Mortgage Lenders See Increased Customer Satisfaction

J.D. Power and Associates says that even though customers have been less satisfied with the mortgage servicing industry, they have become more content with mortgage lending over the past year, reports HousingWire.com.

The satisfaction increase regarding primary mortgage lenders was fueled by improvements in status updates, time frame expectations and application followups, said David Lo, director of financial services at the global marketing information company.

The increase stands in contrast to mortgage servicing industry satisfaction levels, which have declined heavily in the last year.

The J.D. Power and Associates 2011 U.S. primary mortgage origination satisfaction study showed a score of 747 on a 1,000-point scale, up from 734 in 2010, marking the first year over year increase since 2008. The average scores by year are 750 in 2007, 757 in 2008 and 739 in 2009.

The J.D. Power and Associates study measures customer satisfaction in four areas of the mortgage origination process: application/approval process; loan representative; closing; and contact.

Quicken Loans had the best rank of all primary mortgage lenders for the second year in a row, posting a score of 818. They performed well in application/approval process and closing. SunTrust Mortgage came next with a 791 score. Their highest scores were in loan representative and closing. ING Bank won third with 789.

Lenders posting gains in origination satisfaction since 2009 saw improvements in overall satisfaction by an average 35 points. Their collective market share rose almost 5 percent.

Those companies visited by customer satisfaction decreases from 2009 to 2011 had a 25-point drop in score. Their collective market share dropped an opposite 5 percent.

The third quarter study surveyed over 3,600 customers that originated new mortgages between July and September.

“In this current environment, the perception among some is that what’s good for the customer isn’t necessarily good for the lender,” Lo said. “However, we see a clear relationship between a lender’s ability to deliver a superior customer experience and the relative impact on higher loyalty, retention and advocacy.”