FHFA and the CFPB are sampling the mortgage experience on closed loans. This in-depth survey combined with the teams of Statisticians and Data Scientists in these agencies, lead to some interesting conclusions.
The link below is the link to the survey, methodology and results. If you take the time to read through the 58 pages you will learn quite a bit. Just like the exam manual, if you know what to prepare for, then you should be prepared. This survey helps you understand what you need to prepare for, and most importantly what you should find out from your consumer before they get the agency survey. It’s like the car dealer who lets you know that you will be getting a survey, and they hope that you rate them 5 out of 5 for every category, and then proceed to educate the consumer on the categories. They are setting the expectation and gathering feedback about whether the consumer would or would not give the dealer 5 out of 5! This then gives the dealer the opportunity to make it right before the consumer leaves.
Lenders should consider their defensive position to the possibility that your client will receive one of these surveys. Examples may include:
1. Does the training of your consumer facing staff mirror the the survey questions? For example, in Question 20 “During the application process were you told about mortgages with any of the following?” your staff should be well-versed in explaining all of these to every single client AND you should monitor that they do so.
2. Your “surveys” to your clients should pick up on the same types of questions, so that you are able to defend your data against the data of the regulatory body.
3. Your complaint policy should be rock-solid and report directly into the office of the CEO. Otherwise, your data may be different than what the CFPB finds out about you, because your department heads may re-frame what the consumer really thinks.
4. Complaints of any kind should be taken seriously, and that mindset should be supported at the highest levels of the company.
5. Consideration should be given to compensation based on customer experience. The happier and more well-informed the client, the better your results!
Like it or not, we are entering a very data-centric time in our industry. Technological advancements, social media and surveys like this feed data into the Data Scientists who can and will evaluate our quality in many ways. Prudent lenders will embrace this and ensure that their methodology for evaluating a great customer experience is strong.
The positive side of all of this is that we will have happier customers who refer more business, information on what to correct in our business to be more efficient, and better exams because we watched over the customer satisfaction metrics. Sounds like a better bottom line on the P&L to me!
To read the Survey CLICK HERE!
