Challenger bank - customer service

OceanSound

Just seen a news report by a broadsheet newspaper about how challenger banks are offering 'good customer service'.

I've done some research and can somewhat see where they are coming from. For example, the likes of Monzo, Metro Bank, M&S Bank and Tesco Bank are in the top 10:

1. Monzo, 86%
2. First Direct, 85%
3. Nationwide Building Society, 79%
4. Metro Bank, 76%
5. M&S (Marks & Spencer) Bank, 75%
6. Tesco Bank, 74%
7. Santander, 72%
=8. Halifax, 71%
=8. Co-op, 71%
=8. Barclays Bank, 71%
= 11. NatWest, 70%
=11. Lloyds, 70%

But where are the others?...I'm talking Starling, revolut, monese, cleo, getchip, plum...

Jonboy123

I don't know how monzo got the top, their automated phone line hangs up on you and seen others complaining waiting 6 hours for chat response

OceanSound

Jonboy123 wrote: »

I don't know how monzo got the top, their automated phone line hangs up on you and seen others complaining waiting 6 hours for chat response

The survey is from last year (2018) I believe. Maybe Monzo has followed the rest.

eskbanker

OceanSound wrote: »

But where are the others?...I'm talking Starling, revolut, monese, cleo, getchip, plum...

It's a matter of scale, and these providers simply aren't large enough to register when such surveys are carried out, and in some cases aren't actually banks anyway.

The 2018 Which survey you mention only involved 4,200 customers, and even the latest official industry survey, involving 13,760 customers, only extends to 16 banks, based on:

Approximately 860 customers are surveyed per year across Great Britain for every provider with more than 150,000 personal current account customers. Results are only published where at least 100 customers have provided an eligible score for that service in the survey period.

The biannual MSE polls also only include in their main league table those banks which receive at least 100 votes, although smaller ones are listed in the full results.

Up to you how much weight you attach to surveys and polls like this though, and as you'll see on threads like this, they inevitably provoke contradictory responses along the lines of 'how can they be top, they're rubbish' or 'how can they be bottom, they're brilliant' as such matters are all largely subjective....

jonnygee2

But where are the others?...I'm talking Starling, revolut, monese, cleo, getchip, plum..

My first hand experience is that Revolut customer service is universally awful and always has been, and Starling customer service is good when the problem is simple, but if it's a little bit complex they are useless too.

The survey is from last year (2018) I believe. Maybe Monzo has followed the rest.

The wait time for Monzo has always been long. I believe now they automatically prioritise you based on your initial request, so if you say you've seen fraudulent transactions you'll probably get a response in minutes, but most queries are still long wait.

What influences these surveys more is whether the problem actually gets solved when you get through. If peopel get referred to different departments, told to go into a branch or to an ATM etc, satisfaction markedly decreases.

Traditional banks still struggle to perform all CS tasks over the phone or in-app, which is a big reason their surveys take a hit.

ozaz

I'm only really familiar with Monzo so can't comment on the other challengers.

Monzo's customer service was great when they they were relatively small. However, they have struggled to scale customer service capacity with rapid growth and response times are now quite slow. Of all their current challenges, I think this is the one they most need to sort out.

However, I think they'll continue to do well in customer service polls because I think people conflate customer service with overall experience and because Monzo have a customer-centric vibe about them (facilitated by regular blog posts and social media presence, community forum, community meet-ups). New users to Monzo still get a wow factor because the app experience is so much better than the app experience with traditional banks that they may be used to. If they don't have to contact customer service much (which is probably the case if they don't have complex banking needs) they will rate Monzo highly in customer service polls.

System

I know that Metro Bank has a call centre and when you call up with something specific they often need you to speak to someone in a team that only works certain hours on a weekday. On the surface your call is answered and you speak to someone - but usually they can't do anything. There also seems to be an overflow call centre where operatives are able to do even less than the regular call centre staff. Maybe less discerning customers feel happy that someone answers their call.

Zero_Sum

Surprised at Tesco that high. I thought they were dreadful

johndavid29c

Monzo have the worst cs when something goes wrong, their approach is block your phone number and access to chat. Something suspicious with this poll

JuicyJesus

I can't deal with the fact that Monzo (in my experience) don't bother to reply to chat messages for hours when I can call pretty much any bank, get through to someone and get an answer within a couple of minutes.

It's something that really puts me off them, because if I can't get through when I need them and have to wait for what essentially is an email then that's actually worse than what other banks are offering.