Borrowers Want A Combination Of Digital & Personal Interaction

Customer satisfaction with primary mortgage originators increased in 2018 as digital origination channels play a more significant role in the process, according to the J.D. Power 2018 U.S. Primary Mortgage Origination Satisfaction Study.^SM However, despite a clear preference for digital interaction at several points in the mortgage origination process, personal interaction with a representative still plays a key role, particularly when it comes to following up after an initial inquiry.

“The mortgage marketplace is changing rapidly as traditional players and new digital-native entrants ramp up their digital and mobile offerings,” said John Cabell, Financial Services Practice Lead at J.D. Power. “While improved digital offerings are helping mortgage originators build customer satisfaction, it is important to find the right balance between digital, self-service offerings and personal interaction with a representative. Technology alone is not a magic bullet in this market; the key is knowing where to leverage it and where to layer in more traditional forms of one-on-one support.”

Following are some key findings of the study:

Overall satisfaction improves as digital plays larger role: Overall satisfaction with primary mortgage originators is up 10 points (on a 1,000-point scale) in 2018. This is driven in part by increased customer utilization of digital and mobile channels. On average, customers use 3.1 different channels during the mortgage process, with phone (72%), website (69%) and email (58%) being the most commonly used channels.

Representatives still play major role in customer satisfaction: While usage of digital channels has increased, just 3% of mortgage customers exclusively rely on digital self-service channels in the origination process. In fact, overall satisfaction is highest among customers who spoke only with their lender in person or over the phone (871) when applying for a mortgage, followed by satisfaction among those who used a mix of personal and self-service tools (868). The most important parts of the process in which representatives add the greatest value are in the follow-up contact after an initial inquiry and when confirming loan terms and payment.

Speed of contact is critical driver of satisfaction: Satisfaction levels decline sharply for each day spent waiting after inquiry for contact from a lender. Overall satisfaction among customers who receive a contact within one day is 869. Satisfaction falls to 852 after two to five days and to 806 after six or more days. The inquiry channel with the fastest overall contact times (2.0 days, on average) is online via smartphone/tablet, followed by online via desktop (2.2 days). Though not all customers use digital channels, those who do value speed of contact.

Our intelligent digital loan manufacturing workflow helps lenders automatically identify and complete rudimentary tasks throughout the enterprises lending lifecycle, streamlining the origination process to assist is closing loans faster. Our digital mortgage platform offers mortgage lenders the ability to further simplify their origination and closing process while keeping borrowers, realtors, and all other interested parties involved every step of the way.

The Lodasoft difference is in focusing on the loan, manufacturing it in as little time, with as little errors as possible, while communicating every step of the way. When implementing Lodasoft, lenders can take a traditional pipeline-driven model (file by file) and move to a prioritized task-driven model while automating communication simultaneously.

By focusing on the loan, lenders are able to identify all of the mini-bottlenecks from lead to prequalification to in-process, closing, post-closing and beyond. The borrower will see the benefits of more transparency and faster processing. As a result of simultaneously automating communication along the way, all interested parties have a new sense of involvement creating much deeper relationships further driving greater borrower satisfaction.