Starbucks, the largest coffee retailer in the world, has signed a CRM contract with Convergys Corporation. The deal is a two-year extension of an existing contract.

The new deal was signed in response to its internal contact centre’s inability to provide cost-effective and efficient facilities for North American stores.

Convergys and Starbucks have worked to develop a powerful facilities support tool to track every piece of equipment in each company-owned facility, follow repair orders, and support invoicing from approximately 1,300 service providers. The companies also collaborated on the development of specialised training to help Convergys agents provide contact centre services for facilities support. Convergys agents now assist Starbucks retail employees in complex troubleshooting and equipment repair, as well as in identifying appropriate service vendors, issuing repair orders, and tracking repair work.

“Transferring an essential management function like contact centre services for facilities support to Convergys was a first for Starbucks,” said Badger Godwin, vice president, Store Development – Global Real Estate & Facilities for Starbucks. “Our decision has been more than validated, with Convergys proving to be a true, collaborative partner to Starbucks. We have worked together on agent training, scaling to meet our growth, and the creation of software tools to drive cost savings and improve the efficiency of our facilities support operation.”