Cryptocurrency, especially Bitcoin, has exploded in 2017, and cryptocurrency exchange company Coinbase has been one of the biggest players in the space. But as it has secured more users, scaling customer service has become a growing challenge. The company may be at a turning point, however, with the hiring of a veteran executive to oversee customer service operations.
The company had promised to expand its customer service operations by June of last year, but it was only in September that Coinbase added a new customer support line to help users having problems with the platform. Even then, customers reported long call wait times and poorly executed service. Now, the company is finally getting serious about improving its customer support, hiring former Twitter executive Tina Bhatnagar as vice president of operations and technology, to oversee the customer support branches of Coinbase.
“[Bhatnagar] will ensure we meet our commitments to double the size of our support team over the next three months and expand 24/7 phone support to all customers by Q2 2018,” Brian Armstrong, Coinbase CEO, wrote in a blog post.
For Coinbase, this prioritization of customer service couldn’t have come fast enough. The company currently has more than 13.3 million users, and consistently experiences record volumes and traffic, despite market volatility—and that level of engagement requires near-flawless support.
The pressure may be on, but Armstrong is confident that bringing Bhatnagar on board will make a difference for the company. “In five and a half years [at Twitter], she grew her team to thousands of employees operating out of six locations handling millions of support tickets a month. Her team helped tackle spam, account access, identity, and localization issues,” he wrote.
As for Bhatnagar, she’s ready for the challenge. “When deciding to join Coinbase, I was not blind to the challenges ahead of me,” Bhatnagar said in a company statement. “It’s an exciting time, with Coinbase and crypto in the public eye more than ever before, but that also means it’s an even more critical moment to stake our position. And this can only happen if we do right by our customers every single day.”