Why 72% Of Homeowners Say Lender Websites Fall Short & How To Solve It

J.D. Power’s 2020 mortgage servicer satisfaction study says just 8% of homeowners think their lender contacts them enough. This is just one reason up to 93% of homeowners work with a different lender for future mortgages — a big problem servicers can turn into opportunities with the right partners like Sagent.  

We believe that if originators are finders of new customers, servicers must be keepers of those customers. And below are two ways we power servicers to transform “customer for life” from tagline to reality.

1. Omnichannel Self-Serve For Loan Hardships & Opportunities

Too many servicer websites still aren’t delivering proper self-serve, with 62% of customers visiting their lender’s site first for information on solving an issue, but only 28% saying those sites are the best place to resolve their issue. 

And 45% of those who couldn’t resolve their issues on websites did solve it by calling their lender. This sounds decent until you consider JD Power’s 2020 data also shows 1 in 5 customers say it’s not easy to reach their lender live on the phone, and nearly half of at-risk customers (44%) in the last 12 months called their lender more than 3 times. 

If we connect these dots, we see how important effective self-serve can be. 

This is what Sagent’s consumer-facing suite Account Connect does. Servicers brand Account Connect as their own, enabling consumers to: 

• Actively manage homeownership from their phones or computers
  
  
• Identify and act on opportunities like paying off loans faster and using equity responsibly during good times
  
  
• Immediately request/process forbearances or loan mods during tough times
  
  
• Request human help in real time from any device 

2. Contact Customers 3-4 Times Per Year With Custom Advice

The JD Power 2020 study says customers who receive 3 to 4 proactive communications from their servicer have the highest levels of overall customer satisfaction yet only 8% of customers say they get this level of communication, 40% say they receive no proactive communication, and 29% say they receive 11 or more proactive communications. 

Too few, none, or too many communications all cause lower customer satisfaction, so how do you solve this?  

The sweet spot is 3-4 communications per year, and you can go higher if your advice is custom to each client. 

Servicers using the right tools like Sagent are especially well-equipped with real-time data on every customer. Our flagship LoanServ product is a servicing system of record providing that real-time data to each customer through our Account Connect consumer-facing suite that lenders brand as their own. 

So like in section 1 above where customers can come to Account Connect to model out how to proactively pay off loans faster, you can also push this insight to them proactively.

Likewise, you can also help customers during tough times by sending proactive communications to them about critical timelines on their forbearances or loan mods.   

Sagent Finally Brings Loan Origination Innovation To Servicing

Rapid innovation in mortgage originations has set customer expectation and satisfaction bars much higher in recent years. 

Now customers expect their servicing to be the same do-it-on-my phone experience as when they got their loan. 

Attention, retention, and engagement are the core practices for servicers to keep customers for life — through all the good and hard times each customer might have. 

Sagent powers this with a combination of strong consumer-first digital experience and deeply technical but highly configurable software to handle all complexities of servicing through this lifecycle.

A modern origination experience simply must be followed with the same quality of care throughout the loan’s life. Sagent powers this for servicers, and without it, lenders risk losing customers at all key life events that lead to home buying, improving, refinancing, and selling.