The leading cryptocurrency company is reported to have laid off remotely placed customer support staff.
Staff Cuts at Coinbase
Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States, is reported to have fired at least 15 employees from its customer support, compliance, and fraud departments. The news was reported by Yahoo Finance last Friday.
According to reports, the firm confirmed the development but did not mention the number of employees that were let go. Inside sources at the company are reported to have revealed that, “People here are pretty upset about it, and so far, senior leadership is handling communications poorly.”
At a time when Coinbase has been taking aggressive steps to grow its business lines and offerings, this decision does come as a surprise. The company had recently been noted as having a valuation of $8 billion. Many believe that the firm is preparing to go public soon.
Reason for the Layoffs
Coinbase currently claims to have a customer base of 25 million users, which is a great deal more than the 300,000 users they had back in 2013. The firm now has offices in San Francisco, New York, Chicago, London, Tokyo, Portland, and Dublin.
The firm had hired remote customer support staff to service the growing number of customers back in 2013. This was done to help alleviate the massive backlog that had accumulated as the exchange rapidly grew.
The firm appointed Tina Bhatnagar, a former Salesforce and Twitter executive, to head its customer service operations earlier in January. It is reported that Bhatnagar wanted the customer services staff physically located at the company’s offices.
The remotely located employees were laid off, although it is reported that they were given the option of relocating to a Coinbase office.
Move to Consolidate Operations
In a statement, Coinbase said:
We’ve learned that certain teams who are co-located are more efficient, effective, and happier in their roles. So moving forward, some teams—including Support, Fraud, and Compliance—will only hire employees into Coinbase offices.
Stating that its customer service has improved, the communication claimed:
Our average time to first response via email is under four hours, under three minutes on the phone, and 90% of all cases are resolved within 48 hours.
The company added that it would “continue to be open to remote employees” as long as such jobs were difficult to fill at the various local offices of the exchange.
The downturn in the cryptocurrency market since it hit an all-time high last January has also impacted the trading volume on Coinbase. As prices and trading volume have declined, it makes sense for Coinbase to consolidate operations and reduce overall costs.
What are your thoughts on Coinbase laying off remote staff? Let us know in the comments below.
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