Prominent crypto influencer, Cryptomist, released the details of research they conducted into the state of the customer support at various cryptocurrency margin trading platforms.
The case study ranked 5 of the leading crypto margin platforms by a number of metrics including the reaction rate, the quality and completeness of the answer, politeness and professionalism, and the range of different communication channels available.
Of the 5 platforms included in the research, margin trading leader, PrimeXBT, came out on top overall, while also ranking first in a majority of the individual categories.
PrimeXBT and Binance were the only two platforms in the study to have reaction times of a few minutes or less, and while a number of the exchanges provided polite and professional responses, the quality of PrimeXBT’s assistance and the variety of support channels they provide was second to none.
Good Customer Support Makes a Big Difference in 2019
Gone are the days that traders will accept sloppy customer support on trading platforms.
With the explosion of the popularity of investing in crypto over the past few years, a bevy of new exchange launches has ensured that today crypto-consumers are spoiled for choice.
This means that instead of having to take it on the chin when one of the few platforms available takes 3 days to reply to a support ticket, investors now have their pick of hundreds of different trading sites - a lack of sufficient customer support on one site just means a new customer at another.
And with the huge increase in attention on cryptocurrency since 2017’s epic bull run, a wave of new novice and hobby retail traders have entered the market.
As they learn about the right ways to profitably trade, as well as how to navigate a certain trading platform, their ability to get fast and effective advice and feedback from the team behind each exchange or brokerage is absolutely critical.
Customer Support Results
The Best: PrimeXBT
PrimeXBT was found to provide by far the best support available for all 5 of the crypto margin trading platforms studied, with only Binance coming anywhere close to being as good.
The win hinges on a number of factors. To start with, PrimeXBT was the only platform to provide instant response times.
While other platforms provided answers (sometimes) and often with limited information, PrimeXBT’s staff provided “very helpful” advice, which “provided sufficient amounts of information to answer all of our questions”.
Where Deribit only has Telegram support, which is wildly insufficient for the needs of traders in 2019, and even Bitmex and Bitfinex only provided added email support on top of Telegram, PrimeXBT was found to have 4 channels available for users: live chat, tickets, email and social media communication.
High-Quality Support: Binance
Binance fared well in the research, being the only other exchange to have response times that most traders would consider acceptable.
While PrimeXBT’s instant response times give their users a clear advantage over a majority of other platforms, Binance’s response times of 2-3 minutes are still what we would call “fast”.
Binance also sufficiently answered the questions required, although starting the inquiry by having to interact with a bot was a drawback.
Slow but Helpful: Bitfinex
Bitfinex is the first of the two platforms that could be considered to have midrange support.
While the inquiry at Bitfinex was technical solved, it took a whopping 21 minutes to get a response.
Saying this, the advice provided was clear and concise, and staff were polite.
However, on big drawback for the platform was the lack of anything more than email and Telegram support - both of which are inherently slow and prone to getting clogged with enquiries in peak times.
Slow with Limited Help: Bitmex
Bitmex joins Bitfinex in the midrange area, again having support that is passable but definitely of a lower quality than PrimeXBT and Binance.
Much like Bitfinex, Bitmex’s support is sluggish at a response time of 19 minutes.
What positions Bitmex in the 4th spot behind Bitfinex, however, is that the quality of the response was poor with “limited information” being provided in the study.
Bitmex also relies on the sub-sufficient system of emails and Telegram only.
Dysfunctional Support: Deribit
Deribit rounds out the study at the bottom position, deservedly.
The research did not assign a reaction time to Deribit’s support, because there never was a reply to the email inquiry sent.
Not only this, but because of the lack of a reply, no scores for the quality of the answer or politeness were given.
To cap off a shockingly poor performance from Deribit’s support team, the only other channel where contact could be established was via Telegram - meaning that the platform provides only a single means of getting in touch with them.
In Summary
Cryptomist’s study highlights one of the most important and overlooked facets of designing and building a world-class cryptocurrency trading platform: excellent support for users.
Anecdotally, similar results have been reported for these 5 exchanges. While the top 2 clearly have a well-oiled system in place for assisting their clients, the bottom 3 provide substandard support systems that are not accepted by savvy traders in 2019.
This research may inspire others to also take a deeper and more measured look at what’s on offer in the cryptocurrency industry today, in search of instantaneous response times and polite, professional, helpful answers.