Communication

Feedback & Ideas
1

I think the communication from Monzo in the past few weeks has been really really bad.

“Update your Tax Residency”

This email seemingly went to a lot of people but why oh why are you making people clink links in banking emails? Isn’t this the exact sort of behaviour you want to discourage?

And the link didn’t work for many people, there were numerous threads on here about it with confusion from people.

Why not have steps in the email about how to do it? Or why not add it into the feed?

Card Delivery

Granted this isn’t a huge deal but to me that means it’s easier to get it right. How difficult is it for it to tally?

https://community.monzo.com/t/so-is-my-new-card-out-for-delivery-or-not/110352/2

“Pay with Monzo, win great prizes”*

This is the worst one. I’ve had an email about it (again with a link), and a feed item. Why both?

But it just doesn’t make sense. Someone from Monzo attempted to clarify it but made it worse.

What is default? My Monzo card is my default card on Amazon but I very much doubt they are giving you that info. It’s default on ApplePay, maybe you can see that.

I bought a takeaway on Friday night, I didn’t make an account with an obscure local Chinese so does that not count? If I did make an account, they aren’t going to be linked to you.

There’s a Plus/Premium tab, why didn’t this flash up there? Why isn’t there a list of transactions that count towards the competition?

Adding features is time consuming and expensive, it’s not a simple process and can’t be done overnight, I 100% understand that. But the two recent emails that you’ve sent to a large number of people have been nothing short of terrible. They could have been improved very easily.

2

Very reasoned and well written criticism - you have my vote sir! :face_with_monocle:

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3

I’d also like to add in the discussion about “Frauded” in recent weeks too.

To quote some choice sections from their Tone of Voice guide:

Every word matters :open_book:

The words we put on screen and paper are one of the most important ways we have of showing people what we stand for. Not just our marketing, but all our terms and conditions, every chat with us, all the nooks and crannies in our app, and how we communicate with each other on the inside. Every word adds up to people’s perception of who we are.

And if the way we communicate confuses, frustrates or scares them, we can lose their hard-earned trust in seconds.
[…]
So every word matters. Every word is a chance for us to make a connection with someone, go beyond what they’d expect from a bank and brighten their day.

Without trying to sound too wound up by all this - this is what I take from the recent examples:

Frauded - People are confused by the use, but we’re happy with it and will press on anyway.

Out for delivery - Written perhaps from a perspective of the Card Sender (understandable), but not proofed from a perspective of a card receiver - a better copy writing process needed perhaps? Will also add that while the notification is great when it’s accurate, when it’s innacurrate or confusing, it’s worse than just receiving a new card without warning (which is what Traditional banks tend to do)

The various competitions - Clearly the goal is “have people switch their default card to Monzo, and hope they leave it as the default once the competition is complete” - It’s such a convoluted manner of writing the T’s and C’s that it doesn’t “make a connection” or “brighten my day”, it only confuses and frustrates. Clearly this one could have simply been said as “Spend online with your Monzo card”.

Not to mention the latter having 2 concurrent competitions, with different users getting prompts about different ones, and some (myself included) not getting any notifications, feed items, emails about either.

I do hope a small step back and look at their copy with their tone of voice in mind happens/

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4

Criticism taken on board and I can make sure that I can pass it on to the powers that be :eyes:

Any other areas on this topic that people feel isn’t hitting the mark?

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5

Maybe the Plus/Premium updates, but I know that’s a difficult one.

I didn’t mean this to be a hit piece and I hope it didn’t come across like that.

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6

:fu:Agreed with all said!

Oh and (genuinely!) happy Christmas to all on this forum and all at my only bank Monzo.

Let’s hope 2021 is an improvement on 2020 and that the blasted vaccine works.

Take care all.
:wave::wave::wave:

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7

The “spend with monzo for prizes” keeps coming up at the top of my feed after I dismiss it… it’s very annoying.

Also, bring plus and premium to joint accounts!

8

It’s happening now. Read the latest Plus update. You’ve mentioned it twice now in two different topics :see_no_evil:

9

To be fair to @Modo, we were told cheque imaging was happening, that it was being built, that Monzo missed one entry date so we’re waiting for the next etc etc, from the wording used I think most of us expected we would be scanning our cheques into the Monzo app by now. But that wasn’t how it went. So, and I mean this as no slight to Monzo or Tom who posted, but I would never suggest that

means, as you say

Probably best to still work on the assumption that it won’t happen, then if Monzo find a way to make it work we’ll all be very happy. If not then expectations will not be built up then dashed.

Just tying it back to communication…

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10

I’m not sure what your point is?

From what you’re saying it sounds like they’ve always been clear and honest, providing updates as they go. Therefore if they’re saying that they’re working on joint accounts - who are we to say otherwise?

I’m sure they’ll tell us if they stop as per your example :slight_smile:

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11

This is my point:

I thought I was being quite fair and considered, but :man_shrugging:. I’m off to crack open the Baileys now it’s 10am. I’ve waited long enough… :rofl:

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12

Just to manage everyone’s expectations

My interpretation is that it could easily be some months away.

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13

This was all I was suggesting @Anarchist. I guess I just put it badly or something if it was confusing!

14

I think the difference between cheque imaging and joint accounts is that in this case, many Monzo staff members are using joint accounts themselves and so directly being affected by the pain points involved, giving them a vested interest in solving the problem this time around.

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15

It’s a hard balance I imagine. I’m grateful for the update but it would seem that others would rather have fewer and more substantial ones.

Monzo admitted it’s not much and there’s no timeline. Therefore I personally wouldn’t guess at the timeline if they don’t know themselves.

16

I don’t want to derail that thread but I think it was a terrible update. Such a tick box exercise.

A slightly improved list of my transactions from my other accounts. But no merchant logo etc. It looks a bit nicer granted but is that it? Then a tease about something else.

And as for the joint account stuff, that is absolutely no different to when it was launched? “We hope to bring it to joint accounts” “it’ll take work” “it’s something we want to do”

I wouldn’t put any hope/expectation into joint accounts having it anytime soon.

17

Tom is one of the very, very few people that take time out of their day to engage with us on here. Are we really going to start picking apart what was a nice friendly signoff message for the year?

I’m sure he wasn’t forced to come on here and write it otherwise we’d be hearing from far more staff in different departments.

If we continue raising the bar higher and higher we’re going to push even more staff out and make them regret getting involved, if at all.

I understand and agree with the original comment in this topic about the more formal communication in the app but for on here, the community, where it’s more informal, this is too far in my opinion.

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18

Which is why I didn’t say anything in that thread, but months and months with no updates, to sign off with his post, I personally think is poor.

I’m not blaming him, it’s not his fault there’s not more to share or more has been done, but this is a thread for feedback on communication.

That was 5 weeks ago. We had one new offer? That then disappeared?

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19

It is a hard balance. Communication depends so much on interpretation.

To use a house building analogy. To build a house, you need to find a plot of land, then agree plans, then dig foundations, then build walls, then put a roof on.

“It’s happening now,” suggests to me that you think it might be at the foundation digging stage. “We are looking at it,” suggests to me that they haven’t found the land yet.

For what it’s worth, I’m agnostic over updates from Monzo. I take them all with a pinch of salt, but I agree with you that it was nice that there was a cheery year end sign off. :+1:

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20

Not at all. I was just agreeing with you :+1:

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