https://getmondo.co.uk/blog/2016/07/22/name-change-update-snapchat
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Whereās the āunlikeā button?
No thanks, can you update us here or even on the blog?
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It is available to view on the blog for people who donāt use snapchat.
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sorry Colin! Weāll always let you know updates here, too, we promise!
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Yeah, Iām also a little put off by the idea that my ābankā might communicate with me via Snapchat. I can just about get over the use of emoji in communication, but Snapchat feels very weird. (Obviously not concerned about emoji in this community forum, thatās a bit different).
To be clear the problem Mondo solves for me is about usability, not about friendliness or formality. HSBC remain friendly but formal in their communication, and while they could be a little more concise, it definitely influences my level of trust with them. Iām not saying I want Mondo to change much, but it would be nice if the communication was a little less 
and a little more 
. Just a little.
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For people like myself, who donāt have snapchat or particularly like listening to videos, I have made a quick transcript:
Hey, Iām Bailey and I work in the Mondo marketing team. Iām just going to give you a very quick update on where we are at the moment with the new name project.
So just over a month ago, we announced that we needed to change our name and we opened up to suggestions from the whole of the community. At the time we thought that the whole process would take maybe a couple of weeks.
Unfortunately for us, things donāt always go to plan.
Itās taking quite a bit longer than we thought to find a name that matches all of our criteria, isnāt currently trademarked, and is as great as āMondoā.
After all, weāve all got very high standards here at Mondo, and we need to find a name that meets our CEO Tomās very high bar.
Now, weāre working through some legal processes with some of the very final short list. But weāre hoping that weāre gonna have concrete news with you very very soon.
So thatās it really, in the spirit of transparency, we just wanted to give you a quick update on why you havenāt heard of the new āM-bankā yet.
Donāt worry though, when we do have the new name, youāll be first to hear it. We want our community to know all about the process, and the names that weāve found and rejected.
Like you, we love Mondo, and weāre 100% confident that weāre gonna find a great new name, and will love it just as much, if not more.
Bailey - if you need any corrections making, just let me know 
It should match word-for-word, but I might have missed something.
Would probably be worth making a transcript for cases like this in the future - helpful for Google, and for accessibility, in case anyone struggles with hearing videos.
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This is awesome, thanks James! 
Not a lot of love here for Snapchat 
Seriously, though, I take the accessibility point on board, definitely (thanks @billinghamj!). For @dan, Iād ask why the medium of communication (Snapchat) is important? I think weāll probably have quite a different audience there than here on the forum, but we want to reach as many of our community members as possible, and so using different channels makes sense to me.
The message itself is really just an update for all of those people tweeting us and asking about the new name! Thereās no meaty news yet. What I said just echoes whatās already been said here on the forum 
PS - keep the feedback coming, itās very welcome!
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I like the snapchat so a +1 from me! 
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Snapchat is great for live events or behind the scenes nonsense. For actual announcements or updates, I donāt believe itās the right platform. Poor discovery, poor sharing, awful accessibility in both content and the app itself.
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Hang on, hang onā¦
People here are complaining about using snapchat simply as another means of contacting a different demographicā¦ Then itās obviously not for you is it.
Bailey went to the trouble to create a short and honest video about whatās going on, so appreciate that Mondo is keeping in touch, and being totally candid about everything.
Donāt whinge about it, just accept that youāre not the target audience for that specific channel of communication.
I donāt want a dehumanised HSBC or Natwest that is all smoke, mirrors and small printā¦ Mondo (or whatever itāll be called) is doing things just perfectly.
Banks, for years have always trodden the tried and tested āadult to childā way of treating its customers, but Mondo is truly āadult to adultā.
Like a casual but trustworthy best friend that doesnāt make excuses for making mistakes, or try to cover up massive errors of judgement in gambling with saverās money like other banks have done in the past.
Just listen. Or ignore. Easy.
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Donāt get me wrong, I like Snapchat and use it semi-regularly but the biggest strength of it to me is also the biggest weakness when it comes to making any kind of announcement. Namely that I canāt easily share or link someone to a snap and that story snaps disappear after 24 hours.
I would actually love to see more from Mondo on Snapchat about the random goings on of the office. Snapchat I find is a much a more relaxed and private place for this kind of thing.
Additionally, listen or ignore I feel is entirely the wrong attitude to bring to a community site. You do have some great points in the second half of your post but weāre all here to share and discuss our opinions and ideas with each other towards the aim of building a better bank. I know Iād rather be proven wrong by others genuinely supporting something than have someone assume something isnāt for me.
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Personally, I think the snapchat is great and as long as thereās an alternative medium to view/read it on, whatās the problem?
I also really like the informal nature of Mondo, for someone like me who is not comfortable/familiar with crazy bank terminology, this has really benefited me, so far at least.
