I tend to find emoji in WhatsApp and then cut and paste them into other apps
Nice, friendly, helpful
But this one time I did get annoyed with some emoji use when my card didn’t work for something…
it was the something like…
“Sorry you couldn’t get your coffee 
”
felt like Monzo was taking the piss out of the situation…but it passed quickly 
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Natural, simple, personable.
Chatty, relaxed, fake.
Monzo’s not my mate; it’s a company with a product I like.
The three it should be: professional, understandable, helpful. Note that this doesn’t preclude it from a relaxed style, just the hyperactive buddy tone.
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I’ve never found the Monzo staff to act fake. You might not like the tone, that’s fair. But it has never felt fake. @simonb @HughWells @BethS and others have been some of the most friendly, sincerely caring people I’ve ever interacted with at a company.
I like to think I can spot fake friendly (T-Mobile US being the perfect example, so much so it’s ridiculous) and I’ve never got that feeling at all from Monzo.
There are very few companies where I’ve ever felt the staff genuinely care. Monzo and Bristol Energy are two of them that I’ve been loving lately.
Of course, that’s very hard to maintain with scale as a company grows. And both companies need to grow. They’re both burning through investment funds. Hopefully the amazing sincere customer service survives the growth they need…
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Friendly, approachable, transparent (very difficult to find in banks).
Keep up the good work 
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Totally agree - but we know that it’s possible.
Just look at first direct’s rankings, and you’ll see that they had very good survey ratings for a while (and still have, although I’ve never used them so can’t comment).
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Definitely. If I didn’t believe it was possible, I may as well have HSBC and British Gas (okay, not those two, you can do far far better even with the big banks and energy suppliers 
- though ironically HSBC owns First Direct, which I fail to comprehend…).
Google is an interesting one. Generally known for their terrible customer service, and usually true on the front line. But once you actually get in touch with product teams and engineers (real engineers, not in the job title inflation sense where everyone who fixes something gets called an engineer), they can be amazing. I had that with my Nexus 5X and they were absolutely fabulous, the engineer working with me.
American Express always used to be truly excellent to me, however last year I saw a really dark side to them - the fraud department. Twice, my card got declined for suspected fraud. In both cases, the aftermath was bizarre, I felt like I was being treated as a thief by one of them (the second one was nicer, but still bizarre… it felt like a phishing attempt itself). The entire experience both times was very off-putting. Amex cards rarely get blocked (unlike, say, Lloyds, where it happens constantly)… but when they do, they make it painful and unsettling. Most banks it’s a quick text ‘was this you?’ or call… easy-peasy. Though I hate Lloyds’ patronising ‘thank you for using the Lloyds fraud service’ follow-up. Umm, no, you’re not welcome. I didn’t have a choice about using it, and I didn’t want the hassle of my card being blocked because of your over-sensitive algorithm.
Capital One (in the US, I have no UK experience because they only offer poor credit cards here so no point) is amazing - friendly, efficient and just generally great CS. It is worth noting that, in the US, ‘prime’ (good credit) cards and bank accounts (I’ve had both) get US-based customer service teams, quick responses, and are very efficient. They have definite CS inequality. The ‘poor credit’ products (like they sell here) get different, generally much worse, customer service from what I’ve heard.
These are exceptions though, not the standard. Most large companies fail on customer service as they grow. I believe in exceptions, though… so keep up the great work, Monzo!
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