Help to Buy Customer Research

There are two projects to consider: • Mystery shopping • Baseline Customer Survey

Mystery shopping project: Information about the Help to Buy: Equity Loan must be clear, fair and not misleading. We expect customers to have a good understanding of the financial commitment that they are making when they apply for an equity loan.

Homebuyers get Help to Buy through our agents and registered homebuilders (who must comply with our advertising requirements). They may also consult a financial advisor or mortgage broker before they apply for the equity loan.

This mystery shopping exercise is to understand what information homebuyers are receiving when they enquire about Help to Buy. Is the information they are receiving consistent, accurate and complying with our advertising requirements? What information are homebuyers receiving about the new Help to Buy scheme which starts in April 2021. Is the information homebuyers are receiving helping them to make an informed choice to apply for an equity loan?

Baseline Customer Survey project: To find out how satisfied customers are with Help to Buy services at different stages in the equity loan lifecycle, with a focus on customers after their first year anniversary to 7 years. How are they managing their equity loan account, what changes have they made, when do they intend to repay the loan, and what difficulties they may have encountered.

This insight will inform the service design and customer communications, identify gaps in the end to end customer journey, and provide a benchmark for our Net Promoter Score across the whole customer base. This is to make sure that we continue to improve customer's understanding of how to make changes to their loan account.

This survey will set a baseline for the current customer base. Some sections of this survey will be repeated each year to identify sentiment, trends and service improvement.