As it scrambles to serve a massively expanding userbase, cryptocurrency marketplace and wallet provider Coinbase has hired former Twitter VP Tina Bhatnagar to oversee its customer service operations.
As the price of Bitcoin ballooned late last year, Coinbase was overwhelmed by hundreds of thousands of signups in a matter of days, with heavy trading putting a strain on its infrastructure and causing regular outages.
In a blog, CEO Brian Armstrong acknowledges the startup's troubles: "Improving customer service continues to be our #1 priority at Coinbase. I’ve been providing regular updates over the past couple of quarters on our progress, but I realize that updates are no solace when you can’t get prompt response from customer support. Actions speak louder than words."
To improve customer service, Bhatnagar will join as VP of operations and technology, leading all operational teams related to Coinbase and GDAX customers. Under her, the support team is set to double in size in just three months, with 24/7 phone support coming to all customers by the second quarter.
Among her new colleagues will be general manager Dan Romero, who upon his recent promotion made clear that the company has been "failing" at providing customers with an acceptable experience.
Bhatnagar has form when it comes to overseeing customer support at a young, rapidly growing company. As VP of operations and user services at Twitter, over five years she grew a 20-person strong team managing 20,000 customer support tickets a month into a division with thousands of employees operating out of six locations and dealing with millions of tickets a month.
"When deciding to join Coinbase, I was not blind to the challenges ahead of me. But when I met Brian and the team, I knew it would be a truly joint effort to run our customer operations how we envisioned it," says Bhatnagar.