So much of “Monzo is falling behind” means “Monzo doesn’t meet my exact requirements and I don’t care about all the new things that are here, all the good things they do, because it doesn’t do this specific thing”
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Customer Service should be a reasonable expectation.
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What’s wrong with that though? It’s still potentially helpful feedback for Monzo to see some folks might not like the current trajectory and the bank isn’t serving them as a result. It’s a helpful way for product managers to see what their product might be missing, overlooking, or improperly prioritised. It also opens discourse for other folks to discuss how important what’s missing is for them too.
I don’t personally find the suggestions to go somewhere else (something I’ve seen a lot on discussions recently) particularly helpful or especially inviting to new members. Monzo have essentially said as much when an employee tried to bring a topic back around in the US checks thread to welcome and encourage the feedback.
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I see both sides but I believe that all comes down to tone which is hard to convey online.
If someone is saying Monzo should be like X bank or have the features of X bank, then they’re giving feedback - which is great. I’m sure there is a topic which they can add their vote to and stand with others who also want these things so that they to be heard more and show a greater demand.
When people say “go with X bank” they’re just giving feedback too. If you like the features of another bank, rather than waiting indefinitely and being frustrated that you can’t do certain things - then just switch. The CASS makes it dead simple and gone are the days of loyalty where you stick with a bank for much of your life.
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That may be your interpretation but, certainly doesn’t reflect my opinion. How does any business improve if it doesn’t have people going “Talking to CS is more difficult than it was 2 years prior”. Surely that’s highlighting an issue so it can be dealt with.
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It’s highlighted on a weekly basis, but it’s never a fair comparison because of so so many factors. It might be awful for you then perfect, without any change.
An awful lot has been added in two years, but what does “on top of their game” really mean? That isn’t feedback that will help.
Feedback is great and without it this place would be a dead zone. But the “Monzo is terrible” threads that surface every now and then, with no real basis or error stridden, don’t really help anyone.
You can make any bank seem amazing or terrible by selectively using what you want as pros and cons.
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I should have elaborated, apologies. I was referring to the ability to freeze cards, change your pin within the app, to see instant transactions etc. etc. these have largely been adapted into a large majority of banks and are generally standard. All these features were pretty revolutionary, Monzo may not have created them all but, it helped shape Monzo. Don’t get me wrong, they’ve won Best British Bank and App awards so I’m not slating them, because they are great.
But you have to keep adapting I think and can’t let certain aspects slide, it’s a constant battle, not just for Monzo but for all banks. They’ve been championed on their CS in the past, but it needs work.
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I think you’re coming at it from the wrong perspective with that though, hence why I sometimes feel like:
Not everything people post is to turn it into a competition. We’re not all football hooligans.
Sometimes it is just feedback. Bank x does this better than bank y so if bank x did it like Bank y that would make x better than y for my use doesn’t, to me, read like a competition sport to make bank y look better than x by cherrypicking that one feature I love more. It’s just a statement and doesn’t deserve a just go bank with bank y then retort.
I’ve said many a time, for instance, I’d love to see Monzo adopt the Chase numberless card gimmick. I think it would transform how I use pots to make the feature useful to me beyond just bills, because the virtual cards honestly don’t cut it for me, with the way they’re implemented. just use chase isn’t the answer that feedback, nor is it me trying to make Chase look better than Monzo. It’s just I’ve seen something elsewhere I love, and would like to see the bank I like more implement something to compete it with.
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And yet I can open help, self serve where required, if that doesn’t actually help I send monzo a message and they reply, that’s not difficult
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No need to apologise, but things like Flex, Trends, the much more advanced open banking are huge features that have been added in the last few years.
CS is patchy, repetitive, irritating with transfers and hidden. It definitely needs fixing and sometimes, for some, it is a lot better, but still does need work. Monzo know this and what they do or don’t do about it isn’t going to be influenced by posts on here.
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There is a massive difference between shipping things for the sake of it, and shipping the right thing at the right time, and iterating from there.
Get the feeling some would like things thrown out there on a regular basis, as proof of ‘not falling behind’
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It’s objectively more difficult than it used to be though.
