About us
Our Mission
Our mission is to turn your customers into brand advocates, improve employee engagement and deliver shareholder results. We boost support strategies by improving processes and helping clients with help desk selection, implementation optimisation.
Our Story
Koda was founded in Sydney, Australia in 2021. Ko-Founders Ricardo, Lauren and Annabelle discovered their shared passion for improving support teams whilst working together at trading platform Stake.
We were brought on to help as the Gamestop trading frenzy kicked off. Stake had an influx of new customers along with thousands of support tickets. After 3 months, we had eliminated the ticket backlog, recruited an amazing team, and left behind a structure for continuous improvement that helped propel Stake’s customer support function into the future.
After Stake, it was clear that this is what we wanted to do - use our expertise to build and optimise customer support teams, with a focus on improving customer culture along the way.
The name Koda comes from the musical term coda ([ˈkoːda]). In English, coda means “end or concluding passage”. Often found at the end of sheet music, codas are known for bringing a sense of completeness. For example, in the song “Hey Jude”, the (rather long) coda is a repetition of “nah, nah nah nah-nah-nah nah, nah-nah-nah nah, Hey Jude”. We like to think of Koda as the concluding piece to setting up your support team for success.
Like the Koda team and the nature of our engagements, codas are diverse - sometimes just a few notes, and sometimes an entire section of music (an extension of the music in the song or something entirely different!) 🎼
Meet our team!
The Koda team is located across London (UK), Sydney (Australia) and Wellington (New Zealand). Friendly and down-to-earth, our four Koda Experts have over 45 years of combined support experience.
Annabelle Thomas
Ko-Founder and Partner
Based in London 🇬🇧
5+ years in support:
Loot, Xinja
Expertise:
Copywriting, developing procedures
Why Koda?
"I love to learn, understand processes fully, and use that knowledge to empower others. As part of Koda, I get to do exactly that. When we start a new engagement, I’m often in the same boat as our clients’ new customers - eager to learn, with lots of questions. I use this perspective to create a variety of content that’s thorough, engaging and easy to understand."
Fun fact:
"I run a baking side hustle in my spare time and I write the Koda blog" 👩🏻🍳
Lauren Summerfield
Ko-Founder and Partner
Based in Sydney 🇦🇺
5+ years in support:
Xinja
Expertise:
QA, CSAT, team building
Why Koda?
"Working in customer support, I could never settle for short-term solutions for customers - always getting to the crux of the problem and advocating for long-term fixes. Establishing effective feedback loops between customers and the business (and internally amongst different teams) has become part of my day-to-day and I love that I get to tap into the areas of support that I've always had a passion for."
Fun fact:
"In the last year, I've got into investing in Crypto!" 🚀
Wil
Hines
Partner
Based in Wellington 🇳🇿
15+ years in support:
REI, LendingClub, Step, Rippling
Expertise:
Start-up leadership, contact center management, fintech / financial services
Why Koda?
"Building teams and products along with problem solving is a long-time passion of mine. The reward that comes in transforming new ideas into action, and helping people succeed is inspiring. Working with Koda, I’m able to expand the reach of my passion, helping many more companies and people grow and reach new heights."
Fun fact:
"I love building and problem solving so much, as hobbies I build Legos and appreciate problem solving a challenging puzzle (or escape room!)." 🧩
Ricardo
Vega
Ko-Founder and Partner
Based in Sydney 🇦🇺
15+ years in support:
Amex, LendingClub, Xinja
Expertise:
Team development, customer experience, support strategy
Why Koda?
"Support teams are often underinvested and overlooked. I love the impact that Koda has on support teams. Working on projects that help team members enjoy their job a bit more has a significant impact on the experiences they create for customers and the overall performance of the companies where they work."
Fun fact:
"I started an online guitar shop 18 months ago" 🎸