New Boone Location – SkyBest Expands Services
Ashlyn Jordan | Retail Sales Consultant
In an effort to provide more convenient service to its Watauga County customer base and in conjunction with its efforts to expand the service footprint of its subsidiary, SkyBest Communications, to new areas, SkyLine is relocating its Seven Devils Customer Center operations to a new retail location in the former Village Laundry on Wilson Drive in Boone near Boone Mall.
With construction well underway, the new location will be a full-service Customer Center for SkyLine and SkyBest products and services, ranging from broadband internet, digital TV, local and long-distance phone services, bundles, security, automation and surveillance, and medical alert
systems. The Boone location also will be a customer service stop for Carolina West Wireless customers to pay their bills, purchase products or upgrade their existing cell phone plans.
In addition to its weekday business hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., SkyLine/SkyBest also will introduce expanded hours at this new location with walk-in service available from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays.
“With Boone as the commerce center of Watauga County, we feel this new location allows us to offer greater convenience and to be more accessible to all of our Watauga members and customers,” said Retail Sales Manager Jamey Jenkins.
The new location is convenient to Highway 105, which leads to the Foscoe community, and it also intersects with the 105 Bypass, which connects SkyLine members from the Sugar Grove, Vilas and Zionville communities.
According to Kim Shepherd, Executive Director of Customer Operations, the new retail location will showcase the newest products and services that SkyLine/SkyBest has to offer. “In our world of constant change, the displays at this location will transform as new technologies emerge,” Shepherd said.
Here, a video wall, streaming TV displays and hosted VoIP
“With Boone as the commerce center of Watauga County, we feel this new location allows us to offer greater convenience and to be more accessible to all of our Watauga members and customers.”
Boone Customer Center Project
SkyLine gets a status update on the Boone Customer Center project from the design and construction teams. Pictured left to right: VPC Builders Project Manager Scott Pitts, SkyLine Executive Director of Customer Operations Kim Shepherd, VPC Superintendent Charlie Day, and Elaine Sweiter, Project Manager with David Patrick Moses, Architect.
SkyLine’s Seven Devils staff will relocate to the new Boone location later this year.
The former Village Laundry location will soon be the new home of SkyLine/SkyBest’s Boone Customer Service Center.
Pictured, left to right, SkyLine’s Field Services Manager Brian Tester, Executive Director of Customer Operations Kim Shepherd and Retail Sales Manager Jamey Jenkins.
“Amid the new technologies and newer ways to deliver customer service, who we are at our core will remain the same,” Shepherd said. “Our customers will continue to be recognized, listened to and valued. Some of the interactions and methods may change, but our fundamental values of service will remain the same.”
displays will be highlighted, along with the use of a telepresence device, a Beam by Suitable Technologies. “Utilizing the telepresence device will enable us to assist customers at the new location in non-traditional ways. A live video conference with a sales consultant from another location or a support services representative or a technician will be commonplace. The customer and the remote rep will be able to ‘walk’ around the location to the various displays as needed.”
In 2013, SkyLine established a Customer Center
location in Banner Elk, which has drawn more Avery County traffic away from the Seven Devils location, and the close proximity of these two facilities led company officials to find a location closer to Boone that could better serve all of the cooperative’s Watauga customers, as well as its subsidiary’s business customer base in Boone.
The Customer Center’s move to Wilson Drive will coincide with SkyBest’s expanded service footprint to more of the Boone business community, specifically along Highway 105 and Business 321. The Boone
Boone Area Chamber Honors SkyLine/SkyBest with Alfred Adams Award
At the Boone Area Chamber’s 67th Annual Meeting and award ceremony on August 9, 2016 , SkyLine/SkyBest received The Alfred Adams Award for Economic Development.
Pictured with the award is Public Relations Administrator Karen Powell and Executive Director of Competitive Operations Edward Hinson.
location also will be in a more convenient location as SkyBest introduces services to the Lenior business community later this year.
Led by Jamey Jenkins, the new location will include Retail Sales Supervisor Paige Phillips and a staff of six retail sales consultants.
SkyLine has engaged David Patrick Moses, Architects of Banner Elk and VPC Builders of Blowing Rock with the design and construction at the new location. David Patrick Moses, Architects also designed the cooperative’s Seven Devils location, which has served Watauga County members since 2000. Following the move, SkyLine plans to lease the Seven Devils location.
Renovations to the 3,500-square-foot Wilson Drive facility began this summer and the new SkyLine/SkyBest Customer Center should be open for business before the end of 2016.
“Amid the new technologies and newer ways to deliver customer service, who we are at our core will remain the same,” Shepherd said. “Our customers will continue to be recognized, listened to and valued. Some of the interactions and methods may change, but our fundamental values of service will remain the same.”
©2016 SkyLine Membership Corp.