Mortgage Servicer Satisfaction Remains Unchanged Despite Mortgage Companies' Investment in Technology, J.D. Power Finds

Mortgage Customers Using Mobile Have Higher Satisfaction but Adoption Remains Low

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Jul 26, 2018, 08:00 ET

COSTA MESA, Calif., July 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Mortgage servicer satisfaction remains flat in 2018, as satisfaction remains similar to the past two years, according to the J.D. Power 2018 Primary Mortgage Servicer Satisfaction Study,^SM released today.

The industry average for overall satisfaction is 758 (on a 1,000-point scale) in 2018, which is relatively unchanged from 2017 (754) and 2016 (755). This stagnation comes despite extensive investment by mortgage originators into new digital services.

"The mortgage industry has made bold investments in new technology but servicing still has a long way to go," said Craig Martin, Senior Director of the Mortgage Practice at J.D. Power. "With only 20% of mortgage customers utilizing mobile technology—which is 2% below 2016—availability and adoption of these services has been slow in coming. Customer expectations are increasing, often influenced by their day-to-day experiences, but servicing is not keeping up. Servicers not only have to decipher the services that provide the most value to existing and new customers, but they also must solve how best to engage customers. Doing so will translate into higher levels of adoption and usage to deliver cost savings and improved experience. There is a lot of room for improvement."

Following are some key findings of the 2018 study:

Digital makes a difference, but adoption is slow: Mortgage servicer mobile customers have higher satisfaction and are significantly more likely to be brand promoters than non-mobile customers. However, just 20% of customers use these services, well below levels seen in the J.D. Power 2018 U.S. Credit Card Satisfaction Study^SM (39%) and the J.D. Power U.S. Retail Banking Satisfaction Study^SM (55%). Online usage similarly lags with 44% of servicing customers using the website compared with the U.S. Credit Card Study^SM (74%) and the U.S. Retail Banking Study^SM (77%).
SMS for SOS: Account alerts have become a regular part of the average consumer's daily life ranging from health alerts from your watch to suspicious activity on your Facebook account. In servicing this capability is relatively underutilized and presents a major opportunity to grow satisfaction. Half of customers said that their servicer either does not have account alerts or they are unaware the service is available, a metric that has been relatively unchanged for the past three years. Of those that do use alerts, satisfaction is highest among those that receive text message alerts (840), followed by secure messages on the servicer's website (834) and email alerts (810).
Battle of the brands: While satisfaction remains flat, brand image ratings continue to decline, with overall reputation and community involvement decreasing significantly from 2017. In a highly competitive origination market in which small differences can have a big effect, the servicing experience can't be ignored. Among servicers that achieve 900+ in overall satisfaction, 65% of customers say they "definitely will" choose the same company for their next home purchase and 84% say they "definitely will" recommend the servicer. Those loyalty and advocacy numbers drop precipitously when satisfaction scores range between 700 and 900.

Study Rankings

Quicken Loans is the highest-ranked mortgage servicer for the fifth consecutive year, with a score of 857. TD Bank (821) ranks second and has the largest year-over-year improvement. Huntington Banks (819) ranks third.

The 2018 U.S. Primary Mortgage Servicer Satisfaction Study measures customer satisfaction with the mortgage servicing experience in six factors: new customer orientation; billing and payment process; escrow account administration; interaction; mortgage fees; and communications. The study is based on responses from 7,776 customers who originated a new mortgage or refinanced within the past 12 months. It was fielded in March-April 2018.

For more information about the Primary Mortgage Servicer Satisfaction Study, visit
http://www.jdpower.com/resource/us-primary-mortgage-servicer-satisfaction-study.

See the online press release at http://www.jdpower.com/pr-id/2018119.

J.D. Power is a global leader in consumer insights, advisory services and data and analytics. These capabilities enable J.D. Power to help its clients drive customer satisfaction, growth and profitability. Established in 1968, J.D. Power is headquartered in Costa Mesa, Calif., and has offices serving North/South America, Asia Pacific and Europe. J.D. Power is a portfolio company of XIO Group, a global alternative investments firm headquartered in London, and is led by its four founders: Athene Li, Joseph Pacini, Murphy Qiao and Carsten Geyer.

Media Relations Contacts
Geno Effler; Costa Mesa, Calif.; 714-621-6224; [email protected]
John Roderick; St. James, N.Y.; 631-584-2200; [email protected]

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SOURCE J.D. Power