BellSouth 411 Nationwide Service opens office in Greenville

Facility could employ up to 120

BY ROBERT MCFARLAND, JR.

Delta Business Journal

BellSouth has opened a new 411 Nationwide Service office in Greenville. The facility has hired and trained 70 new employees and has a growth potential for a total of 120.

"This facility will provide directory assistance to anyone that calls from Mississippi , Louisiana, Alabama, Tennessee, or Kentucky," says Carolyn Manning, BellSouth Delta Area Manager. "We are excited that BellSouth has chosen Greenville to open the new 411 Nationwide office."

Bottom line: The Greenville facility partners with other 411 Nationwide centers in Mississippi, Kentucky, and Louisiana, to provide phone listings of telephone subscribers located anywhere in the United States. The next available directory assistant located in one of the five Centers receives the call. This creates a fast, easy to use, and economical service handled by professional, courteous directory assistants.

BellSouth first introduced its 411 nationwide Service in 1997. Callers do not have to remember to dial one number for local directory assistance and another for "long distance" directory assistance. BellSouth offers both local and nationwide listings from a single telephone number - 1 + 411.

"The significant item in addition to the additional jobs

that will soon be available is the fact that our labor market has the ability to be trained and competively perform this type of employment," says Tommy Hart Director for the Industrial Foundation of Washington County. "This is a great day for this community with respect to now being able to tell others around the country about this facility and we intend to use this to role model job opportunities requiring skill levels in this category. We here in Greenville certainly express our appreciation to BellSouth for their confidence in this area."

"One of the things that we are most proud of is that the operator services department of BellSouth has been awarded the J.D. Power Award in each of the last two years," says Manning of the service in general. "Only BellSouth operator services group has been singled out as the best in customer service related operator-type services. We have also received awards from the Yankee Group for customer service. We will continue that strong tradition in the Greenville office."

According to Manning, also unique to the BellSouth centers is that a quality management group is in place to monitor the accuracy of BellSouth’s data and monitors the customer service levels.

"We constantly strive to improve and maintain data base accuracy because we know how important it is to get the right number and how frustrating it is to get the wrong number," says Manning.

The charge for local directory assistance in Mississippi is $.45 per call. The charge for a nationwide listing is $.85 and a caller may request two listings per call.

BellSouth has also announced the introduction of BellSouth Mobility in the Greenville and Delta areas. The company plans to open two retail stores in Greenville and others throughout the Delta.

"This will create additional job opportunities in the telecommunications industry for this region," added Manning.