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New year, good time to strengthen your retirement income strategy

There’s something about the start of a new year that gives us the impetus to make a change. Often, the holiday downtime triggers a new-found resolve to “get important affairs in order” – thus a perfect time for super funds to activate member engagement for 2024.

Effective engagement can only be built on a sound knowledge base. This takes us to the critical question: “How well do you know your members?”

Last year, a joint APRA and ASIC review of the approach by Super funds to new obligations under the retirement income covenant found fundamental gaps that need to be filled.

The review identified Understanding Members’ Needs as a key gap in designing a retirement income strategy that is appropriate for members. It found that 12 out of 15 assessed Registrable Superannuation Entity (RSE) licensees recognised they had gaps in critical member data, both around members’ financial positions and income needs in retirement. Yet only four had developed robust plans to address these data gaps to enhance their strategy.

“Closing that knowledge gap, from a customer experience perspective, is easier than you may think,” said CSBA CX Director of Finance, Sam Monteath. “But it does require strategic planning, collaboration, and commitment.”

What to do:

Audit your data

Trustees hold a massive amount of data, possibly stored within departments and not visible across the organisation. Get clarity on what data you hold and identify the gaps that impede you from truly understanding your members. Engage expert assistance if needed.

Share existing knowledge

This is an opportunity to remove information silos that prevent data from being shared across the organisation. Knowledge is power, and teams are empowered when there is collaboration and possibility to leverage data to inform strategy.

Address the data gaps

Draw on a range of data sources, both internal and external, to deepen member understanding. Use new insights to broaden membership sub-classes, beyond age and superannuation balance, and develop needs-based cohorts.

Collecting segment-based insights does not have to be expensive. A qualitative methodology is a cost-effective way to obtain deep knowledge that can be applied across the member base. We see strong participation across cohorts, even those members who are already retired, as they are often unprepared, unaware of their options, and seek guidance.

Design best-practice research methodology

Bespoke retirement research design can explore more, extract more, and identify more pertinent insights that can have far-reaching outcomes – for branding, marketing, and engagement.

This is powerful intel for trustees, enabling them to become part of the consideration set when members are seeking guidance and advice. By developing relevant, specific tools and materials, trustees have an opportunity to support members, preventing their reliance on external advice.

Our approach is fully compliant with research and privacy standards. Participants are clear on why information is being collected, how it will be stored, and that all information remains confidential.

Where funds can make a difference

Monteath: “We know that members look to their funds for guidance because this is an area in which many members have little knowledge or understanding.”

“We also know that those in pre-retirement struggle to balance current financial priorities with the long-term planning for the future. They know they want to maintain their lifestyle in retirement, but don’t understand what this means in terms of numbers or have a plan to get there.”

Super funds have a tremendous opportunity and responsibility to empower and educate members around their financial needs for retirement. However, any meaningful guidance must start with gaining deep knowledge of their unique circumstances.

How CSBA research specialists can help

As CX experts, CSBA offers bespoke solutions to meet our clients where they’re at. Our qualitative and quantitative research will help develop a solid, deep understanding of members’ needs and nuances at a granular cohort level. This enables trustees to apply different strategies and embrace the true intent of the retirement income covenant.

Successful strategic planning starts with deep member insights.

To find out more, email sam.monteath@csba.com.au

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The Essential Services Commission raises the bar with ongoing CX benchmarking

The ESC Water Performance Report for 2021-22 showed a small improvement in the overall average score for customer experience in the Victorian Regional Water sector compared to the previous year.

Meanwhile, the overall average score remained stable for the Victorian Metropolitan Water sector, suggesting that customers continued to receive a similar level of customer service as previous years, despite the uncertainty and change due to the pandemic.

However, the longer-term trend reflects that stability and complacency is causing stagnation in overall scoring, said CSBA managing director, Paul van Veenendaal, commending the ESC for its commitment to improve customer experience using ongoing CX benchmarking to provide insights.

The ESC annual report includes the analysis of all of Victoria’s water businesses against key service measures, such as customer bills, household water use and customer experience. As part of the report, ESC commissioned CSBA to independently benchmark the call centre performance of Victorian water businesses over a 12-month period.

