The combination of elevated mortgage rates and an inflation-heavy economy has created a financial strain and growing unhappiness with customer service among mortgage servicing customers, according to the J.D. Power 2023 U.S. Mortgage Servicer Satisfaction Study.
This year’s study found 54% of mortgage servicing customers who identified as financially unhealthy while the default risk inched up 4% this year among mortgage customers. For many customers, their relationships with their mortgage servicers became strained – overall customer satisfaction with mortgage servicers is 601 on a 1,000-point scale, down six points from 2022. The decline in customer satisfaction was most significant among the 37% of customers who had their mortgage transferred to a servicer that they did not choose.
“The past year has been an incredibly challenging time for both customers and the mortgage industry—and there remains a lot of uncertainty,” said Craig Martin, executive managing director and global head of wealth and lending intelligence at J.D. Power. “So far, the worst-case scenarios haven’t come to bear but mortgage servicers need to ensure they aren’t ignoring key advanced indicators.”
“We have seen the percentage of financially unhealthy mortgage customers rise to 54% from 48% during the past year,” Martin added. “Servicers need to ensure they are building trust and engaging with their customers so they can effectively stay ahead of potential problems when customers face financial hardships. When customers lack trust in their servicer, the costs to serve increases materially because those customers will gravitate to more costly service channels and they are at higher risk to take their complaints beyond the company.”
Among the major servicers, Rocket Mortgage ranked the highest with a score of 686 out of 1,000, with Guild Mortgage (668) ranking second and Chase (665) ranking third.
