About 2.5 years ago I emailed Richard Fairbank, the CEO of Capital One, telling him that having two apps (Capital One Wallet and Capital One) was not a good thing on several levels. Below are some of the points that I made. Next day I got a call from his office where a lady thanked for the feedback and said that they will take it into account as they move their products forward. Last month, I received an email from them where they notified their customers that they are finally retiring the Wallet app this May.
I think the points I made back then were very clear and constructive, and I’m glad that they are finally changing it for the better. I just wish companies, especially fully virtual ones like Capital One, moved much faster than that.
An excerpt from my email to Richard Fairbank on November 10, 2015:
You have two apps: Wallet and Capital One that serve the same purpose and it doesn’t make much sense. The only real difference between them is the credit tracker in the second app (and the contact info as it turns out). You’re spending resources and time developing and maintaining these two apps but your ultimate accomplishment is the customer confusion. Everything that a company does should create or add value. I don’t see any value at all by having these two apps. Why have two? Make one and make it the best and fully functional. Right now these two apps are designed differently, branded differently and function differently. You want to avoid this at all costs. The brand has to be visually and user experience wise consistent. Right now it’s not the case in your situation.
The fact that the Wallet app does not have contact info still blows my mind. It’s such a basic and necessary functionality that I have no idea how to explain the absence of it. I’ll leave it at that as there’s not much more to add.
The way the Capital One app is designed in terms of user intuitiveness does not reflect the level of technology competencies of your organization. Capital One is a highly technological company with great customer service. Something must have gone wrong in the user experience department where such critical things are getting overlooked (and for an extended period of time).