The value of CX benchmarking

“Measuring the customer’s experience gives you clarity on where you stand from the customer’s perspective,” explained van Veenendaal. “It helps each water business identify specific areas for improvement. At the same time, you can compare your performance against your peers and with other sectors.”

“The ESC is a role model for industry regulators. It has taken the leadership to make customer experience benchmarking central in driving continuous improvement for all 15 water businesses in Victoria,” he said.

The power of CX insights

The latest report shows that while customer service scores have remained consistent for the last three years, there is considerable opportunity to uplift the level of customer service from good to best for Victorian Water retailers.

Ease continued to be the lowest scoring index for all retailers at 36%, compared to Success at 70% and Sentiment at 64%, indicating a need for retailers to be proactive at being transparent to keep customers informed. There is also a need to increase “ownership” in helping customers feel that they are being helped by a person with knowledge and skills.

Barwon water continued to be the best performing retailer with an overall score of 73% compared to the sector’s average overall score of 57%. While GWM Water had the greatest overall score improvement, increasing its ranking from sixth to second.

The Victorian Water sector performed on par with the Australian Water sector and Utilities.  However, when compared to top performers, showed clear room for improvement.

ESC and CSBA partnership

Since 2009, CSBA has worked with ESC to measure call centre performance using 30 unique criteria in the key areas of Ease (the effort the customer must expend to accomplish their goals), Sentiment (how the interaction makes the customer feel) and Success (the degree to which the customer is able to accomplish their goals).

This partnership will strengthen and evolve as we continue to reflect best practice in navigating the fast-changing customer experience landscape.

Read the ESC Water Performance report.

For more information on working with CSBA on CX Benchmarking, email sudipta.dutt@csba.com.au

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How NGS Super turned data into problem-solving action

NGS Super is the leading Industry SuperFund for those in the education and community sectors, and open to all Australians. The fund partners with 13,000 employers in the non-government education and community sectors, managing over $13.4 billion in super savings.

NGS Super is focused on member outcomes, delivering a high level of customer service and award-winning products with low fees

“The more in-depth analysis we do, the more we learn about our members and the more we expect from the data. And that’s when improvements begin.”

Sadeer JanSenior Business Intelligence Manager

The challenge

NGS Super collects a large amount of data internally to inform organisational strategy. The fund recognised a need for deep data analysis to uncover the drivers of customer sentiment, identify gaps and take the right action.

Analysis in the context of the wider superannuation industry was important, including the need to measure performance against other super funds.

“Measuring customer satisfaction and promotion scores goes beyond the high-level findings,” explains Senior Business Intelligence Manager at NGS Super, Sadeer Jan. “Understanding the drivers behind those scores is key for us and helps us close the gaps.”

“The more in-depth analysis we do, the more we learn about our members and the more we expect from the data. And that’s when improvements begin.”

The solution

NGS Super joined the CSBA Superannuation Customer Experience Benchmarking Program to obtain the most relevant insights captured from employers and members who have contacted NGS via telephone, face-to-face, email, service request or online chat. Findings provide a comprehensive industry benchmark, comparing the fund to the industry.

Created by CSBA, FEAL and Melbourne Business School, the syndicated program covers two waves of research each February and July. It delivers detailed insights reports and in-depth analysis of results, while identifying specific opportunities for funds to evolve, strengthen and improve what matters.

To enhance its research, NGS included custom questions and variables to deepen the insights.

The results

NGS Super has participated in the program for 10 years, with year-on-year NPS improvements growing from -6 in July 2012 to +22 in July 2021.

The NGS Business Intelligence team is highly engaged, sharing its research findings with a wide group of stakeholders to start robust discussions, workshops and brainstorming sessions and ultimately drive improvements.

The research provides visibility for teams to lead specific initiatives — like the fund’s automation journey — which are now embedded in everything NGS does.

For NGS Super, the value of the CSBA benchmarking program lies in new knowledge, deeper understanding of root causes and help prioritise business activities to drive improvement.

