Industry News

StubHub opens huge customer relations HQ in Utah

StubHub will recruit upwards of 400 employees for its new global customer relations headquarters in Utah by early next year.

The eBay-owned ticketing firm closed its customer services headquarters in Connecticut in a decision that led to more than 200 workers bring laid off or relocated. It officially opened its Utah office on Wednesday, with an event that involved motivational speeches, food truck lunch, a DJ, and the chance to shake hands or have a picture taken with former NBA Utah Jazz basketball player Thurl Bailey.

StubHub said that it made a strategic business decision to move the Center of Excellence for Customer Experience and Trust Operations when the lease in East Granby expires in June 2018, though plans to move have been accelerated.

Employees were informed that the Salt Lake City office would be set up and staffed by February 1, 2018.

Utah’s economic development director David Dobbins, said: “StubHub will be a wonderful addition to a growing list of companies locating in Draper,” pointing to the presence just down the road of DellEMC, VPR Technology Group, 1-800 Contacts and eBay.

“It helps being able to attract the kind of employees they want for their ‘Center of Excellence.’ Our vision has been to add jobs and opportunities for a wide range of employees, and StubHub will just add to that opportunity,” he said.

The StubHub center will handle calls from people seeking assistance in buying or selling tickets to events all over the world.

“Most of the time, if you’re calling us, it’s because you need help listing a ticket for the first time or trying to buy a ticket and you’re not quite sure how the process works,” said Alison Salcedo, StubHub’s spokeswoman for North America.

Utah’s large number of multilingual speakers was influential in eBay’s decision to locate its ticketing subsidiary’s operation in Draper, StubHub’s head of global customer experience, Daron Fowlks said, noting that StubHub does business in 23 languages in 48 countries.