There is always room for improvement, even in a well-oiled machine, and new joint research by Snapdocs [1] and the STRATMOR Group [2] found that 1-in-5 mortgage applicants experienced an issue with their transaction.
Often competing on referrals and razor thin margins, mortgage lenders are finding ways to improve the “borrower experience” of applicants and eliminate pain points during the mortgage process to improve satisfaction ratings.
“Lenders need to find new ways to compete for business in this market. While one proven strategy is to create a best-in-class borrower experience, there’s no consensus on what ‘best-in-class’ means, much less how to measure it,” said Garth Graham, Senior Partner at STRATMOR Group. “This research provides a granular view into the key ‘moments that matter’ so that lenders can begin to build their CX strategies around empirical data.”
Surveying over 7,000 borrowers, findings show that investing in technology and process improvements downstream in the mortgage process can improve borrower experience.
Other key findings of the report include:
- Borrowers are generally happy with the application process: Fewer borrowers experience difficulties in filling out the loan application compared to other steps in the mortgage process. 67% of respondents rated the experience of filling out a loan application an 8 or above on a 10-point scale.
- Document collection and processing issues damage borrower experience: Unreasonable document requests caused a drop of 70 points in NPS, the most significant hit to the borrower satisfaction throughout the entire mortgage process.
- Borrowers experience more frequent and significant issues during closing: More than one in three respondents experienced an issue during closing, dropping NPS by 34 points; respondents cited lack of preparedness, delays, or errors in closing as the key issues impacting their experience.
"As the mortgage landscape becomes more competitive, lenders need the very best insight, tools, and resources to compete and win over borrowers," said Michael Sachdev, President at Snapdocs. "This new report, coupled with our customized assessments, equip lenders to evaluate their borrower experience against industry benchmarks, understand opportunities to improve and make changes that encourage repeat business and earn customer referrals.”
Click here [3] to view the report in its entirety.