Coldwater Creek uses BMC to improve service levels

National retailer Coldwater Creek has honed its competitive edge in women's fashion and home accessories with Business Service Management from BMC Software, dramatically improving service levels and keeping its staff on the sales floor and off the phone with the help desk, according to a press release.

As part of its BSM strategy, Coldwater Creek relies on the BMC Service Request Management (SRM) solution to more quickly identify both IT and non-IT problems at the company's 400 stores and match them to the right fulfillment team through the company's self-service Web portal.

"Our stores are our lifeblood, and we need our sales staff to be on the floor selling clothes, not spending time on the phone to the service desk," said Rich Stuber, director of technology operations at Coldwater Creek. "BMC helps us minimize the time needed to address problems so we can focus on delivering service to our customers."

Coldwater Creek's service desk is the first point of contact for IT or facilities problems among the 10,000 retail and corporate employees. SRM enables Coldwater Creek IT to combine separate support systems for IT and non-IT complaints, whether they're broken light fixtures or password resets.

With between 8,000 and 10,000 incoming calls per month, store reps and IT help desk staffers were spending valuable time resolving issues on the phone.

Now with a self-service Web portal for submitting service requests and SRM, problems are immediately routed to the appropriate support team for quick resolution. Employees can also automatically track the resolution progress of more than 1,400 cases each month.