"With the boom of robo-mortgage advisers beginning, it’s increasingly important for established lenders to invest in technologies to improve customer experiences."
In the research from design agency Dock9, Vida Homeloans came second while TSB was ranked third place. The bottom three included Aldermore, Dudley and Magellan.
The report concluded that high street lenders are continuing to lead the way, with specialist lenders failing behind high street lender in user experience.
Mark Lusted, managing director of Dock9, said: “The mortgage space is a complex and congested beast. However, lenders can stand out through low costs and easy online intermediary experiences. For instance, ensuring their websites are straightforward to navigate around and accessible – whatever method brokers and customers chose to browse on.
"With the boom of robo-mortgage advisers beginning, it’s increasingly important for established lenders to invest in technologies to improve customer experiences. Barclays and Tesco have clearly invested heavily in their mortgage UX, their attention to the small detail really pays dividends to the end user and their business.”
For customer experience, Barclays was rated the best, followed by Lloyds and TSB. Santander, Nationwide and NatWest all scored lowest for 'online customer high street lending experience'.
Dock9 says that of all the lenders with customer online experience – over half (53%) are ignoring mobile and tablet users by failing to design websites fully suited to these devices. Additionally, 65% are only partially or not responsive at all, meaning customers have a longer journey than necessary.
Mark Lusted added: “It’s no secret the UK is a ‘mobile society’ and tablet and mobile usage will only increase. Although the majority of mortgage deals are done via brokers through an intermediary site, the customer experience for the end-user is still a key differentiator that can help set lenders apart from one another – especially for younger customers – and another key revenue stream.”
Craig Calder, Director of Barclays Mortgages, commented: “We’re really proud to see that the online access and experience for our mortgage customers has been highly rated. We understand that buying and selling a home is not always straightforward, however, we want the mortgage experience to be a stress-free process. We continually invest in technology that helps to make the customer journey easier.”
