As Bitkub scales, we aren't just thinking about numbers; we intend to have the right mindset for our current phase of development, to remain true to our purpose and serve our customers with integrity, but one mindset definitely doesn’t fit all.
Last year, we planned 600% of growth, and ended up growing 1000% in 2020. Enter January 2021, we have already experienced an additional 1000% in a span of 7 days. We have to make things better all the time. We are relentlessly scaling our infrastructure in a very short unanticipated period of time; doubling, tripling even, our efforts and there isn’t a short straight route to this. As such, our customers have been affected by the significant growth and we are accountable for your worries.
Bitkub is acquiring an average of 40,000 new customers, equivalent to the size of a football stadium, every day.
On behalf of Bitkub Capital Group Holdings, I am writing a letter with the hopes that everyone will take a few minutes out of their day to read this in its entirety. We may not best articulate how sorry we are for our missteps, and you may have lost your confidence in us, but we pledge to remain transparent and to improve our services going forward.
Bitkub Group sets out to offer the best possible blockchain and cryptocurrency services that our customers could not get anywhere. The quality of services should never be compromised; we always aim to go an extra mile, increase customer value, to be someone more than good. Our velocity is picking up. We have anticipated the surge of requests and concerns, but we missed looking ahead of our own expectations. We understand that this lapse has become a domino effect which caused you stress and inconvenience. As a leading blockchain company in the country, we are duty bound to maintain trust and confidence in our community.
You’ve trusted us with your hard-earned funds; it is our responsibility to serve you with quality and distinction, to assure that your money is safe and secure.
We heard you on the issue of delays in THB and crypto deposits, withdrawals, KYC verification process and customer support assistance, among other things. We are committed to you, our valued customers, to taking immediate corrective steps to address all of your concerns accordingly. We have been putting a comprehensive plan in place to provide a better and more timely information, more tools and resources for our employees and an improved procedure in handling technical difficulties. Improving operations and services are important but so is the way we develop and execute our long-term strategy. The company wanted to assure you of our path forward:
Our near-term corrective actions
- Tripling our overall support function by outsourcing our level 1 support agents
- Doubling headcounts of every team, specifically scaling our Customer Support and Operations teams by 2x/3x (target: 500+ people by the end of 2021)
- Hired Chief of People to help scale our company’s core values, cultures and purpose
- Scale our cloud infrastructure, web and mobile applications, Jumio, Zendesk, Slack, Cloudee, Lastpass, laptops and other equipments needed for our team to work smoothly and efficiently
- Scale our customer protection and level 2 support team
- Set up _Security Trust Team_ to focus and enhance on security-related matters
- Serve our 1 million customers by maintaining our lines of communication open - resume fully operational contact center 24/7 by the 4th week of January 2021
- Introduce additional account security options such as Yubikey support
- Recalibration and enhancement of account security protocols (e.g. 2FA, KYC verification) - quicker way of addressing concerns
- Expose our customers to credible self-help options ( _as a supplement not a replacement to our customer support service_) for better user experience (e.g. FAQs)
- Lastly, set up a _100m Bitkub Customer Protection Reserve_ and clear compensation criteria
If in case we run into something core to the experience that can’t be addressed, we’ll work to offer an alternative solution and let you know in advance about any changes you’ll see in your experience.
There is still much work to be done. We look forward to delivering value to our customers and to further improve our own productivity during this time of change. We took a long rough road to accomplish our goals and we have made it this far because of you. Thank you for placing your trust in us and contributing to our growing community.
Topp Jirayut Srupsrisopa
Founder and Group CEO of Bitkub