“CSBA’s experience, capability, and understanding of our organisation and industry have been instrumental in our success for more than a decade,” says Sadeer.

“Each year, we continue to evolve. And each year, CSBA never fails to point out elements to consider and tweaks our research program according to what we want to achieve. Our return on investment has been fantastic.”

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Automotive Sector Struggles to Meet Customer Expectations, Reveals CSBA Report

The Automotive sector in Australia is evolving. Supply chain issues continue to affect the availability of new vehicles and parts; electric vehicles are disrupting the market; and an influx of new brands in the past few years is putting pressure on more established players to up their game.

So, is the industry stepping up to address these new challenges for their customers?

Recently released results from CSBA’s SenseCX Quality Benchmarking program suggest improvement is needed. In fact, the Sector Benchmark score has been on the decline for six successive quarters, contrary to trends in other sectors, where results are more stable or have seen improvement.

SenseCX is a Quality Assurance framework that measures the quality of customer interactions with an organisation’s Contact Centre, based on three factors — Success, Ease and Sentiment. CSBA publishes the SenseCX Quality Assurance benchmark results each quarter.

One hundred and ninety-two major Australian companies from eight sectors were included in the latest SenseCX results, where independent assessments by CSBA specialists were completed via anonymous telephone conversations, between July 2022 to June 2023.

In the Automotive sector, CSBA assessed a sample of customer interactions from nine automotive companies, contacting their centralised customer service lines. The vast majority of these brands sit firmly in the bottom half of the overall rankings. As a sector, the (median) Benchmark result was 50.5% and the average score for the Top 5 Performers was just 53.6%. Compare this to the Education sector, where the Benchmark sits at 58.2%, and the Top 5 Performers’ average sits at 78.4%, leaving considerable opportunities for improvement.

“Customers want their interactions with providers to be easy, effective, and engaging. In the interactions that CSBA assessed, behaviours that drive Ease scores were sorely lacking”, says CSBA Managing Director, Paul van Veenendaal. Agents did not instil a sense of ownership and buy-in around the customer’s enquiry, and they did not bring additional valuable information into the conversation to differentiate themselves from competitors. While traditionally the lowest scoring SenseCX Index overall, the sector averaged just 31.3%, compared to 44.3% in Education, 36.2% in the Utilities sector, 34.4% in Financial Services, and an overall average of 36.5%.

A similar story is evident for behaviours that drive Success scores — which averaged 58.2% across the sector, compared to 60.8% overall and 83.4% for the Top 5 Performers. While in almost all interactions the agent under assessment offered basic answers to the customer’s questions, only one in five asked effective questions to fully understand the customer’s needs, and less than two thirds provided a thorough and detailed response. Says van Veenendaal, “Critically, in less than half of the interactions assessed, was there evidence that agents attempted to manage their customer’s expectations around timelines and outcomes, a key behaviour in light of the industry’s supply chain issues”.

Of course, the importance of so-called ‘soft skills’ during customer interactions cannot be understated. Assessed under the Sentiment banner by CSBA, the automotive sector is loosely on par with the overall average (62.5% compared to 64.4%), but considerably behind the Top 5 Performers (who average 86.8%). Seemingly straightforward behaviours that aim to make the customer feel valued as an individual scored poorly. “Only one in five agents that we spoke to used the customer’s name, and only one in ten created a personalised moment with the customer, to try to develop the sort of personal connection that leads to brand loyalty,” says van Veenendaal.

The changing nature of customer expectations means that the quality of customer interactions in the automotive sector must match or exceed the experiences customers have when interacting with other organisations. When customers converse with someone working under a brand — whether they be in a central contact centre or through the dealership network — that customer should know that they can expect consistent, high-quality interactions that are successful, easy, and that leave them feeling positive about the brand. CSBA’s study shows that the industry could benefit from investing in its frontline staff in order to meet the ever-evolving expectations of its customers.

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CSBA is a leading customer experience management company and CX consultants in Australia, CSBA helps organisations create better customer experience services through best-practice, independent CX strategy, research, quality assurance and training. we specialise in digital transformation, user experience, design research and Service Design.For more info visit our website - https://www.csba.com.au/

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