How Klarna cut customer service response times from eleven minutes to two

Eleven minutes before a customer got an answer.

Refunds, complaints, payment questions: the same procedures every time, at a volume that grew with every step of growth. Catching up meant hiring – and hiring meant onboarding before the first case was handled.

An agent that does not pass the case on but closes it.

The agent took first contact, and not only the conversation: it saw refunds through itself. Wired into the systems where the cases live, with access to the real status of the order.

Under two minutes instead of eleven.

• 2.3 mcases in the first month
• under 2 minto resolution, previously 11
• 25%fewer repeat enquiries
• around 700full-time roles the agent's work covered

The company put the expected contribution at around 40 million US dollars for the year – its own estimate, not an audited result. And the 700 are not a headcount: the company converted the volume of work handled into full-time equivalents. Redundancies, the company says, were not part of it; headcount came down through roles that were not refilled.

A year later the human release step came back: on cases that fell outside the pattern, the answers stayed too generic. The volume stayed – in the third quarter of 2025 the company reported the work of 853 roles. Which is exactly why I build the release step in from the start, at the point where the decision is made.