April 2022 UK Challenger Banks App Performance Snapshot

Executive Summary

Consistency and stratification of rankings is the continued theme in April with the addition of Chase entering the market in late 2021 and entering the market in quite a strong position for a new offering.

Starling has an average Engaged Customer Score (ECS) of 4.8 which is right up there as far as best practice is concerned and continuing to hold ground.

Revolut is consistent and have made some small gains so far in their ECS however Monzo is closing the gap.

The number of engaged customer scores for Chase has grown considerably since they entered the market with only 40 ECS ratings by customers. By April however that has increased over 10 fold in April indicating a continued surge in customer acquisition that could be attributed to their aggressive approach to marketing led by very good savings rates. They have also maintained a solid Engaged Customer Score rating of 3.8.

Looking deeper into Revolut

The biases in performance improvement is driven by Android users. 

Gains have been made across the board with Foundational App attributes such as Security, Usability, Reliability and Features improving in positive sentiment.

The biggest contributor to improvements has been in the Incremental Banking App Features area of sentiment analysis.

App card management and app transfer funds features have lead the way with positive customer sentiment.

Yet again ensuring the simple things are done well and simplification for user experience has shown to lead the way in improving Engaged Customer Scores and App Ratings.

April 2022 Engaged Customer Score Rankings

1.Starling

2.Revolut

3.Monzo

4.Chase UK

5.Monese

Full Video Transcript:

00:00 Glenn: Glenn here from Touchpoint Group. And we are going to be looking at the UK Challenger Bank App Performance for April of 2022. I've got with me today, Nick Young, who's our lead consultant in the UK, and let's rip into it and have a look at that Challenge Bank Market. And we're going to have a little bit of a deeper dive into Revolut aren't we? But it's a, it's a bit of a steady as she goes, story.
 

00:31 Nick: It is quite surprisingly. So Glenn, I mean, you know, you expect that to be a little bit of anarchy. You know, we have kind of, infighting within the challenger bank ecosystem, actually it's remarkably stratified and it has been, you know, for a while. So you can see that Starling very much on top with an average app rating of around 4.7, 4.8, really impressive. Revolut are second, there about, you know, 60/50 basis points behind then you've got Monzo. So Monzo, you know, although they're a significant player and you know have a fairly, you know, broad sort of awareness are about a hundred tracking about a hundred basis points behind Starling in terms of customer experience significant and then Monzo and another sort of Monese are hundred basis points behind.

Then other interesting one, just to have a quick look at before we get into Revolut is Chase which is the new kid on the block and you can see that, you know, they started off at the beginning of the year with not very many ratings. 40 people put a rating in and their average rating score was 3.3 by the end of April.

This is really new data they've now got about 500 rating so their volume is really increased as you would expect. Their customer base has given their fantastically impressive headline savings rates and they've, you know, they've improved their ratings by about 20 basis points, but look at Revolut. I mean, it's quite interesting. In January, they were an app, average app rating 3.7 and they grown that 4.2 by February. So something's going on there and we thought we'd just drill down to see what that might be.
 

02:17 Glenn:Let's go.
 

02:17 Nick: So let's go. Yeah. So I mean, one obvious thing to do is just to look at where the kind of biases in terms of their improvement and it's very much in terms of the Android operating system, which probably reflects, you know, the mix of their customer base.

But you know, nothing really going on in iOS which is in fact slightly declined then, the other thing we tend to do is to break down any kind of changing overall top line Engaged Customer Score between these four Customer Experience Levels. So Foundational Attributes, with all the basic sort of, table-stakes staff like, Reliability and Efficiency and Usability and Security.

Then we've got this interesting concept of journeys, which are things like Authentication and Mobile App Updates, just to get into the app and to maintain it. And then, you know, basic things like looking up a balance or checking transactions. Then we've got the really important things, which are, you know, Incremental Banking Features, which is all the functionality that you really need to operate a current account. Like paying bills, paying people, getting app statements and so on and so forth.

And lastly, this broad category of Customer Love, which is the emotional affinity customers feel for the app and kind of spills over to the brand itself. So this is quite a useful way of prizing apart what's going on for Revolut and it's clear that although improved, you know, across the board. The biggest area they improved on was in these Incremental Banking Features.

So let's have a look a bit more at those. So those are all the incremental banking features, they've improved them all. The one that they've improved the most is Card Management. And that's quite interesting because I think, you know, generally speaking Revolut are famous for transfer funds. So my wife, has just got proudly, got Revolut car because we're going to Berlin at the weekend.

And obviously she's got a lot of awareness as the fact that, you know, it's a really useful card to have if you're going abroad, and yeah, you need to be able to get money out quickly and cheaply. But interestingly, the one they grew most on isn't that, it's Card Management. Yeah, it's just look in a bit more detail about what they did there.

And these are the verbatims that actually support those, ratings improvements. Okay. So people seem, you know, particularly impressed by how much better Revolut is at managing credit cards and debit cards than a normal bank. Easy to sort of turn off and turn on the cards, instant access to debit card information. You can do an instant put to unblock if you make a mistake when you're paying, in a retailer and then this last one is you know, just saying, you know, that the Revolut is really on the board in terms of automating the card freeze if they detect suspicious activity.

So Revolut, they've done, I think Revolut, you know, is a sort of app where that they're always making improvements and they're doing so consistently, but it's interesting. They have managed to focus on, you know, a couple of key things for which they're not necessarily immediately noted, but clearly they want to bring everything up to scratch. Probably be the best in the market. Well, interesting features like Card Management and we can see there, there are other ones where they will probably insert the lever to move the needle as well.
 

05:51 Glenn: Yeah, really fascinating. And so when it comes down to it, if we can get back to that first screen again, while there has been some real, really consistent, and I love that term stratification that you're using earlier on. And is that consistent if it in each of those areas that is helping solidify those positions, and if you're not making the consistent tweaks and changes and improvements, the others are going to catch you at some stages isn't that right?
 

06:27 Nick: No exactly. And I think Revolut is a good example of that, where they sort of recognize their strengths and their strengths are very much in these, you know, Incremental Banking Features so Incremental because they're features that they do better, not just better than the other challenges, but probably better than most of the Legacy Banks and transfer funds and Card Management, obviously two, two of those key ones.
 

06:48 Glenn: And this, this segment in particular is just the personification of where societal perception has going around the app is the bank.
 

07:00 Nick: Right, exactly. And I think the customer love, customer experience level indicates, especially for challenger banks, you know, the app is all that you've got. So, you know, the customer's experience with the app directly translates into their experience with the brand and the way they perceive the brand. If you're a high street bank, then you've got some other channels to manage that kind of brand perception here, if your a challenger bank, the app is the only thing.
 

07:28 Glenn: Absolutely. Well yet again, another fantastic and fascinating insight in regards to mobile banking and these apps in particular. Folks, just remember, you can come through to our site and if you want to get first tabs on getting access to these sorts of snapshots and insights, every single month, you can subscribe to the different market segments that you like. And we'll look forward to running this all over again next month and we will see you all again soon. Thanks again, Nick and well done mate, catch with you soon!