Monzo is a mobile-only bank that provides an excellent user experience and sets a new standard for product excellence in retail banking apps. Key aspects of Monzo's approach include making everyday banking tasks simple, fast and available anywhere through the mobile app. Transactions appear instantly, payments are sent immediately, and cards can be frozen or unfrozen with a single tap. Monzo also offers strong customer service directly within the app and uses design, notifications and messaging to make banking feel more friendly and engaging for users.

1. THE FUTURE OF RETAIL BANKING
Five things you can learn about mobile product excellence from Monzo.
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Recently at TAB HQ, we have been taking a deep dive into the
current climate facing retail banking today in the UK. Our in-depth
research resulted in the creation of a Strategic Mobility
Framework: six capabilities we believe are crucial to banks as they
strive to achieve success amidst rapidly changing market
conditions and customer expectations.
In a recent post over on our site, we unpicked one particular capability -
product excellence. A piece of lean research and user testing helped us
understand how existing retail banking apps from the UK’s Big Six banks were
doing against this capability but it also begged an important question: what
does ‘good’ look like, when it comes to product excellence in retail banking
apps?
To answer that, we turned to the hungry start-ups emerging in this space, and
which grab so many headlines. One in particular stood out: Monzo. A mobile-
only bank launched in 2015. Monzo was built from the ground up and enjoyed
considerable success to date. In fact, Monzo resonated so well with
consumers that it set a new world record in crowdfunding - £1 million, in just
96 seconds.
NOTE: At present, Monzo has a restricted banking licence. This means they can only provide a prepaid
debit card. However, they will be offering full banking services from January 2017.

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FIVE KEY TAKEAWAYS

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Today, we expect the services that matter to us to be on our own
terms - to access them whenever, and wherever we choose. Our
expectations in banking are no different. Monzo recognises this,
and makes it as easy as possible for customers to complete their
everyday banking jobs, during the moment they’re in.
Long gone are the days where we wait for a monthly bank statement to arrive
in the post. But even with internet and mobile banking, these processes are
still rarely instant. Payments take days to appear in your account, sending
money to friends takes a few hours to clear, and if you lose your card, or
worse - misplace it - then you’ll be faced with a long wait on phone queues
and postal services as you wait for your new card to arrive.
Monzo makes all of this much simpler, and much faster for customers.
Transactions appear immediately in the app, payments to friends are instant,
and a single tap can freeze and unfreeze your card - super handy if you find it
lost down the back of the sofa.
Customers are tired of waiting.
RIGHT: A Monzo card can be frozen or ‘defrosted’ at the click of a button.
TAKEAWAY #1

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The best banking apps may not get opened.
It’s a common misconception that the longer people spend in-
app, the more successful that app is. However, the very best apps
proactively share information with us: there’s no need to open
them at all.
To do something as simple as check your balance, most banking apps today
require you to first unlock your phone, open the app and log in.
Monzo, by contrast, doesn’t force people to open their app in order to see
simple banking information. On iOS, for instance, checking your balance and
daily spend is as simple as swiping right to see a widget. Payments, too, are
confirmed by easy-to-understand notifications, as is a change to your pin.
As apps continue to unbundle across new surfaces, interactions and devices,
there are many exciting opportunities ahead for banks to help customers
across digital touchpoints, from wearables to TV and voice-enabled devices
like the Amazon Echo.
RIGHT: Monzo’s widget.
TAKEAWAY #2

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In a recent piece of user testing with over 100 young Londoners,
we validated that one of the biggest pain points with UK banking
apps is not being able to easily track spending habits.
Monzo allows you to view financial transactions either by month, or by
categories like ‘Transport’ or ‘Bills’. This provides a quick, easy to understand
overview of spending habits and, ultimately, reduces the cognitive load on the
user.
It’s important to note, though, that categorisation is not an exact science.
Monzo can currently only tell where you’ve shopped - not the exact items you
purchased. Therefore, some purchases occasionally end up in the wrong
category.
We expect this to be an area of improvement and opportunity for banks, once
they get their hands on Level 3 merchant data (which adds line item data to
goods and services purchased).
Banks should do the heavy lifting.
RIGHT: (lefthand device) spending grouped by category; (righthand device) spending mapped against monthly targets.
TAKEAWAY #3

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We have all encountered the many frustrations that can occur
when trying to communicate with our banks. From spending hours
on the phone, to being forced to visit a retail branch - generally
speaking, people don’t like interacting with banks.
Monzo is different. By combining a high performing app with Intercom’s
instant customer service chat technology, you can get in touch with Monzo
advisors 24/7, in the UK or abroad. The response time can vary, but you will
generally get a rely within a few hours. Reducing this wait time, from days to
minutes, and serving it up on our most personal device makes customers feel
valued, and taken care of.
Considering that Monzo currently has around 60 employees, this customer
service level is impressive by anyone’s standards, and we can see this
becoming a core feature of many banking apps in the future.
Provide customer service, on demand.
RIGHT: Monzo’s customer service chat screen.
TAKEAWAY #4

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Looking after our financial health is little more than ‘life admin’ to
most of us. This isn’t helped by the view of retail banks as relatively
unfriendly and hard-nosed: a perception that hit an all-time low
when the financial crisis hit. Monzo, by contrast, has taken a very
different approach.
In the app itself, images and simple, human language inject delight into the
user experience: an animation plays whilst you wait for your card to arrive,
emojis appear in your notifications and you might even get a ‘Golden Ticket’,
enabling you to invite a friend and skip the waiting list.
But more important that this is the clever way Monzo has made banking a
talking point, and the company is just as notable for how it communicates and
engages with its customers as it is for its app. Using the language start-up style
innovation and of user engagement, these techniques may seem to be aimed
at a younger target audience - but in fact, we see it as a strategy that
succeeds in attracting and maintaining a wider, and highly valuable mobile-
enabled customer base.
Banking doesn’t have to be boring
RIGHT: (lefthand device) a notification with an emoji; (righthand device) imagery within the Monzo app.
TAKEAWAY #5
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Summary
In this short deck, we have brought product excellence - a key
pillar within our Strategic Mobility Framework - to life with a
powerful example of what ‘good’ looks like, examining one of the
leading new breed competitors reshaping the retail banking
landscape today.
It’s tempting to either assume Monzo and other hungry start-ups like them
have already locked down the opportunity - but that couldn’t be further from
the truth. Take a look at Yolt (www.yolt.com), from ING: currently in Beta, this
highly innovative new app marks a return to the UK retail market for an
established, incumbent banking organisation. It’s also one of the first European
banking apps to provide a single, integrated platform for customers to manage
money across all their accounts - including those held by competitors:
something that Monzo does not currently offer.
What makes Monzo and Yolt such strong examples of mobile product
excellence is their focus on deep customer insight, founded on a clear
understanding of the jobs - or desired outcomes - that customers are really
trying to achieve when they access their banking information.
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10. To learn more, get in touch
Outcomes, not features, create outsize results.
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enquiries@theappbusiness.com
+44 203 657 9785
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