Panelist: Consumers Want 'Frictionless' Servicing

Consumers want "frictionless" loan servicing by a lender that resolves problems quickly and bridges the gap between origination and servicing, according to a panelist at the SourceMedia Mortgage Servicing Conference in Dallas.Lori Gray, senior vice president for business development at SunTrust Mortgage, told conferees that a 2006 J.D. Power and Associates survey in which SunTrust ranked No. 1 among servicers in consumer satisfaction also contained perplexing information. "We were a little surprised and hurt to learn that the less our borrowers heard from us, the happier they were," Ms. Gray said. What consumers want, she said, is frictionless loan servicing, and toward that end SunTrust allows retail origination officers to maintain a kind of ownership over their customers. If consumers have a question about the way their loan is being managed, they can call the person they probably know best at SunTrust, Ms. Gray said. Timothy Ryan, senior director for the mortgage practice at J.D. Power, said consumers view mortgage servicing less as a relationship and more as a utility. The lower the level of interaction they have with their servicer, the more likely they are to give their loan servicer high marks for customer satisfaction.