Zendesk helps BtcTurk scale while keeping CX a priority

Since the first cryptocurrency – Bitcoin – was made available in 2009, the cryptocurrency market has grown rapidly. In 2020 it was valued at $1.49 billion and by 2030 it is expected to reach $4.94 billion. It’s no surprise then that this is a fiercely competitive market. Not only are there now more than 1,600 different cryptocurrencies available but the number of cryptocurrency trading platforms to buy, sell and exchange these cryptocurrencies has also seen massive growth.

Founded in 2013, BtcTurk was the first Bitcoin and cryptocurrency trading platform to launch in Turkey, and the fourth to launch globally. With nearly five million users it differentiates itself in this competitive arena by putting the customer first. This not only means giving them the confidence that they can securely buy and sell Bitcoin anytime, anywhere, via BtcTurk’s mobile app, but if they require customer support they can reach someone 24/7.

“Customer experience is one of the core competencies of our company. From the day we launched, we’ve invested in customer support. This support extends beyond our own platform to also offering general guidance and education to customers who are new to cryptocurrency and crypto exchange. This is how we set ourselves apart in the market,” says Murat Tacer, BtcTurk’s Operations Director.

To help its agents provide the best possible CX, BtcTurk relies on Zendesk’s suite of tools.

Building strong relationships

BtcTurk is a digital-first company with no physical connection with customers through any stores. For this reason, building a strong relationship via digital channels is crucial. As Tacer says, “Cryptocurrency is still a largely unregulated market, so we need to give our customers the confidence that we can solve their problems and gain their trust by offering the best possible customer support. This customer relationship is one of our major differentiators.”

With its previous CRM solution, BtcTurk was unable to build such a relationship. The key problem was that the system would sometimes go offline. Not only did this mean the company couldn’t offer any service at all to customers during these times, but being unable to access the right customer support representative, BtcTurk did not have any information as to when the system would be back online again.

Another key issue that prompted the switch to Zendesk is that the previous system could not easily scale. In a growing but volatile market such as cryptocurrency, scalability is vital. This was made evident just after BtcTurk chose to adopt Zendesk in November 2020. At the end of that year and the start of 2021, cryptocurrency markets experienced a huge surge on the back of adoption among traditional financial firms. As a result, BtcTurk experienced a massive uptake in customers, all wanting to communicate via digital channels.

Zendesk not only offered scalability but a stable system in which customer support agents could confidently manage the increasing volume of customer tickets. Of course, dealing with this volume also meant scaling the number of agents. “At the end of December 2020, we had 75 customer support agents. By the end of February 2021 this had increased to approximately 700,” says Tacer.

Providing speed and agility

All its customer support agents, whether working in-house as a BtcTurk employee or for its outsourced support agency, use Zendesk as their internal CRM tool.

Customers can get in touch with agents via email, webform or chat. With speed and agility being paramount, Chat is the key channel as it offers quick communication with live agents 24/7. Zendesk also helped with triggers and automations to further improve customer service. As Tacer explains, “During peak times we can let our Chat customers know where their place is in the queue. In our previous system, this was not possible and customers had no information about how long they would be waiting before speaking to an agent.”

Zendesk reporting has also proven very useful in assessing agent efficiency, which was also not possible previously. “By monitoring the chats of each customer representative, we can localize any problems there might be and offer training or education so as to improve the service our agents are offering customers,” he adds.

Working with a best-in-class solution

A key indicator of whether customers are happy with the service they are getting is through CSAT scores. Currently, CSAT is a staggering 90%, a score BtcTurk is very happy with as achieving a high CSAT in the cryptocurrency market is very challenging. It is also a 10% increase from its previous CRM system. Tacer puts this increase down to how Zendesk is improving agent efficiency and speed. “We aim to answer chats in 30 seconds and emails or web forms in half an hour,” he says.

Almost two years down the line and BtcTurk’s investment in Zendesk has proven more than worthwhile. The company is delivering the support to customers it’s always wanted to, and at scale. As Tacer states, “The three key things that are important in being a customer-first company is solving the customer’s problem first time, providing the service as quickly as possible, and making the customer happy with the solution that’s provided. We certainly feel that BtcTurk is working with the world’s best-in-class solution to enable us to provide this level of customer support.”