A well-integrated administration & communication solution

Pension administrators run into problems because their customer service is disconnected from their pension administration. Today’s technologies base participant communication on up-to-date and accurate data, which is what delivers results. Yet, communication must still be tailored to the preferences of the specific participant groups. To do this, a pension administrator may collect data about online behaviour and combine it with data from the administration.

One data set, one calculation
It is crucial for a pension administration organisation to set out the definitions and calculations in a clear and centralised way. By using a Single Point of Definition (SPOD) and Single Point of Calculation (SPOC), you can prevent discrepancies from occurring between calculations in customer service and the pension administration. Ideally, the pension administration would be the source of these definitions and calculations, because all other systems and processes within the organisation use them as a starting point.

A pension administration product offers key benefits such as SPOD and SPOC. This makes maintenance efficient and reduces risks and error margins. There are built-in validations that allow a pension organisation to see whether there are any definitions and calculations already available and whether they are performed correctly.

To ensure innovative customer communication based on the right definitions and calculations, the pension administration system must be integrated with an online portal. A portal that is made up of sub-portals, dashboards, and customer journeys. One that enables the pension administrator to create relevant and personal contact points, based on the data available. This online pension portal has a standardised data model to access information from various systems. So, an administrator is always in control of the data that is used for communication.

Digital processing and a customer overview dashboard
The customer journeys within the participant section of the members portal automatically incorporate a participant’s choices into the pension administration. This high degree of digital processing is referred to as a high Straight Through Processing (STP) degree and improves the quality of the pension administration’s data. By constantly monitoring the questions that come into the customer contact centre, it is possible to increase the STP degree even further. The focus for the administrator then shifts from error recovery to process optimisation.

A customer overview dashboard integrated with the administration and sub-portals further complements the pension administration data. The dashboard is maintained in a single location and gives the pension administrator a 360° view of the participant, including all previous contact with and actions by the participant in the portal.

Online behaviour: a basis for tailored communication
To ensure that communication is relevant, various subgroups must be put together by the pension administration organisation for the members’ portal. This is done based on specific characteristics from the administration but could also draw on measurements of behaviour within the portal. For example, Pension Administrator A uses three participant subgroups, all classified by age, industry, financial literacy, and level of sensitivity to activation. Interviews and prototype tests are first used to determine the subgroups present. Then, all participants are further analysed based on their behaviour within the portal. Pension Administrator A duly informs the participants in the portal why the profile data is collected and indicates that participants themselves have control over how the data is used. This will also enable Pension Administrator A to better understand the consequences and risks of the participants’ choices.

By using triggers, participants receive specific communication from the administrator at pre-defined times. The properties of triggers, notifications, and customer journeys can then be collected and analysed. Based on these results, the administrator receives suggestions and learns how to further improve communication and guidance. For example, an analysis of the behaviour of, say, a participant who does not view the required pension and chooses an amount in the pension planner could lead to an additional suggestion for education, such as a video about the consequences of a one-off benefit.

Pension administrators must have the ability to validate the quality of the data collected from a management dashboard. This makes an administrator ever more aware of what participants in the portal are looking for, so they can offer more tailored support in the general communication and the portal.

For more information please contact Managing Consultant Marit Lasschuit at marit.lasschuit@keylane.com