Broker satisfaction with lenders has gone down in the last six months due to inadequate online systems, speed of response and customer service, according to Smart Money People.
The financial services review website’s bi-annual Mortgage Lender Benchmark found overall satisfaction with lenders is now 77.8 per cent. This is down by 4.9 per cent since the first half of 2020 and is the lowest score since tracking began in the second half of 2018.
This drop is seen across all sectors, except for specialist lenders, whose performance remained consistent with H1 2020.
However, a third of lenders have improved their overall rating, indicating that some were able to build on their relationship with brokers during the pandemic.
Top bank: HalifaxTop building society and buy-to-let lender: GodivaTop specialist lender: Fleet MortgagesTop lifetime lender: Pure Retirement
Smart Money People chief executive officer Jacqueline Dewey comments: “Many [brokers] are fed up with the pandemic being used as an excuse for poor service or slow processes.
“Despite the difficulties faced in the market this year, some lenders have continued to outshine their competition. A third of all lenders in our report have seen an increase in their overall rating.
“We found lenders who performed well in comparison with H1 2020 were particularly strong around customer service. Lenders whose overall rating fell often did well around product range and rates, but very poorly for speed.”
Net Promoter Scores (NPS), a key measure of loyalty, ranged from +68.8 to -76.9, with the average across all lenders falling to +12.8, from +30.8, a drop of 18 points.
Speed to process an application remains the most commented upon theme in the report and it has the biggest impact on a broker’s likelihood to recommend a lender. The rating for speed saw the biggest fall and is down from 75.8 per cent to 67.2 per cent.
One broker in the report comments: “Service levels are huge. Currently 23 working days to complete initial assessment of an application. No response from the BDM to my emails. Hold wait for processing centre is over an hour.”
Online systems remain a key influence on NPS and feedback was very mixed. The report found that positive sentiment towards a lenders’ online systems led brokers to be more positive about other aspects of a lender’s process including ease and communication.
Customer service rose to third in the list of reasons not to recommend a lender, while skills and knowledge enter the list of detractors, which had the strongest negative impact on NPS when it was mentioned.
The lack of knowledge of staff, which may be symptomatic of more frequent product and policy changes in H2 2020, was an issue for brokers, with one commenting: “Getting to speak to someone who can understand what your question is seems to be difficult.”
The report covers feedback from 494 brokers on 44 lenders across banks, building societies, specialist lenders and lifetime providers.
