Some of you may remember that back in the day we had a pretty regular thread where various staff members would pop in and talk about what they were working on. Unfortunately, although it was popular, the format proved hard to scale once we had more than 50 staff, and we are now over 200! So after some discussion on how it could work in a new way between myself, Naji and our awesome community leaders, weāre bringing something new - 2018 style!
Welcome to the weekly Monzo staff Q&A!
Each week weāll pick a different staff member, and YOU get to ask them questions! If thereās a lot of questions posted, weāll select them based upon popularity and also what the staff member in question may want to answer So, if you see a good question posted by another community member, click the Like button on it so we know itās something you all want to discuss!
Generally speaking, weād like to announce the staff members on Tuesday, be open for questions throughout Wednesday and then the questions will be answered on Thursday. This format is malleable, so that may change if we find a better system
Without further ado, our inaugural Monzo candidate is none other than one of our favorite Canadians, residing in London to scoff at this countryās small amount of snow that somehow still causes chaos!
Itās Chris MacLean from our Customer Operations and Vulnerable Customers team!
Chris joined Monzo in May 2017 and his favorite thing about working here is : āBeing surrounded by such ridiculously smart, passionate and helpful people all the timeā
Get your questions in now, weāre all looking forward to what you want to know!
One. What tasks does your customer ops role involve.
Two. What progress has been made on both the app and internal proceedures for physically and mentally afflicted card holders (I mulled over afflicted, disabled, sufferers etc and no word was right - no offence intended to anyone)
By which I mean:
Are you slaving over a hot keyboard with multiple chat windows in front of you all day orā¦something else?
Can you just get up and grab a coffee halfway through a chat or lunch when you feel like it or is there a more formal structure around breaks and socialisation (if youāre in the office)?
Hey everyone! Stoked to be the one kicking off this new format. Thanks for all the great questions, and my apologies in advance for the novella-length responses! I am in serious need of an editor.
Here goesā¦
Hey Richard! Great questions.
Individual COpsā roles are so varied, with many of us picking up specialisms and tasks quite different from the person whoās working directly beside us. Thereās so much scope to get involved in areas you find interesting or have a particular knack for; you just need to make it known which direction youād like to go in!
Iāll give you a brief idea of what particular tasks my role currently involves. Most COps will have started their lives at Monzo on frontline customer support, and a significant part of my job is still working the customer query queues, helping to answer questions or address problems our users might be facing through the in-app chat with the aid of the amazing internal tooling our dedicated engineers have built for us. The questions and issues that come through in any given day are incredibly varied, so itās quite an exciting and stimulating role, and really keeps you on your toes! Every day is different.
Iāve recently been spending a few days out of each week working with Stuart (Monzoās Head of Financial Difficulties, who leads on our strategy for helping vulnerable customers) learning an absolute pile and helping him assist COps whoāve picked up cases where theyāre concerned someone might be vulnerable. These cases may revolve around accessibility issues, financial difficulties, āproblem gamblingā, mental health issues, a carer acting on behalf of a customer, dealing with the estate of a deceased customer, etc. Monzo wants to empower frontline staff to spot potential vulnerabilities, and to be able to provide solutions and support directly, so a big part of Stuartās (and my) job is to be there to offer encouragement and guidance to help COps deal with these cases themselves. Weāre of course also here to pick up the more difficult cases.
As for question number two, Iāve split it into two parts below
Internal procedures
Internally, weāve made a lot of progress on our procedures here. All customer-facing staff are trained to spot signs of vulnerability, record information and escalate conversations where appropriate. We also carry out regular quality assurance of every COpās interactions with customers, and one of the things we check for is whether we missed any sign of vulnerability.
This is a very good question though, as these kinds of physical or mental accessibility obstructions do crop up quite often. A lot of the time itās simply that the customer has different communication needs, and we can easily adapt to that, but at other times it can come down to us needing to revisit and refine our procedures. For example, during signup/upgrade, we asked all our customers to carry out a brief video selfie and take a photo of their government-issued ID, in order to verify them. For some customers this simply wasnāt viable. Taking a video selfie can cause high levels of anxiety for some people. And if you are elderly or suffer from agoraphobia, and tend to spend more of your time at home, you wouldnāt necessarily have need for a passport or driving licence, and so might not have ever applied for or kept either of these documents up to date. And if youāre struggling to get by financially, you might well see the cost of applying for one of these documents prohibitive. So, for the prepaid programme, our Security team created different documentation tiers to allow these users to pass through verification and get a Monzo card, and this is something weāre also working to introduce for the current accounts in the very near future.
