Capita : Brokers urge mortgage lenders to embrace technology in the quest to improve customer experience

The survey*, carried out by Capita Mortgage Software Solutions, found that brokers place significant importance on how a lenders' system can help them provide a seamless customer experience, and the more familiar they are with a system, the more likely they are to be satisfied with it.

The research findings include:

• Brokers need systems to ensure they meet the regulatory challenges that have arisen from an increasingly competitive and complex mortgage market;

• The vast majority of brokers rated their customer interaction during the application process as highly important - yet they are dependent on mortgage sourcing and application systems for the quality of the customer experience they provide;

• Brokers want to concentrate on adding value to the customer by way of providing advice as opposed to 'form-filling';

• All other things being equal, brokers would place mortgage business with lenders' whose application systems were the easiest to use, were consistent and which provided the best-case tracking functionality;

• Some lenders' application systems are considered functionally more efficient than others.

* Research was carried out among mortgage intermediaries, where survey-based quantitative data was supported by in-depth interviews to provide detailed, qualitative insights.

Our research suggests that technological developments in legacy mortgage sourcing and application systems have not kept pace with step-change improvements in customer experience elsewhere. Lenders need to use new and emerging technology to appeal to millennials - the next demographic of homeowners. Forward-thinking lenders, willing to embrace technological advances, will thrive if they can harness technology to strengthen customer experience. 'Lenders need to use new and emerging technology to appeal to millennials - the next demographic of homeowners. Forward-thinking lenders, willing to embrace technological advances, will thrive if they can harness technology to strengthen customer experience.'

Keith Green

Strategic product director, Capita Mortgage Software Solutions