Relationship management firm, Convergys and speciality coffee retailer, Starbucks have renewed their contract for Convergys’ relationship management solutions for a further two years to enhance its facilities support operations. The financials of the
deal were not disclosed.

Starbucks's 2008 revenues stood at over $10 billion and it is one of the most well known brands in the market. Despite the solid internal customer service support it had in place, when its recent growth outstripped its internal contact center’s ability to provide cost-effective and efficient facilities support to its stores in North America, Starbucks turned to Convergys to meet this need.

Convergys and Starbucks developed a facilities support tool to track equipment in company-owned facility, follow repair orders, and support invoicing from approximately 1,300 service providers. The companies also collaborated on the development of specialized training to help Convergys agents provide contact center services for facilities support. Convergys agents assist Starbucks retail employees in complex troubleshooting and equipment repair and identifying appropriate service vendors, issuing repair orders, and tracking repair work.

“Transferring an essential management function like contact center services for facilities support to Convergys was a first for Starbucks,” said Badger Godwin, vice president, Store Development – Global Real Estate & Facilities for 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.”

Jim Boyce, Convergys President, Global Business Units said: “Thanks to the training we provide, our dedicated workers answer internal calls and handle complex situations, helping our clients lower their costs and improve the efficiency of their contact center operations. We are looking forward to helping Starbucks achieve even more success in the future.”