Progress on the app
Thereās still a lot of work to be done here, but our design and product teams are eager to build in features to make the app accessible to anyone, regardless of their personal circumstances. The focus these past several months has been on getting the current accounts polished and ready to launch, and (currently) on upgrading our prepaid users to the new accounts, but once this is achieved, development of all the new and incredible features on our roadmap will start in earnest.
Weāve been fortunate so far in that when we set out with simplicity and the user experience as the primary focus when designing the Monzo app, there were many fortuitous advantages. For example, people who find it difficult to remember their PIN or password might find the Touch ID feature allowing them to reveal their PIN in the iOS app extremely beneficial, and the ability to log into the app through a magic link sent via email means there are no passwords to remember! Additionally, customers who struggle with their short-term memory can quickly and clearly see where they have spent their money, receive instant push notifications that they can refer back to in their notification screen, attach receipts for purchases, and raise any queries they have through the in-app chat.
Again, there is still a lot of work to do to make the app as frictionless, intuitive and accessible as possible for anyone to use, but weāre constantly collecting feedback from our users and planning ways to improve the experience for everyone.
If youāve not seen these already, you might find Zanderās blog post Designing a product with mental health issues in mindhere interesting, along with this recent article in Techworld.
Ha, cheers Josh! Virtually all the hair on my head has migrated to other areas of my aged frame, so this frees up a lot of time to focus exclusively on my whiskers. I donāt actually have to do a whole lot to be honest, aside from allowing it to grow and paying a man at Ruffians in Rivington Street to trim it with shears like topiary. A few drops of beard oil each morning and Iām out the door, looking 10 years older and far wiser than I actually am!
Great question, Mike. I think youād get a different answer from each COp you asked, as apart from a basic framework and a daily 'game planā set out for us by our squad leaders (every COp is part of small, semi-autonomous squad) thereās a great deal of flexibility for COps with regards to how we structure our day and working environment at Monzo.
Different COps tend to flourish in different settings ā some like to work from bean bags exclusively, some seek out a quiet corner of the office where they can focus, some choose to work remotely, whereas others like the buzz of being at the centre of the action. Many will roam about and avail themselves of each of these options in the run of a day. Weāve all got laptops, so thereās no need to be shackled to a desk!
Weāre encouraged to get up and move about, stretch our legs, grab a coffee and a biscuit or a breath of fresh air if required. That said, we need to be mindful of how busy the customer queues are looking, so weāve got to use our better judgement to decide whether its an opportune time to step away or not.
With regards to lunches, these are organised in a Slack thread (Slack is the internal communications platform we use at Monzo), where you indicate with an emoji (of course!) which slot youād prefer. Youāve got to be quick on the draw when the lunch threadās posted, as only a certain number of COps can go during each slot. Fingers blazing!
Apart from the above, one of the really ace aspects of Monzo culture is the company-wide invitation to book 1:1s (one on ones) regularly with colleagues. These are short breaks during your shift which you can plan ahead for or schedule spontaneously with a quick calendar invite, where youāre encouraged to catch up and chat over coffee, lunch or a stroll with someone in your team or in a totally different area of the business (you can even book a 1:1 with the CEO!). It can be a face to face 1:1, or you can chat remotely via Google Hangout or Slack call. They can be focused and work-related, a chance to catch up with someone youāve not seen in a while, a way to find out more about an area of the company you might be interested in, or whatever you like. 1:1s are an integral part of Monzo culture, and help to keep us all connected and feeling a part of the bigger picture as the company grows.
Haha! There have been rumblings about this for months Ali, and one of my nicknames in the office is indeed 'Crimboā (cheers for that, Colley!). Alongside the white beard, Iāve begun amassing an impressive paunch as I work through the mountain of free biscuits weāve got in the Monzo kitchen. Alas, I also happen to be one of the biggest Scrooges in the building, so unless Monzo makes it a condition of my continued employment, I shall not be donning the red hat!