2 years ago it was tap > scroll > tap and you’re speaking to a helpful human.
Now it’s tap >tap > type > tap > scroll > tap and you’re added to a queue to speak to a concierge who can direct your query to another queue before you can speak to someone helpful.
Unless you’re @Peter_G who has clearly been put on some kind of priority support VIP list.
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For context, it was in relation to requiring an increase in my limits that was short notice. In the old days, it was contacting Monzo directly either through the chat or phone number and the amount being increased relatively quickly. In most recent events, I needed to access a larger than normal amount relatively last minute in which I had to go through a request form. The downside is that it had to be reviewed and would be completed by the end of the next day (31st Dec). Due to recent operating hours of the business I was dealing with, they needed the payment to clear by 10am (31st).
I contacted Monzo directly via the chat and explained the complexity of requiring the money sooner and asked could this process be “sped up” but was told “unfortunately no, but if you need any help with anything else just let me know” in which I replied and then a new advisor took over some time later.
Stressful was an understatement.
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also to add, shipping things for the sake of shipping things, is a real drain of resources, once it’s out there you have to maintain it, and that takes away from other more important things.
It’s fine if you’ve got an endless supply of devs to do that, but it’s not a great way to work.
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100% agree with this.
But if you went to Ford and said “Peugeot does this, and this, and this and this and you don’t do ANY OF THEM, you should and then I’ll buy your car” then why are you there in the first place? The best advice is to go where you get the thing you want.
There’s a part of it that is feedback, but if there’s something that is so essential to you, you should go where that thing is.
The votes/ideas/feedback section here is basically pointless. Interaction in threads for Flex etc has been golden. But “I want Monzo to add monkey adoption to Plus” threads, even if it got 10,000 votes, so what? It won’t happen. We’re such a tiny % of people, Monzo are right to ignore it.
If someone makes a suggestion and it comes to fruition, it was going to happen anyway, regardless of the thread/votes. Monzo are not stupid, they are going for the low hanging fruit. Anything wild just won’t happen.
If we had any sway, we’d have cheque imaging and pot-to-pot transfers and Plus for Joint Accounts etc etc by now.
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A few more tap and scrolls is just a bit of finger exercise at least 
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If we had any sway, we’d have cheque imaging and pot-to-pot transfers and Plus for Joint Accounts etc etc by now.
And that’s where smart Product Managers make the right call based on wider user need and metrics. i.e. cheques are dying and the big issuers of them are trying to stop sending them shortly.
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How do you think many of the improvements to iOS came about? By users seeing a cool thing on android and telling Apple we want this too! Same with jailbreaks, and runaway app successes that would have been better served baked into the OS (That’s how Siri and shortcuts were born).
I think the issue is, when an industry is too fragmented and diverse, focusing on being different than being better it tends to lose a spark and you end up with mediocre products where you choose the one that’s closest to what you want and nothing is ever quite perfect.
Banks are largely software companies at this point, and this has always been a problem with software companies outside the US. It’s why it’s really easy to choose between iOS and Android, but quite hard for some folks to choose between Monzo or Starling. Too many differences, and not enough similarities in the product. And no one’s really competing.
If one of these banks fits the bill perfectly for you then that’s great, but for me, none really do since N26 left. Monzo is the closest but they’re not all the way there which is why I still have fleeting eyes for the new shiny elsewhere. The industry is always going to reach a point where the only way to improve is do something your competitor does better than they do, and I’m generally feeling that’s where we are with fintech at the moment.
Monzo is incredibly close. If they’d only compete with the best of what tempts me about the other banks, they’d be perfect for me. Until the next thing crops, and there will always be a next thing, but that’s the cycle with software. Not every component needs to be a USP.
Monzo is definitely progressing, they just take an iterative approach that makes it feel like progress is slow because features trickle out instead of coming in big releases.
We have DDs and card payments from pots now (which is relatively new right?), Flex, more financial institutions in connected accounts, the new UI that’s in preview. There’s a lot to work on (especially customer service) but I don’t think it’s fair to say they’ve been overtaken or are standing still.
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