I believe this is leading a very poor and frustrating customer experience; when it’s easier to just give up or jump onto the forum there is clearly an issue.
I know if I call my legacy bank right now I’ll have a long wait and I understand why. I do also however know there’s a button in app front and center which connects me directly to the bank securely and passes me through security.
I believe hiding the chat button will lead to more harm than good, especially as people are turning to such a public place (this forum) for help.
I dispair at seeing some poor soul having to resort to posting a screenshot documenting what her ex has been hounding her with because of a poor design/testing decision on Monzo’s part.
As I said before, I hope Monzo are seeing this and that this will be a strong consideration when they are looking at the results of this particular A/B test.
Monzo is getting closer and closer to being what I consider a “bullshit company” with no real product (one for which people pay money) and instead go all-in on “growth” and “engagement” (there must be some mysterious bank somewhere where you bring “engagement” and they give you cash instead, right? ).
This latest development brings them even closer to the other bullshit companies (hello social media companies) where there’s no way to reach out to a human, except in this case we’re talking about people’s hard-earned money and not being able to get help can have real-world repercussions very quickly.
Maybe if they didn’t spend insane money on “growth” and “engagement” in the last year they wouldn’t need to furlough employees and could actually support all their existing customers without hiding the chat button?
A/B testing in a banking app is also concerning. I want my banking app to be predictable - if a feature did X yesterday I want it to do X today as well, and if it does X on my phone I also want it to do X on someone else’s phone. The last thing people want is “surprises” in their banking app. I’m also curious as to how the COps handle this; do they have the A/B testing feature flags displayed to make sure they give the right advice to people when app behaviour differs between the “A” and “B” buckets?
It’s sad that I have to heavily criticise a company that I once loved and recommended to lots of people (including making fun of how hard it is to get ahold of their legacy bank… how ironic).
Monzo staff have posted saying that the A/B test started before Covid-19 was a thing, and that employees have been furloughed because there’s isn’t any work for them to do; that customer support capacity is better now than it was before the lockdown (fewer people have needed to contact support because fewer people are using their cards). This has been supported by customers posting here saying their recent support chats have been picked up very quickly, for the most part.
In theory this means why could drop the A/B test and reinstate the normal chat button without any problems, which I hope they will do when the test ends.
Don’t really see this as an issue. You can still type in what you need help with. If it’s right then it’ll give the option to chat with someone, so you can still get someone if you actually need help further from the already provided information.
Also it’s a test, if it doesn’t work out well then it’ll go back to how it was before.
Just read what is provided to you if you do have any issues before complaining about not being able to ask someone directly …
hmmmmm , bit unfair … " Maybe if they didn’t spend insane money on “growth” and “engagement” in the last year they wouldn’t need to furlough employees and could actually support all their existing customers without hiding the chat button? "
maybe if they new Coronvirus was coming to change the world economies they could have planned for this like all governments did. Some firms are still advertising their wears and also furloughing employees, is that Ok ? Some football clubs are paying their players 80K a week for kicking their heels when they are laying off their support staff and letting the tax payer pick up the bill …life is complicated ? …smirk …
I see this as an issue because being able to contact your bank is both a basic thing that everyone expects and it needs to be there for those few cases where you do need to talk to a human immediately because something has gone horribly wrong. It’s also during these times that you might not think about searching because you (reasonably) think that your problem is unique enough that there would be no FAQ entry for it.
True, my comment was not entirely related to the coronavirus situation and in fact Monzo themselves have said that this A/B test was planned before that. Personally I would’ve preferred that money to be used for supporting their existing customers instead of pissing it away in marketing (especially when that same marketing caused CS to be overloaded for large periods of time).
I’ve never said others doing it are fine, I was just sharing my thoughts about Monzo’s marketing spending and I have the same opinion about other companies doing the same.
Still think some people are over reacting on here.
Others above have done a great way of exposing why they’re frustrated in a more civil manner yet still understanding what’s trying to be achieved here.
Anyway, we’ll see what happens with this in the future
I am so on board with this sentiment. As ridiculous and pathetic as it makes me sound, at the begining I drew genuine happiness from seeing a business trying to do things better and think about their customers. It’s been a long time since Monzo has done anything eliciting that kind of feeling from me, quite the opposite.
Well, I guess I have a more rational level of cynicism and depression now. Woo.
You need to be more constructive and state why you find it “really annoying” so it’s crystal clear what the issue is along with how you feel it can be “less annoying”
It doesn’t take Isaac Newton to figure out why this is annoying.
Imagine something that you use on a semi-frequent basis (let’s say every couple of weeks), you put it down and someone without your knowledge moves it and you waste time having to find it again.
Well, the comment you replied to mentioned that the topic had been moved. You could have found that really annoying, or any point made in this entire discussion (there’s a lot) - we’re not mind readers It’s better to be accurate.
Being an Alpha tester you must be used to things moving and changing though. Monzo has come a long way and still has a long way to go. Expect more of it
I’ll try and be as candid as I can here. There will be decisions made this year that will upset portions of our customer base. They will most likely disproportionately upset the people who have been our customers for the longest amount of time, because things will be normal for people who signed up after the changes were made, much like when we had to introduce ATM fees or when we removed the top-up ability. These decisions need to be made to ensure that the company can continue to exist and move towards profitability in more trying times.
That’s as much as I can tell you right now, because it’s as much as I know - but Tom has made this point very clear in the last few weeks.
It’s not going to be fun. Furloughing a large amount of staff is a temporary measure, and it’s very possible that the economic situation will continue to be poor at a point where furlough is no longer an option, and decisions will need to be made on the basis of revenue to ensure the company can continue.
This particular experiment, as I mentioned, was started before the pandemic hit. But the reality of the pandemic means it was a necessary measure and will almost certainly continue (short of the data showing that it makes no difference, which isn’t likely). We need to invest in more self-service tools to ensure that users have the ability to solve problems themselves and not need to contact chat.
With that being said, users not being able to get in touch when they need to is absolutely not the desired outcome of this, and it’s possible the balance isn’t right yet. I’m hoping that we can get a staff member more directly involved with this to perhaps shed a little more light so please watch this space.
In the meantime, I hope that me being as candid as I can possibly be with the information that I personally have can be taken as a sign of good faith, because it’s really important to me that we maintain this dialogue
).
bad Monzo…anyway off topic … sorry
Fair enough.
