Direct channel mortgage customers more satisfied: Survey

The research shows that satisfaction with banks when using a mortgage broker was only 77.3 per cent, slightly below the 80.3 per cent when home loans were obtained in person at a branch.

“Even among more recent home loans (held for under six years), satisfaction with going directly into branch was 81.7 per cent compared to 78.7 per cent for mortgage brokers,” the Roy Morgan research said.

“This is an important finding because it illustrates the potential impact that a third party can have on the satisfaction level of customers with their banks.”

The results cover the six months to January 2018 and are from the Roy Morgan Single Source survey of over 50,000 consumers per annum, including over 12,000 mortgage holders.

Home loan customers of Bendigo Bank who obtained their loan in person at a branch had the highest satisfaction at 92.6 per cent, followed by Bankwest (87.3 per cent) and St George (86.8 per cent).

The best of the big four was NAB with satisfaction at 82.4 per cent, followed by ANZ (79.7 per cent). All of the largest banks, with the exception of Westpac, had higher satisfaction when going direct rather than using mortgage brokers.

Satisfaction when using mortgage brokers was highest for St George at 85.6 per cent, Bankwest (82.1 per cent) and Suncorp Bank (82.0 per cent).

Each of the big four was below the market average (77.3 per cent) for home loan customer satisfaction when using a mortgage broker, with the best of them being NAB (76.4 per cent) and Westpac (75.7 per cent).

“Although mortgage brokers are an important channel for banks to acquire home loan customers, there appears to be an issue that this generally results in lower satisfaction,” Roy Morgan’s industry communications director, Norman Morris, said.

“By contrast, customers who obtain their loan by going in person into a branch have higher satisfaction levels.

“The data shown here is only a small part of what is available regarding mortgage customers, their behaviour and satisfaction. The full database enables an in-depth understanding of this important market, including profiles of the type of customers who use each of the major channels to acquire their home loan.”