A Home Equity Conversion Mortgage Borrower satisfaction benchmark is in the works, reverse mortgage technology leader ReverseVision and mortgage advising firm STRATMOR Group announced Monday.

The companies joined together to create new HECM survey questions that will be added to STRATMOR’s MortgageSAT Borrower Satisfaction Program, a borrower feedback analysis program that allows lenders to improve the customer experience. The survey will be available to ReverseVision customers within 24 hours of loan closing, and the reverse questions will take into account many of the variables that are unique to opening a HECM, such as the required counseling portion of the process.

“Direct, instant borrower feedback, along with deep insights into the loan process and the people involved, will enable lenders to pinpoint sources of borrower dissatisfaction and quickly take corrective action,” the companies said in a press release. “MortgageSAT will provide individual scores for each participant in the HECM process (e.g., counselor, loan officer or broker, processor, underwriter and closer) and measure the borrower’s perception of the entire experience with analysis by region, branch and individual employee.”

Reverse mortgage lenders and originators will then have hard borrower satisfaction data that they can use to compare to their own customers’ experiences.

The collaborators also speculate that this new data will help cleanse any remaining negative press surrounding reverse mortgages.

“We expect the MortgageSAT survey results, including borrower comments, will shed light on the fact that reverse borrowers are thoughtful people who are planning for their financial futures,” said ReverseVision President and CEO John Button. “The vast majority of them are very happy with both the process and the loan product.”

Written by Maggie Callahan