Dramatic reform opens opportunity for super funds to amplify value and sharpen communication: CSBA

5 October 2021 - 54% of surveyed employers were not aware of the Your Future Your Super (YFYS) and ‘stapling’ legislation that comes into effect on 1 November 2021, new research has found.

For those employers who were aware, more than 65% looked to their funds for information and support regarding the new legislation as there was confusion. They wanted specific details regarding their obligations as well as information about the changes that they could pass on to employees.

“Any help is better than none. I assumed the stapling was between the employer and the ATO. Anything that will help an employer would be good,” said one surveyed employer.

“Some background on what it actually is, and the impact on the employer to be compliant, and anything to give to employees would be fantastic,” said another surveyed employer.

The latest results of the CSBA FEAL Superannuation CX Benchmarking report, comprising responses from 8355 individual fund members and 1155 employers surveyed in July and August 2021, will be presented at the annual Superannuation CX Forum Harness your Voice of Customer on Friday 22 October 2021.

The survey, which included individual members from 26 superannuation funds, found that members who had recent contact with their fund continued to rate the fund higher across key customer experience (CX) metrics. They were also less likely to indicate the intention to switch funds, compared to those members without recent fund contact.

Looking more closely at members who had recent contact with their fund, the study found a number of demographic segments consistently rating funds lower. These included younger members (aged under 55), those with default investment mix, and newer fund members (less than 5 years).

CSBA CX Director of Finance, Sam Monteath, said the report showed a lot of room for super funds to improve on amplifying value and sharpening their communication with specific customer types. 

“In a rapidly-moving industry landscape, legislative changes such as YFYS are critical conversation openers for customer engagement,” she said. “If you haven’t proactively contacted your employers or members to explain how YFYS impacts them, it is a missed opportunity to add value and deepen your relationships.”

“Importantly, we know that the younger member cohort, who are likely to be most impacted by ‘stapling’ within YFYS, typically do not actively engage with their fund, rate their fund lower across key CX metrics, and are more likely to switch funds in the next 12 months.” 

Highlighting the need for quality proactive engagement, Ms Monteath reported that 61% of employers felt they already get what they need when asked how their fund could better meet their needs, 22% had no comment or did not know how funds could do better, while 17% provided a suggestion.

“Our findings reinforce the point that employers don’t know what they don’t know, to ask for support,” she said. “This provides the ultimate opportunity for funds to add value by providing regular education and advice.”  

When members were asked if they were more or less likely to stay with their fund long-term as a result of ‘Stapling’, 52% of older members said the legislation would not affect their likelihood to stay compared to 37% for younger members. 

In the area of retirement empowerment, younger fund members had the lowest agreement, with about one-third (31%) disagreeing with the notion that their fund empowered them for retirement. For members with recent fund contact, 26% disagreed their fund empowered them to plan and prepare for retirement, compared to a whopping 40% for members without recent contact. 

Looking at what prompted fund contact in the last 12 months, low-value enquiries (updating personal details, 23% and obtaining forms and paperwork, 22%) were by far the most common reasons for members to contact the fund. 

However, high-value enquiries such as seeking financial advice, discussing insurance and investments were more prominent with members closer to retirement and those with custom investments, which helped build trust for the fund as a result of these interactions.

Sustaining and building trust

Our research shows that trust is the key driver of overall satisfaction with the fund and long-term loyalty to the fund. We also know that a key driver of trust is feeling valued at an emotional level.

Not surprisingly, older members felt more valued by their fund than younger members, scoring an average of 8 out to 10 compared to 7.5 out of 10. And trust in the fund to act in their best interest was rated higher by older members at an average of 8.5 out of 10 compared to 8 out of 10 for their younger counterparts.

While it is evident that trust is built over time from consistent positive experiences at a transactional level and strengthened by new opportunities to engage in high-value interactions, trust can be easily lost.

In fact, the loss of trust is arguably one of the biggest threats to fund providers in the face of new legislation, which will be addressed by Professor Don O’Sullivan in his opening keynote on leveraging effortless member experience as a powerful source of advantage.

Superannuation CX Forum 2021

On Friday 22 October, the Forum will bring together a range of industry experts and thought leaders including:

• Professor Don O’Sullivan, Melbourne Business School 
  What does member centricity look like right now? Effortless Experience as a powerful source of advantage.
• Kathleen Crawford, COO, Spirit Super 
  Maintaining high customer expectations in a merger – how to build on shared values
• Dr Damian Cotchett, Consumer psychologist 
  Building a Customer Experience program from scratch – an international bank: case study
• Deb Ganderton, CEO, The Greater Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust 
  Rethinking customer engagement: data reporting Vs data insight

More details here:  Superannuation CX Forum 2021 | CSBA

About CSBA FEAL Superannuation Customer Experience Benchmarking Program

The program started in 2009 as a CSBA, FEAL and Melbourne Business School initiative to provide fund executives with comparative scores for key customer experience (CX) measures using a robust and consistent methodology on a regular basis.

Survey of members commenced in 2009 while employer surveys began in 2010. Since 2014, members were surveyed each February and July (minimum of 200 interviews per fund). From 2018, employers were surveyed each February and July (minimum of 100 per fund).

In recent waves, several new components have been added, in line with the evolving sector changes, to meet the needs of fund providers. 
 

About CSBA – The Customer Experience Experts

For more than two decades, CSBA has helped organisations of all shapes and sizes create better customer experiences through independent, specialised CX strategy, research, insights, quality assurance and training.

CSBA now works with more than 150 clients across 15 different industries, including specialised CX programs for the local government, higher education, superannuation, energy and water sectors.