Black Knight integration aims to engage, retain servicing customers

Black Knight announced Wednesday that it has integrated its servicing and marketing technology in order to help mortgage companies build customer relationships in low-cost ways.

Videos explaining common servicing topics that consumers might not understand connect the company's Servicing Digital application to Surefire marketing automation that Black Knight acquired as part of its purchase of marketing firm Top of Mind last year.

The integration can, for example, provide a video less than three minutes long that explains escrow analysis, providing visuals of how payments get allocated to tax and insurance buckets, explaining why the amounts require updates, and the options for satisfying these obligations. 

The video is a response to one of the most common questions servicing call centers have to answer without generating any additional revenue, and that's something that could help servicers stay within budget in an industry with compressed profit margins.

While some of the customer interactions Surefire will automate may not directly create revenue, in a consolidating market with limited origination opportunities, the engagement can help mortgage companies retain clients they may literally not be able to afford to lose. More than half, or 58%, of people will switch companies in response to poor customer service, according to a Microsoft survey cited by Black Knight.

The integration makes Surefire automated marketing easier to access in conjunction with servicing at a time when higher rates are raising the profile of this side of the business.

Black Knight is potentially on the verge of marrying its large market share in servicing technology with Intercontinental Exchange's similarly sizable presence in origination automation, if regulators allow it. Intercontinental has agreed to buy Black Knight for more than $13 billion.

Prior to integration, 22 million borrowers navigated to the Servicing Digital page over a three month period, 16 million signed on to use its automated tools and 6.2 million made self-serve payments using them. Surefire has attracted almost 1 million users who have accessed educational content like the escrow analysis video.