Mortgage lenders that advise borrowers throughout the home buying process are reaping higher customer satisfaction scores, a report from J.D. Power shows.
By serving in a more hands-on advisory role with customers, some lenders are earning higher marks for customer satisfaction, despite the challenging environment, according to the market research firm.
Many of these lenders have performed better than their competitors during this period of higher mortgage rates, high home prices and low mortgage volume.
“The variability in rates and higher costs for buyers increases the importance of understanding consumers’ individual situations,” says Bruce Gehrke, senior director of wealth and lending intelligence at J.D. Power, in a release. “Consistently, we’re seeing that lenders that play an active advisory role in helping their clients navigate the current market are earning significantly higher customer satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy scores than those that are treating mortgage lending as a transactional process.”
In 2024, overall customer satisfaction with mortgage lenders reached a score of 727 (on a 1,000-point scale) in J.D. Power’s U.S. Mortgage Origination Satisfaction Study.
That’s down 3 points from a year ago when mortgage customer satisfaction surged 14 points year over year.
In the past year, mortgage lenders have noticeably trimmed their staffing levels, making it more challenging to deliver the same level of highly personalized customer service that drove the gains in customer satisfaction a year ago.
The report shows that when borrowers have interpersonal relationships with local brand reps it results in higher satisfaction.
And borrowers who trust their lender are more likely to rely on the lender’s expertise to get through the borrowing process.
Photo: Roberto Nickson