We live in an age where digital communication is a big part of everyday life. On average over 98 per cent of UK adults own a mobile phone, 96 per cent have regular access to the internet and 95 per cent have a personal email address.
The pensions industry has made great progress in member engagement using digital member portals. They are a great way to access pension data and keep personal information current. Most people are used to portals: they have them for council tax, energy suppliers, savings accounts as well as online shopping, entertainment and other services. In fact, the average number of portals a consumer has access to is 119. But this ubiquity can cause problems.
As good as portals are, consumers can struggle to remember how to access them, what their login details are, and even what portals they have. It is just not feasible for consumers to interact with all their portals on a regular basis. As a result many organisations choose to use email as a primary means of communication.
Outbound email is a vital tool in ensuring members engage and make best use of the pension portals schemes have invested so much time and money developing. Emails might provide information requiring no response, but can also be used to contact members to encourage them to access their portal and engage in some way.
Pension schemes are slowly switching to email communications, but are a long way behind financial services in the broader sense. Many schemes are still wedded to paper-based communications, which can be significantly more expensive and lead to much lower levels of engagement. Whilst people receive many unwanted emails, some of which are nefarious in nature, a well-crafted email from a pension provider will generally be well received.
A barrier to using emails is that pension schemes often do not hold high volumes of member email addresses, and where they do have records, they are often work email addresses, which are likely to be out of date for deferred and pensioner members. However, there are reliable services available that can append and update email records.
It is understandable that there may be some concerns around confidentiality when using emails, although there are services available that ensure only the intended recipient can access the email content and, of course, highly sensitive information can be safely accessed via a portal.
The fear that email communication excludes older people is largely unfounded. According to Age UK, 85 per cent of over 65s can use email, as can 77 per cent of over 75s. Schemes need to be conscious of vulnerable members of all ages, who might need paper communications, but that’s not a reason to avoid digital as a strategy.
Beyond the practicalities of sending emails, to be effective they need to be timely and relevant. Communications coinciding with significant life or career moments tend to resonate more strongly than generic updates.
While many people experience email fatigue in their daily lives, scheme members typically appreciate measured, relevant updates about their pension savings, particularly when these help them understand complex information or prompt them to take beneficial actions.
Emails are also more likely to be effective if they are visually attractive and easy to read. If something is easy on the eye, the reader is more likely to engage with it. And if the way it’s worded is easy to understand, the reader is more likely to keep reading. Straightforward language also builds trust, people tend to trust those who ‘sound like me’, rather than those who bamboozle with formal or complex vocabulary.
Security measures, often seen as a potential barrier to digital engagement, can actually enhance members’ confidence when properly implemented and explained. Members who understand how their information is being protected, and who have control over their communication preferences, are more likely to engage with digital services.
It can be effective to combine educational content with a specific call to action. And members almost universally prefer communications to be little and often rather than a lot once a year. Regular, digestible updates help members build understanding of their benefits over time, while clear prompts encourage them to take necessary actions. Again, this kind of approach is much easier, and cost effective, with email than with printed communications.
