America services such as Internet banking and
mortgaging.
The Dallas telephone-banking call center at 411 N. Akard St. will be closed over
the next six months.
Bank of America, which employs about 9,300 people in the Dallas-Fort Worth area,
hopes to fill the 400 new openings with as many employees from the older call
center as possible.
"This is all about operating efficiency," Laura Hunter, a spokeswoman for Bank
of America, said from corporate headquarters in Charlotte, N.C.
"So we are migrating the calls out of the Dallas telephone banking center to
these other call centers," she said.
"In essence, it frees up that space for other jobs, and there are other areas of
the bank that will come in."
Operators at more technologically advanced centers in Las Vegas; Wichita, Kan.;
and Rio Rancho, N.M., will handle Bank of America's telephone banking, which
generally answers customers' questions about checking and savings accounts.
While Bank of America has not decided which call-center services the facility in
Dallas will assume, Ms. Hunter said, employees of the banking call center
already have many of the same skills that will be required.
Consequently, many of those employees may end up changing jobs without leaving
the building.
While there will be fewer employees at the new center, Ms. Hunter said,
employees at the old center can apply for positions at the out-of-state
facilities.
"There's a whole variety of career planning and professional development
programs we have in place to assist them in their process," she said.
Above all, customer service will be maintained, Ms. Hunter said, as the
telephone-banking call-center duties are transferred out of Texas and the new
duties are established.
"The customers won't experience any change in service," she said. "It will be
completely seamless to them."
"The customers won't experience any change in service. It will be completely
seamless to them."
By Victor Godinez
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