Issued: 10 May 2005
A pension is fundamentally a simple thing, it provides an income on retirement. Yet how difficult, complex and jargon-filled the pensions process has become. This hasn’t been helped by the Finance Act, which introduces a whole new set of terminology.
Given the complexity and jargon – we need to "Talk and Listen" to our customers to help them to understand their pension and its benefits.
There is no great mystery to talking to customers. It requires time and effort and a real belief that "the clearer the pensions message, the greater the value".
Opportunities abound, the important thing is to take them. Some ideas for face-to-face communication are:-
- New Entrant Presentations – a good opportunity to "sell" the scheme and run through the benefits available.
- Existing Member Presentations – a chance to provide a reminder of the benefits and options available to members.
- Pensions Clinics – give members an opportunity to ask questions on a 1:1 basis. It is often possible for all of the above to take place in the same day, making the time and effort to visit the client even more worthwhile.
- Meet/talk with payroll contacts – an opportunity to address any data provision problems and for the payroll contact to raise any of their concerns. An occasional courtesy call can help identify issues that may have arisen before they turn into more serious problems.
- Key contacts – know who the key contacts are in Finance, HR and Payroll. Ensure that systems are in place to identify if key contacts at the organisation are changing. A visit or call to the new contact can get things off on the right foot and ensure you are available to assist when they are most likely to need it. In turn, this should be of longer term benefit as it will cut down the likelihood of errors.
- Stewardship Reporting – A chance to formally report on progress and for either party to raise issues, ensuring the relationship stays on track.
- Employer Forums – If visiting clients individually is difficult or seemingly not cost effective, employer forums may be the answer. This is a chance to get a number of employers together at a convenient time and location to discuss issues of importance or to simply try and spread the pension’s message. Where issues or experiences are raised, there is a good chance that these issues are being replicated across the customer base.
Talking to customers does not just have to happen face-to-face. Written communication provides other avenues to keep customers informed and to invite feedback:
- Member/Employer Magazines – regular updates for employers and/or members on new developments in the pension’s world.
- Specific Mailings – to keep customers aware of events or changes that may affect them.
With any written communication it’s important to keep the message clear. Look to remove any jargon, "road test" the document before it is issued. This can be done either with the help of some friendly customers or by using employees within your organisation who are not pension specialists. If they don’t understand it, neither will your clients.
This can be particularly useful when trying to put together information for clients on new legislation. Don’t be surprised if, after you’ve honed the information to make it as user-friendly as possible, you find that it still requires further work once it has been through a user testing process.
There are other ways of 'listening' to customers to find out how well they think you are performing.
Questionnaires can be developed to discover what it is that customers' feel could help them. This indicates areas that can be worked on to improve the service. Forms can also be developed to ensure feedback is received following Customer Meetings.
An extension of this is to undertake a Customer Satisfaction Measurement Survey. This can be directed and tailored to both employers and individual members. This will help identify the areas which customer's value and those where more work is needed. This contributes to building customer loyalty and can provide valuable information for setting appropriate customer-based strategies.
In short, you will know where further improvements need to come, as your customers have told you. This avoids wasting time and effort on initiatives, which have no or little affect on the customer’s opinion of the service you provide.
Customer Satisfaction Surveys can also highlight how customers view the effectiveness of communications, highlight the quality of assistance being offered and how well customers are kept informed. Or to put it another way, how well you are talking and listening to them. If you are feeling brave, this can also be benchmarked against other organisations.
Having received any feedback from the survey, it is important to let the participants know any results and actions that you will be taking as a result. This is itself is another excuse to talk to customers!!
There is much to be gained from talking and listening to customers; understanding of the benefits will increase and ideas and messages received can be used to formulate future strategies. It is hard work and requires resources and continued commitment at all levels of your organisation but the results are worth it.
For further information, please click here.