I was wondering about the Monzo tone of voice when it launches in France (ou la francophonie en générale). As a Monzo customer would you expect to be tu-ed or vous-ed by Monzo as a company?
Tutoie-Moi ! (Yay, Monzo friends)
Le vouvoiement, SVP. (It’s just business)
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I was wondering about this after reading that Google and other Silcon valley companies have a policy of using tu exclusively internally (annoyingly I can’t find the reference now) which I’d expect to be mirrored by Monzo. But the in terms of speaking to customers, I was unsure - maybe there’d be an option like preferred name here?
For those who are wondering what I’m wittering on about - take a look here.
What do others think? And what would other languages do?
It would feel really weird for someone French with no long-term exposure to English. It would be less of a shock if the user was on the community (it’s commonly accepted to use “Tu” on forums and stuff) and then were to talk to the same people on chat it would be less of an issue (since you already talked to them on the community first).
Maybe a solution is to either use a toggle in the app/profile as how you’d prefer to be addressed (similarly to the display name or whatever), or have a warning the first time you try to open a chat to explain to new customers that it isn’t the Cops being rude, it’s just how Monzo works (and the fact that you are not expected to use “Vous” with them either).
Before Monzo, I’d not expect to see in my chats to the bank…
Just to keep UI simple, I’d go for a hidden flag for Cops rather than something user-adjustable (vous-tu-inconnu). Cops can ask during the first chat then adjust as expected.
Not being a native French-speaker, how much of a shock would it be to get ‘tu’-ed by Monzo in chat? I think I’d be a bit miffed if the clerk in Credit Agricole started doing it to me, but it’d feel in keeping for Monzo - especially if the terms and conditions were written in a similar way.
It’s not an issue for us (nor any of the “millennials”) but it would be quite surprising for someone who’s switching from a legacy bank and has no other knowledge of Monzo nor its community other than “it’s a free & modern bank which shows your balance instantly”.
As far as the terms (and everything else like UI, etc) are concerned, I’d actually expect (and prefer) if they were written using “Vous”.
:mondo:
in my chats to the bank…