Apple‘s new operating system iOS7 launched on September 18, and JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup were ready. Both banks updated their iPhone apps that very day and put out iOS7-compatible versions versions of their iPad apps just two days later on Sept. 20.
It’s great to be quick to the punch, but so far customers have not reacted warmly to the new apps, particularly on the iPad side.
The three visible reviews of Citibank’s new iPad app all awarded one star out of a possible five. Users uniformly seemed unable to log in to app — not good.
“Unable to login,” wrote one user. “Was working fine until last update.” Another commenter wrote, “It used to work, but now it crashes every time I login my ID and password. It starts to launch, then goes back to the iPad home screen. Who can I talk to about this?” And the third commenter faced a very similar problem: “App still crashes every time immediately after login on IPad 3 & IOS 7. ”
Citibank’s iPhone update for iOS 7 fared better, garnering two five-star reviews and only one one-star review. “I haven’t had any issues or concerns it’s great,” one reviewer writes. Another wrote “Never has [sic] a problem with it.”
The one-star reviewer complained that the app logs him out as soon as he takes any action within the app, which sounds like the problem iPad users experienced.
Chase’s updated iPad app has not done much better than Citi’s, getting two one-star reviews and one three-star review. The three-star review complains that the app keyboard is not the new iOS 7 keyboard, which seems like an easy fix for an update — probably just a single line of code. The one-star reviews point to more serious issues: “Can’t log in,” one writes, and the other: “New Chase iOS7 app does not work. Keep getting error message when I log on — it keeps saying we are unable to process your request please try again later.”
Chase, like Citi, does a bit better with its iPhone update, garnering one five-star review that gushes, “This app is great! It is easy to transfer funds, check balances, track activity, deposit a check, or pay a bill on the go. I like that they finally changed the icon, but I would invert it to a white logo on a blue background… just a thought. :)” The other two review, unfortunately, are also one-star reviews from users upset they are unable to log in. Since upgrading to iOS7, consistently receive “We are not able to process your request at this time. Please try again later,” one writes. The other says, “Doesn’t work. After the update I can not sign in.”
It seems to be true that iOS users are crankier than their Android-using counterparts. Android reviews, also on a five-point scale, consistently skew higher for banking apps. Perhaps Apple’s attention to detail has raised user expectations, and it’s also possible that users unable to log in have simply forgotten their passwords and the bank has done nothing wrong.
Banks might consider another strategy: wait to launch updates. Bank of America last updated its iOS apps July 24, 2013 — but still sees cranky reviews with similar frequency.
Wells Fargo & Co. updated its iPad app “for iOS 5 and greater” September 20. Its iPhone app was updated June 24, 2013.
We are awaiting comment from JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup and will update this post when we receive it.