Competition for the digital attention of pension customers has never been fiercer. Every provider wants to capture their audience, encouraging customers to save more, consolidate their retirement pots, and manage their later-life finances with confidence.
Most providers are investing heavily in upgraded digital retirement solutions. Many of these are sophisticated, feature-rich apps and websites. But could that be part of the problem?
If people aren’t genuinely interested in their pensions (and the data shows most aren’t), then adding more features won’t move the needle.
The reality of competing for screen time
A quick look at online behaviour tells us just how steep the challenge is. UK adults spend around half of their online time on platforms owned by Meta and Alphabet — think Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. The rest is shared among online banking, shopping, news, email, and… pensions.
Add to this the fact that most adults have had multiple jobs — and therefore multiple pension pots — and it becomes clear how difficult it is to earn even a fraction of that attention. A shiny new retirement modeller alone isn’t likely to change that.
To engage customers, providers need to be part of their daily lives. Checking a pension balance once a year – something only one in four people currently do — hardly counts as engagement. Most log in, glance at the number, and leave.
That’s why supplementing pension apps with services that people actually want to use is key to sustained engagement — especially when customers may have several providers competing for their attention.
Discount schemes: A practical starting point
Discount programmes are a simple way to start that engagement journey. On our Fizz Benefits platform, we’ve found that when customers are offered discount schemes, one in three will open an email — and three in four will grant full marketing permissions. That creates valuable opportunities for further communication and education around financial wellbeing.
Better still, when customers are saving money through these discounts, they can be encouraged to channel some of those savings into their pension or other investments. The potential impact is huge: the average customer could save up to £600 a year. Multiply that across a customer base of five million, and you’re looking at £3 billion saved collectively.
Even diverting a small portion of that into pensions would deliver meaningful benefits — for customers and providers alike.
In short, everyone wins. Customers save money and feel good about their finances, while providers build stronger, ongoing relationships that go beyond an annual pension statement.
In today’s noisy digital world, successful engagement means finding ways to cut through the clutter — offering services that deliver genuine, everyday value. Discount schemes do exactly that.