I can’t speak on behalf of others, but there are a few things that stand out when Monzo customers talk about customer service.
I’ve always found it a little strange just how frequently people need to talk to Monzo CS in the first place - I would love to know the stats, but I reckon the calls/chats per person are significantly higher than other banks (it felt the same on the Starling forum as well, so perhaps it’s just the “ease of contact” that encourages more CS messages).
However, given that the chat service is Monzo’s primary method of CS, it should really be one of the most polished aspects of the product - I wouldn’t even call it a “feature” as it’s a necessity.
My CS experience has generally been due to “bugs” in the app - Something I have never experienced with high street banks, because their app was typically boring and stale - But functional and stable at the same time - Which has led me to contact their CS (high street banks), about 4 times in 5 years… If that!
If others are also getting in touch with Monzo due to bugs in the app, you can understand why the chat volumes are high, and the wait times are very long (which, whilst off topic, is still a massive issue for Monzo).
So in a nutshell, I think this whole “new chat” thing has compounded a few “issues” that Monzo currently has, and under different circumstances, might not have been criticised as much as it has been.
For example, if the CS responses were instant (as they were once upon a time) - I don’t think people would complain as much as they are, and the need for “read receipts” or “eta’s” wouldn’t be as important.
The same can probably be said for the “single vs multiple” thread argument - Whilst not ideal, if issues were being sorted out straight away, it would appease a lot of people, and would give Monzo a bit more rope to develop the system some more.
Or, if they had eta’s on the chat, it would give people some idea of when their issue would be looked at.
Basically… Monzo just needed to change 1 thing about the whole experience, for the frustration to subside quite a bit (certainly based on the forum responses).