The El Segundo, Calif.-based satellite giant has been negotiating for months with Missoula County about the possibility of opening and operating a call center at the county development park near Missoula International Airport.
“We're continuing our evaluation of Missoula and hope to reach a decision soon,” said DirecTV spokesman Robert Mercer.
Last July, when discussing the possibility of DirecTV's arrival, King said the jobs would start at around $9 per hour and would include health and dental benefits as well as a retirement package and tuition reimbursements.
Another city has been competing with Missoula for the DirecTV call center. DirecTV representatives never revealed the name of Missoula's rival, but the company did reveal the other town's financial incentives.
A balance sheet showed the other town's offer was about $8 million sweeter, King said, including a free building and quite a bit of money.
King countered by asking Missoula County to build a $12 million building at the Missoula County Development Park that would be owned by the county and leased to DirecTV.
The terms of the lease are part of the negotiation process, King said. King also has asked that DirecTV be given some tax incentives. In addition, the state Department of Commerce has money available for employee training.
The proposed call center is part of an overall strategy of the company to rely on more in-house customer support, Mercer said.
In 2004, DirecTV opened call centers in Tulsa, Okla., and Huntsville, Ala. The company also operates a 1,300-employee call center in Boise, Idaho. In all, DirecTV has about 6,000 employees.
Customer service has been a sore spot for DirecTV's top officials, according to DirecTV's 2004 annual report, and the new call centers are expected to help change that.
In 2003, a controlling interest in DirecTV was purchased by News Corp., which also owns the Fox broadcast network and the 20th Century Fox movie studios.
The prolonged sale weakened DirecTV, the report said. In 2004, DirecTV executives revamped the business structure and sold off non-core portions of the company, such as PanAmSat Corp. and a manufacturing operation.
DirecTV also improved its satellite system and signed up 4.2 million customers, bringing the total subscriber count to more than 14 million households, the report said.
But customer churn and higher-than-expected program costs have hurt the company's bottom line in 2005, said New York-based UBS analyst Aryeh Bourkoff in a report on DirecTV.
DirecTV had signed up too many high-risk customers. Some of those customers had to cancel service, and that costs DirecTV money, said analyst Matt Harrigan of Janco Partners.
“That's detrimental. That's not a good business model,” Harrigan said.
To counter that trend, the company has tightened up its credit requirements for subscribers, Mercer said.
That's also where the call centers come in.
“A satisfied customer is a long-term customer. ... Call centers perform that function for us,” he said.
Reporter Robert Struckman can be reached at 523-5262 or rstruckman@missoulian.com
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