This sounds great. As Monzo have said, they can’t scale the COps linearly with the number of account holders so need to look at alternate solutions. Using analytics, they’re able to identify what information they need to present in the help section in order to provide answers to most frequently asked questions. Combine this with machine learning, they’ll be able to take questions raised in online chat and provide help in many cases too. As the chat system has contextual information related to the account type, account information, transactions etc, the chat system should be able to provide very targeted answers and actions as it evolves. Thanks for sharing the article Monzo.
Interesting idea and I can see why it’s being attempted considering the current situation.
I’m not sure I agree with testing it on customers though rather than opt in (unless I read that wrong)
I also agree with some posters above, everyone hates bots. One thing that used to give monzo an advantage was the fact you could actually talk to someone fairly quickly. So hat monzo are now going (imo) backwards to using automated answer machines is kind of funny.
I don’t think it will help as much as you think it will.
(Anyone remember pressing 0 multiple times to be put straight through to a human?)
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Maybe COps (and/or the bot) could point out if the answer to your question would have been available in Help. There could even be a way to gamify this - i.e. keeping a certain proportion of your questions as ones which were not available in Help…
This is great for those times you’re just being silly and the answer was available elsewhere all along but I found the screenshot of the “I want to talk to a person” quite jarring; if you say you want to talk to a person then you should be directed to a person not given more automated questions imo.
That’s to prioritise I think. Those questions would be classed as urgent. Without giving a reason you’d be in the normal queue
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Noticed that the messages slightly changed today.
First it asks you to confirm that you’re aware the messages are from a bot.
Then I’ve never had a COp tell me that I can leave the chat while they escalate it. 
Also 13 minutes wait time but was instant 
Looks like things might be improving.
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I had the you can leave that chat message which confused me 
but I suppose there must be people who sit with the chat open waiting for a reply
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Yeah, we have customers asking if the Chat is still live if they leave it 
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Is there a way to quickly get back into the chat once you leave it?
From memory, as it’s been a while, I find that if I’ve got an ongoing chat thread it still takes a few clicks and scrolls in the help section to get back into it.
(May just be my memory though)
Only the notification I think 
But it’s help - scroll to bottom Chat With Us
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It would be good if you have an active chat open it puts a temp link on the homepage
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I agree - or the active chat link ‘floated’ to the top of the Help section - as it’s probably more likely if you have an active chat you want to get back into it than read other help sections.
I think what feels a bit jarring, is that if I do end up in Chat, I’ve done a quick search to get there - so my ‘start point’ was never scroll to the chat button in the first place, so I don’t instinctively think to scroll for it?
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I think bots are a great idea if they get it right at the beginning.
A good bot chat:
Bot: Hi! How can I help?
Me: I’ve forgotten my PIN
Bot: No problem! Click here and I’ll take you to the self-service PIN reminder.
A bad bot chat:
Bot: Hi! How can I help?
Me: I’ve forgotten my PIN
Bot: I’m sorry, I didn’t understand. Can you rephrase the question?
Me: What’s my PIN
Bot: I don’t know that. How else can I help?
Me: I need to know my PIN
Bot: You shouldn’t tell your PIN to anyone else.
Me: I know.
Bot: Glad I could help!
Previously, when I’ve banked with NatWest, their ‘Cora’ bot is quite good, so I’ve learnt that it’s worth giving it a shot at helping me.
However, I’ve experienced rubbish bots too, where over time, I’ve learnt to not bother explaining the problem, and just flood it with the word “human” or “agent” until it gives up and transfers me.
Even subconsciously, I think bots gain a trust level with everyone who encounters them.