Mortgage servicer consumer experience efforts are a bust, according to J.D. Power.
The research company, responsible for surveying millions of consumers across over a dozen industries, put mortgage servicing near the bottom of the barrel where customer satisfaction is concerned. On a 1,000-point scale, consumers gave servicers an overall satisfaction rating of 777, just below life insurance's 779 and above health plans at 712.
The average Net Promoter Score for mortgage servicers — measuring customer perception of an overall brand on a -100 to +100 scale — is a 16, among the lowest of any industry.
"Mortgage servicers are really missing an opportunity to build the kind of goodwill with their customers that has proven to translate directly to increased advocacy and repeat business," John Cabell, director of wealth and lending intelligence at J.D. Power, said in a press release. "The industry's laser focus on lowering costs, managing regulatory compliance and minimizing delinquencies has come at the expense of customer experience. It is negatively affecting customer trust in their brands."
Oftentimes, borrowers do not choose their servicer and are instead acquired when loans get purchased in the secondary market, making servicing unique. The nature of this relationship could be a cause for low satisfaction levels, and may also be why servicers don't exhaust as much attention to offering an attractive borrower experience.
Transferred customers have substantially more issues with payment and escrow accounts, with 54% of first-time homebuyers reported being "confused, angry or irritated" when being transferred. "This phenomenon spotlights the unique communications and customer experience challenges mortgage servicers still need to address with transferred customers," J.D. Power said in its report.
Homeowners highlighted a lack of certainty in their mortgage servicers, with 70% claiming not to have complete trust in their primary servicer. However, those that do report having total trust in their servicer are three times more likely to stick to the company for the purchase of a new home.
About 60% of customers access information through their servicer's website and 31% via mobile, illustrating a need to
With a score of 878, Quicken Loans ranked highest of all mortgage servicers for the sixth straight year. It was followed by Regions Mortgage, with 848, and Guild Mortgage in third, with 828.
