Popular trading app Robinhood announced Tuesday that it has launched round-the-clock phone support to better serve its ever-growing user base, including the millions of users who have signed up to access cryptocurrency investments.
App users will now be able to speak with a live customer service representative 24 hours a day, seven days a week, regardless of holidays. The company said its 24/7 support line is part of a broader effort to expand reliability and accessibility, as well as respond to time-sensitive requests from its customers.
To access the service, users can request a call through the Robinhood app and receive a notification when they are next in line for a phone conversation. A Robinhood representative will then initiate the call.
Kristen Brown, COO of Robinhood Crypto, told Cointelegraph that the company is expanding customer service due to the higher volumes and longer wait times, a feature of large exchanges. She said her company is committed to “resolving three major barriers to our financial markets,” including economic, educational and emotional. On the emotional side, she explained:
“To overcome emotional barriers, we need to help everyone feel that they are ready to become an investor, that they belong, and that they will get the support they need when they need it. We hope that providing 24/7 phone support will continue to break down these barriers. “.
Brown confirmed that as of June, Robinhood had approximately 2,700 customer support employees. The company is on track to grow its customer services unit two and a half times this year.
Customer service, or lack thereof, has become a serious problem for many cryptocurrency traders. As Cointelegraph recently reported, thousands of Coinbase customers were unable to access customer support even after their accounts were hacked. This issue is not limited to Coinbase either.
Related: Robinhood users may soon be able to withdraw cryptocurrency for the first time
Crypto exchange support has been criticized as uniformly poor in large part because exchanges are unable to scale their support staff quickly enough, especially during bull markets. This issue also overloaded the infrastructure during periods of high volume, leaving millions of traders unable to access their accounts when they needed it most.
Robinhood’s IPO filing in July showed the company had 18 million registered accounts with $80 billion in assets. Many of these users are drawn to Robinhood’s commission-free trading services, as well as the ease with which they can purchase investments such as stocks and cryptocurrencies.
