Switched from Monzo to a legacy bank (Barclays) šŸ’«

Donā€™t get me wrong, itā€™s admirable!

However, would you want a surgeon, who has extensive experience and training, to ask a group of Nurses, who donā€™t have the said experience and training, how he should attempt a surgery?

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But this comparison is totally different.

You wouldnā€™t have the fraud team asking the community on how they need to tackle fraud, this is a different concept entirely.

A surgeon asking a group of patients to give ideas and feedback on there experience during and after surgery to find out ways that the hospital could improve would be an amazing thing.

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Donā€™t see how itā€™s different? An expert, asking those who arenā€™t experts, to decide on options that they have less expertise with?

Donā€™t see how your fraud example is any different? Why wouldnā€™t you give options to the community on how Monzo should tackle fraudā€¦because they arenā€™t experts.

To answer your analogy, the experience of patients is peripheral to the actual job of surgery. Did the surgery do what it needed to do, yes. A patientsā€™ experience; I was ā€˜illā€™, now Iā€™m better, my trust in your expertise has been rewarded.

Your comment of feedback, in this instance, would be around the experience of coming into the hospital, the bed, the information before and after the surgery etc, which for Monzo would be the customer service, app experience etc. not the product itself.

Which is exactly why I used this example. A Surgeon would not ask a group of Nurses how to perform a surgery, because they arenā€™t experts. :yum:

Looking at it from that point of view, if this were a community for the NHS. The concept would be to listen to patients and improve the NHS overall. Maybe both our comparisons were a bit vague?

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So, therefore why ask people who werenā€™t experts in product creation?

Agree though, maybe both examples are a bit vague and there are nuances that arenā€™t replicable!

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Or you might say, should a hairdresser with all their years experience be asking the customer what hair style they want? surely the hairdresser knows best

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But thatā€™s what Monzo is about. Thatā€™s what sets them apart from traditional banking. They want to know where we feel legacy banks have failed and be able to adapt the product to fill these gaps :heart:ļø

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I think of it more like this. The doctors have found a problem. They have given three options that will slow/prevent/stop any further issues. Each has a different cost. Instead of one person, we are multiple minds in one body making the choice.

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As Iā€™ve said, itā€™s great! But at scale, which is where we hope Monzo ends up, what does Joe Bloggs think of being asked this question.

To reiterate, Iā€™m not saying openness is a bad thing, itā€™s the impression it gives when it involves something as intricate as pricing/products.

Completley understand this, but pricing is a very good example of where Monzo needs support from the community.

If they didnā€™t take our ideas in to consideration, surely they would just work out a pricing point that makes them the most money and seems simple enough for Joe Bloggs to understand, then hope to retain his custom in the long run.

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You own the hair, and youā€™re not purchasing it from anyone.

You also have experience with hair as youā€™ve always had it on your head, and have had your haircut before.

Good point, although I hope they do make money so they can keep going!

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This is something Iā€™ve always found extremely interesting about Monzo and Iā€™m really excited to see how they tackle it in the long run.

There will always be compromises. But at least through the Community, they can make them in view of the end user :muscle:

And looking at the hair example, if you are thinking of it in that way, we effectively do own the hair.

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I think that voting in the future should be done, but with some requirements:

  • Voting should be done inside the app to capture the opinion of lesser engaged folk
  • Every option should have real world examples
  • Options should be expertly equal (no major downsides)

I think itā€™s important to realize that a decision of this calibre almost always comes down to personal choice and so will always annoy some people. The decision would have happened internally. Monzo gave transparency and the customers the power to choose.

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This. I make no secrets that Iā€™m strongly on the side of how ATM fees turned out, and Iā€™d have been annoyed with any other option. I find it very fair because it is allowing reasonable usage for people whose overall pattern is more likely to be profitable/at least financially beneficial to retain. For example, I think cards should always be free - they shouldnā€™t be line item billed. If someone wanted a new card a week for looks/to make a mosaic of them/whatever, I think billing would be reasonable at that point.

However, letā€™s not hide in ā€˜itā€™s unfairā€™ and all those things that have been thrown around. It isnā€™t unfair, and itā€™s a distraction when terms like that are thrown around lightly. The reality is, some people (like me) like the new charging scheme if there has to be one, and others donā€™t. Iā€™m actually surprised how many donā€™t, since some free use is better than nothing, and I certainly would never pay for use. But thatā€™s me.

I think that on something like fees, getting community input is huge and a vote was a great idea. Fraud protection requires a bit more expert knowledge, but even there community input - not voting - would be great. Iā€™ve already given some of my thoughts on that topic.

I like this idea. Make voting easier will encourage more people to voice their opinion and capture a more unbiased estimate of the customerā€™s sentiments!

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I guess the difference is that in this case, Monzo explicitly stated that this will not be a ā€˜profit-makingā€™ exercise, so all the options that Monzo presented is basically ā€˜revenue-neutralā€™ or something along those lines, which is why theyā€™ve decided to ask the user base rather than to decide it themselves?

Iā€™d imagine if itā€™s an exercise to increase profit margin, then they probably wouldnā€™t want to ask the user base.

Then again if itā€™s an exercise to increase profit margin, and they come up with 3 options which are equally profitable/ un-profitable, then I think itā€™s still valid to ask users which method they prefer Monzo to make money I think, since they essentially have no impact on the bottom line, and the question is more on ā€˜ethosā€™ rather than ā€˜profitabilityā€™ā€¦

I do like that they are asking the customers though - shows that they appreciate us and how community-focussed they are. Maybe Iā€™m a bit too left-wingā€¦ ahaha

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The thing is that legacy banks are starting put together some of the features that Monzo/Starling/Others have introduced to their users. Eventually there will be little difference :disappointed_relieved:.

Monzo needs something to stand out from the crowd and a stark openness to itā€™s user might just be that. No other bank operates in that way, and so it is important that Monzo holds onto those policies.

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Thatā€™s actually why I use Monzo now over Starling. Both have amazing products that are so much better than my previous experience with HSBC but I actually believe in Monzoā€™s goals and even more I actually believe they really want those as opposed to just making money off me

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In the future, weā€™ll be doing this for sure :slight_smile: Think of the ATM fees vote as version 1 ā€” weā€™ve got big plans!

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