The only difference between snapchat and Twitter is that you canāt keep a snap, hence the blogpost. If you donāt like one medium, choose the alternative. Itās great that Mondo are covering all the bases/demographics in my opinion.
Keep up the good work Bailey
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What youāve said is bang on. And again, this is just a discussion point. I just never really understand when someone at Mondo is trying hard to be responsible and keeping everyone updated, that thereās so much negativity surrounding a snapchat video?!?..
I think there will always be people that interact with Snapchat, and some that donāt. But itās the people who just want to be negative for no reason about something theyāre not interested in, is just close-mindedā¦ and theyāre the people who should just ignore it, and move on to a medium of comms that suits them.
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and this is what is great about this community forum , usually on most forums some people end up tearing chunks out of people for just having differing opinions - here its towards a common goal of a better banking experience - long may it continue
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Iām sure there was a time in the past when customers complained that banks contacted them via email rather than a paper letter in the mail. I embrace that this is an added medium to communicate with users and not a replacement. Keep up the hard work, but now youāre stuck with the āgetmondoā username - so hope the new name change isnāt too drastic 
Hi @bailey, long post incoming, based on thoughts Iāve had for a while. I might be reading too much into things, Iām probably not an average user (although I am a very active and early user and an āinvestorā).
Basically my thoughts come down to 2 main points:
- I think the medium and method speak to the seriousness and therefore trustworthiness of a business.
- I think the medium speak to the priorities of the business.
Long versionā¦
(1) If YPlan started advertising or communicating through Snapchat Iād think that was a pretty good idea. They are an events booking/deals app, and position themselves as kind of your ācoolā friend who knows whatās going on tonight that you could go to. They are definitely āfunā and cheery in their communication, and that fits with the Snapchat platform really well. Using Snapchat, for me, would increase my trust in YPlan because itās what that ācoolā friend would be using.
An example at the other end of the spectrum, the government communicates a lot on articles on https://gov.uk. The writing is some of the clearest and most concise Iāve read, with very clear visualisations. Lots of thought has been put into the accessibility not just in terms of the platform (just the web, not a closed system), but also in terms of the design and access for assistive devices like screen readers. All of this thought and effort increases my trust in the information, and my ability to rely on it.
For me, a bank is very core to my life. While Mondo isnāt literally my bank at the moment I pretty much treat it as one, putting all of my spending apart from rent and bills through it. Because of this, I would rather the communication was that which evoked reliability, and accessibility, more than being fun/cool. Iād like it to be friendly, and I donāt need or want to be called āMr Palmerā in communication, but I would expect official communication to be open-first, and in reliable and accessible formats, rather than in closed networks. By all means echo communication/notifications to other networks, but a blog post or email newsletter seems like a much better canonical form of communication with customers.
On a slightly related note, Mondoās goal appears to be to become essentially a ābanking platformā (given APIs, integrations, etc), that can power a variety of accounts. Iām not sure I could see a company using Mondo (for example) as a provider/manager for their expense accounts if the personality of the company was like that of YPlan.
(2) This might be reading far too much into it, but to me, Snapchat feels very much like a PR/user acquisition focused platform to be using for brand communication. I realise that Mondo has got to continue to bring on more users, but in my selfish view as an existing user, thatās nowhere near as important as effective communication towards me.
This feeling isnāt helped by the fact that Mondoās focus seems to be very much on growing, rather than iterating the product and improving it for existing users. (I do realise that this might not be Mondoās priority, might not be right for the business, might be hindered by the lack of banking licence, etc, just speaking from my own viewpoint).
Sorry for the brain dump, I hope it helps in some way. Iād be interested to hear more thoughts from other users, and would love to know what the basis for Mondoās current brand voice is (down to use of emoji everywhere, Snapchat as a communication medium, etc).
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Iām surde that was what they did? Snapchat echoed with a blog post. They just used Snapchat to create the video, or thatās how I see it?
Iām not a huge fan of Snapchat and can see your viewpoint very clearly, and I do agree mostly, however I do think that there are Mondo users out there that have Snapchat and follow that more than the blog.
This long debate about the right channel to communicate on ā¦come on guys surely we can spend out time more efficiently ā¦I will hate to know how as a community we have to deal with really important decisions like whether to use 2 ply or 3 ply loo paper
Mondo is the bank of the future. I donāt expect them to send me my monthly statement via Snapchat, but if they have news to share then Snapchat is a great platform to do so. Those subscribed will be able to see a quick update that they may miss on another platform like Twitter or Facebook, getting lost in the sea of continuous posts.
As long as the content is available elsewhere, I think all is good! Blog posts and emails for example may not be where younger audiences go to look for news from Mondo and so may miss out on important or interesting information, whereas they likely view every story in their Snapchat feed.
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