PS Really hoping Bad Santa is playing on loop at our Xmas party tonightā¦
Hey Rosie, this is an excellent question, and something a lot of organisations (including ourselves!) struggle to get right. We discuss how we define and identify vulnerable customers at Monzo with every COp who joins the organisation during our onboarding training. As a base, we use the FCAās definition, which is probably the best definition weāve come across:
āāA vulnerable consumer is someone who, due to their personal circumstances, is especially susceptible to detriment, particularly when a firm is not acting with appropriate levels of care.ā
However, we make it clear in our staff training that we rely heavily on individual COpsā judgement to assess whether a customer might be vulnerable. We emphasise that, while vulnerability can of course be a chronic state in many cases, it can also be a fluid state that people slip into and out of over time, and it really depends on the customerās circumstances at that particular point. As such, we donāt set strict parameters on what would 'qualifyā as a vulnerable customer.
As an example, if a customer of ours was travelling abroad with their Monzo card, and they were experiencing issues with the card for whatever reason, we might treat this person as a vulnerable customer if they found themselves in a difficult or particularly distressing situation as a direct result of this. While such a customer might not otherwise be considered āvulnerableā, each person responds to or is affected by situations in different ways, so it really does depend on the circumstances when making these assessments.
Weād be really interested your thoughts and those of the rest of the community on how we might think about defining and identifying vulnerable customers. If youāve got any insights or suggestions, please donāt hesitate to get in touch!
Ah, good question Allie! Weāre actually in the process of overhauling this at the moment. The honest answer is that it does need to be updated, but weāve made some progress alreadyā¦
Up until recently the escalation process has been quite informal, for a couple of reasons:
We were a very small company, so it was really easy to simply chat directly with colleagues in the product and design teams about accessibility requests
Our product and design teams are absolutely LOVELY, and so far, each and every time weāve received an accessibility request itās been on their radar and feature roadmap already
The latter is still true, but weāve grown massively both in terms of staff and customers, so we need to make sure that we are escalating these requests effectively, storing useful feedback, implementing changes and, if not, making sure we have a good rationale as to why we are delaying specific changes or the implementation of new features.
We do have a clear escalation process for many situations we deem to be āvulnerable customerā scenarios, and this includes accessibility requests. When a customer makes an accessibility request, staff raise this in a dedicated Slack channel and record the request in a document. We have to make a decision with regards to urgency, but in most cases these requests arenāt urgent. In addition, weāre putting together a āJira Epicā (Jira is the project tracking software we use internally, and an āEpicā is a way of tracking a larger project or body of work) and treating those changes which we havenāt yet implemented as technical debt. Weāre on the case, and weāre building the escalation process to be as robust and future-proof as possible.
Ye nice one. It was an interesting read. I currently work with people with mental health problems as well as with legal refugees. I know that banking is a huge pain for most of them. Or if its not it ends up costing them a lot of money.
Glad to hear you lot are taking this seriously as there are so many people in London and elsewhere that are in desperate need of a more understanding bank.
Thanks for that, Benjamin! Weāre absolutely taking this seriously, and itās really heartening to see that other challenger banks are doing so, too. Vulnerable people have been neglected and marginalised by financial institutions for too long, and itās amazing to be part of the wave of change sweeping the industry.
I had an interesting experience with RBS cards today. A woman called not because of any in house policy but using her own initiative because she āfelt it was appropriateā. I think it is important with any policy that it does not become a tick box type thing but staff are inculcated with the reasons and needs behind any policy so they can know what to do instinctively rather than only when instigated
Hi David. This is a really old thread so in case itās not picked up on perhaps this might be of use
Or perhaps if @natalieledward or another of the team is around and could help you?
Also the option of emailing help@monzo.com and they can pass it on to the vulnerable customers team
Thanks for your message here! Weād love to discuss this further and understand how Monzo might make banking easier for you. If you have an account with us already, feel free to drop a message to us in your app. If not, email help@monzo.com and we will pick it up.
going to be Santa 
at Monzo Xmas part this year.
Stoked to be the one kicking off this new format. Thanks for all the great questions, and my apologies in advance for the novella-length responses! I am in serious need of an editor.
