Overall satisfaction with mortgage originators is up 13 points, which is “a pretty sizeable increase,” noted an analyst with J.D. Power Associates regarding its 2011 U.S. Primary Mortgage Origination Satisfaction Study.
David Lo, director of financial services at J.D. Power, said this might be seen as counterintuitive given the negative press given to the mortgage business.
But those results need to be taken in context, he explained. The survey universe only includes those who were able to get a loan, either for a purchase or a refinance. The same company's servicer survey released earlier this year found many people who were discontent with their provider because they could not get a new loan as credit availability remains tight.
“They are stuck in their mortgage and they are not happy about it,” he said.
But those who were able to get a new mortgage were generally satisfied with the process. The industry average score was 747 points.
Quicken Loans received the highest customer satisfaction score, with 811 in this year's survey, while Bank of America, which lately has been the poster child for consumer missteps, received the lowest at 710. Also at the bottom are Flagstar at 724 and Citi at 725.
Looking at a three-year trend, those companies who have improved in customer satisfaction scores are also seeing their market share go up in the same time frame by 5%. Those at the other end of the scale whose scores declined over the three-year period, Lo pointed out, saw a decrease in market share by 5%.
He added there are other factors that affect market share, such as B of A pulling out of the wholesale and correspondent channels. But in general, a higher satisfaction rate with the institution (including other products it offers) equates to higher loyalty by its customers, Lo added.
The survey asked customer respondents how many days from application to approval and then from approval to closing.
At an industry level that totaled in the range of 50 days. B of A had significantly longer turn times. That had an impact on its score. Consumers might not be picking their lender based on marketplace reputation, Lo said, but oftentimes they do “exercise veto power.” If they had a bad experience with them or based on what they read in the newspaper have a negative perception, they might take that lender out of consideration for their business.
It is highly likely that if the consumer has a relationship with the institution for one or more products and they are not happy about something, it can crossover and affect their perception of that institution's mortgage business, he said.
Generally speaking wholesale lenders do get a lower satisfaction score in the survey, possibly because the borrower's relationship is not as tied to the company as it is for a retailer. Yet in this year's survey, U.S. Bank scored 13 points above the average, PHH and MetLife are at the average and Wells Fargo is six points below the average.
No. 1 on the survey Quicken Loans is a call center operation, which in a press release trumpeting the repeat win, notes is on the verge of closing a record number of loans for the second straight year.
Quicken Loans founder and chairman Dan Gilbert said, “Being the greatest in our industry in client satisfaction for the second straight year shows the incredible effort and dedication our over 5,200 innovative and highly motivated team members bring to work with them each and every day. Our talented brain force, coupled with our technology and process-driven home lending platform, sets a new and increasingly higher standard when it comes to speed, scalability, and an experience that is engineered to amaze.”
It received the highest score in three key factors of the study: the application and approval process (quality and convenience); product knowledge, responsiveness and client courtesy; and the mortgage closing experience.
