DALLAS—Online pet retailer, Chewy Inc. will be opening a new customer service call center at the Infomart next month. The customer service office will occupy approximately 50,000 square feet in the landmark Infomart building at 1950 North Stemmons Fwy. near downtown, major highways and public transportation.

“The reason we decided to open a second center was a result of the incredible growth Chewy has continued to experience,” Kelli Durkin, vice president of customer service, tells GlobeSt.com. “With more than 1,000 team members, we quickly realized we were reaching capacity at our (customer service) center in Hollywood, FL and needed to expand our operations to maintain our exceptional level of 24/7 customer service. Within the first year, we'll be hiring 500 new team members, but we currently have more than 100 open positions to fill immediately.”

In addition to its headquarters in Florida, this new opening marks Chewy's second customer service office as well as its second location in Dallas, following last year's opening of a 663,000-square-foot 700-person-staff fulfilment center. When Chewy began evaluating new locations, there were several factors that led the company to Dallas.

“In addition to being a thriving metropolitan hub, Dallas checked all our boxes in terms of meeting our needs. One of the most important considerations was the area's labor market. We needed to be in a city with a strong labor market that could support our needs,” Durkin continues. “A second consideration was selecting an area that was strategically located in a larger sized city and easily accessible, so that we could quickly and efficiently launch the new center. With one of our fulfillment centers located in Dallas, Chewy already calls this city home, and that made the transition even easier.”

Finding a location with a temperate climate was also important for Chewy, Durkin says.

“One of the challenges we've experienced at our South Florida center is dealing with hurricane season each year. Last year with Hurricane Irma, we had to temporarily relocate our customer service team to the Orlando area to keep our operations up and running,” she explains to GlobeSt.com. “That's why for our second location we wanted to select an area that would be less impacted by extreme or unpredictable weather.”

Chewy was represented by Dean Collins, Mark Collins and Adam Campbell of Cushman & Wakefield.

Personalized customer service has always been a core value for Chewy. The company's goal from the beginning has been to combine the convenience of shopping online with a highly personalized customer experience.