While there was no change at the top of the list of best mortgage servicers, Ocwen Financial Corp.’s servicing unit landed at the bottom.
On a thousand-point scale, the average customer satisfaction score for the nation’s largest residential loan servicers was 755 for 2016.
Home-loan borrowers’ satisfaction with their mortgage servicers has improved compared to a year earlier, when the average score was 718.
Those findings were included in
the J.D. Power 2016 U.S. Primary Mortgage Servicer Satisfaction Study.
The report reflects responses from 7,542 borrowers who have had a home loan for at least one year. Respondents were surveyed in March and April.
Three dozen of the largest U.S. mortgage servicers were rated in the survey.
Factors considered included new customer orientation, billing and payment process, and escrow account administration. Additionally considered were interaction, mortgage fees and communications.
By enabling borrowers to find answers to their own questions, the number of calls to servicers can be reduced, the report said. Effective self-service channels lowers the reliance on the live phone channel.
In fact, while 42 percent of customers make a call to their servicer when a question arises, the share drops to 30 percent when the servicer has an informative, easy-to-navigate website.
In addition, by resolving issues on the first contact, the number of repeated contacts and escalation of the issue can be cut — reducing regulatory scrutiny.
Aside from lowering the volume of customer calls, servicers can avoid negative social media comments.
They can also avoid losing other financial services accounts that extremely disgruntled borrowers maintain with the lender.
Quicken Loans Inc. received a score of 850 — the highest among all servicers ranked. It was the third consecutive year that Quicken topped the list.
The Detroit-based company, which reported a servicing portfolio of
$215 billion as of June 30, rated high in all six categories.
No. 2 Huntington National Bank received a score of 828.
Huntington serviced $31 billion as of mid-2016, including third-party servicing and residential assets.
Huntington ranked highest on billing and payment and interaction.
Next was Regions Mortgage, which scored 810. Parent Regions Financial Corp reported a mortgage servicing portfolio
of $52 billion as of March 31.
Regions’ strengths were in new customer orientation and mortgage fees.
In fourth position was TD Bank, N.A., with a score of 808.
No. 5 Citizens had a score of 799. Citizens Financial Group Inc. disclosed a $17 billion third-party servicing portfolio as of March 31 and another $32 billion in residential assets.
At the bottom of J.D. Power’s list was
Ocwen Loan Servicing with a score of 650. Ocwen Financial Corp. reported that its servicing portfolio was $220 billion as of June 30.
Ocwen was below average in every category.
