Last night, something made me think

Monzo Chat
#1

Something happened to me last night.

I contacted Monzo support as I had experienced a problem that I had seen being mentioned on the community forum by other Monzo users :slight_smile:

I was greeted by @BethS. Of whom frequently posts on the forum. Who managed to get everything done within minutes.

The point I want to make is this :

I am talking to my bank, and I knew the person that was helping me. In a sense, it was like I was talking to a friend.

I didnā€™t make a point that it was ā€œmeā€ from the forum, however at the end of the conversation. Beth gave a polite ā€œsee you about on the forumā€

This was an epic moment :sunglasses:

Monzo, you have got me for life.

X

Worth noting: Iā€™ve never spoken to a COop that I have recognised from being on the forum before. Havenā€™t had to contact in app chat much!

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#2

Nice experience, Jack. Makes a real impression.

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#3

This hasnā€™t happened to me for a long time - and that person was Tom! I wonder if he still does the odd bit of COps?

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#4

Not for a while! And, we donā€™t need him to - we have more than enough COps now! I was talking about this to some newer colleagues over Remote Week, itā€™s pretty odd to think about those times and compare them to how things are now. I remember being on shift at the same time as Tom, and others who are not specifically COps - it used to happen all the time back in the day when we were a much smaller company.

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#5

I think Itā€™s great when CEOā€™s chip in and help from time to time. It shows they care and gives them a great insight into how things are within the organisation :slight_smile:

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#6

I find it interesting that Elon Musk refuses to have his own separate office at Space X. He just sits out in a pen with the rest of his staff!

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#7

I definitely see both sides to this.

And to be honest, Iā€™m sure that if enough people said they would like to see Tom on the in app chat from time to time that he would do it.

You couldnā€™t get better value than that. :sunglasses:

Iā€™m tempted to open a new threadā€¦

@alexs could I be on to something?

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#8

Iā€™m not sure, my guess is the support tools have evolved so much now that it would take a while to train him to use them + he has other ways of keeping up with what customers are asking for. So perhaps itā€™s not the best use of his time.

Wouldnā€™t hurt to try though, worst case, you just wonā€™t get a response :slight_smile:

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#9

Iā€™m not going to take that further actually, howeverā€¦

I think he should do the next Q & A :ok_hand:

That would be amazing. :blue_heart:

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#10

Yep, I agree. I had Anne at Starling reply to one of my queries.

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#11

There are many senior managers who take cross-departmental heavy-lifting to the extreme and when the staff who are actually meant to be doing those jobs are standing around waiting for them to stop showing off and go back to their glass office they can end up asking the question - why is this person being paid as a CEO and not a junior customer ops worker or warehouse stacker when they are just roaming around doing work experience (badly) everywhere? :roll_eyes:

I agree execs shouldnā€™t be detached from any areas of their business - a good CEO should get involved at different levels to gain an all-round knowledge of their business and to keep their employees in allegiance with their broader mission. It needs to be natural and out of a genuine interest in your people and processes. Iā€™m pretty sure Tom is one of the most hands-on execs in the banking game having been a management consultant. a coder and run tech SMEs. He has spoken about being hands on in a lot of his podcasts and interviews. Not like those incumbent bank hires where the person entering the job doesnā€™t have any tech background at all. They used to be a CEO at a smaller bank, they were a CEO at an even smaller bank before that, and before that they were a CEO somewhere else. How do you know if they actually do anything at all?

I would be pretty horrified if Tom answered my support chat query at this stage though - when they have 150 support staff and half a million people who may need support. It is possible to have a great chat with your passengers when youā€™re driving a motor boat, but when youā€™re sailing a cruise liner you donā€™t want to have the helmsman wondering around the ship chatting to people. That will end in disaster pretty quickly.

And back on topic - great thread and congrats to Beth on the great recognition. This ā€˜digital personal bankerā€™ touch is one of the reasons I was won over to Monzo and I hope she, Simon and the rest will be there in future to help me with my dumb 3am problems! :drooling_face:

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#12

This is reminding me of the time ā€œWilliamā€ helped a user with a Microsoft support call.
I donā€™t think youā€™d be horrified :wink:

#13

Iā€™m sure there will be loads of exaggerated stories about how great Tom was on the in-app chat in 2015 as well. And probably a book and a movie - The Financial Network Ā© :sunglasses:

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#14

A good Captain of the ship is one that walks the decks and gets to know his crew and passengers fact to face

A bad Captain is one that sits in his cabin and just simply answers the phone or e mails

I would perceive the same goes for a CEO of a bank

Get out and about and meet the people and talk face to face

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#15

I think Tom is really busy with things at Monzo HQ. He used to participate here in the community quite frequently but hasnā€™t even visited for a few weeks now :slight_smile: (Holidays! ? :dark_sunglasses:)

10

Personally, I think as Monzo grows and gets more staff who believe in the same ethos and have the same goals as him participating here, Tom shouldnā€™t have to come here.

#16

Unfortunately that method of delegation is flawed and is exactly how leaders loose track of what is actually happening on the floor plate

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#17

I had the same happen with @simonb

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#18

I wouldnā€™t. Just like on the TV series ā€œUndercover Bossā€ I think it is good experience for them doing various jobs in the firm including answering calls and other customer facing roles, that direct experience tells them more about their company, their systems, their staff, etc than any report or feedback will ever do. It is a good business tool, and I wish it was compulsory for all senior staff in all companies.

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#19

I wish I could like this twice!

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#20

Yessss. We are encouraged to fully switch off when we are not working, including Tom himself. Itā€™s Sunday evening and |'m on here and my boyfriend would tell me off though :woman_shrugging: Entirely my choice

As for Tom being involved, on my first morning we did one of those horrific introducing yourself circles. Name, where you worked and a fact. Tom was hanging around in the event space and joined in :+1: That is the ethos through the whole company. No levels, no superiority. Inclusion in any and every manner you can possibly think of.

also thanks for the shoutout :blush:

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