Are Pensions in danger of becoming interesting ?

Are pensions in danger of becoming interesting?

If you were to conduct a poll around the topic of dinner table conversations and pub chats, it’s unlikely pensions would feature in the top 10.

But, are there signs this is starting to change? With over 10 million people introduced to the concept of saving for their retirement over the last seven years due to auto enrolment, we at The People’s Pension are seeing interest starting to ramp up, particularly as savings increase.

Whether or not it is a progression to the much talked about “engagement” between a saver and their pension is not clear, however there is no doubt the volume of enquiries is growing rapidly -with curiosity peaked by national awareness campaigns around getting to know your pension.

So what questions do customers ask us?

• What is my customer number and how can I register for an on line account
• How much is my pot worth?
• How can I find out whether I have other pensions from previous periods of employment and how can I consolidate into one plan?
• When can I access my savings?
• How do I opt out or stop my contributions?

Our challenge as service providers is how to make that information simple and understandable, accessible by the customer’s preferred channel of choice, efficient and scalable -so it can meet the growing demand now and going forwards as well as safe and secure.

Pensions is still a scary subject to many people, and to establish genuine and sustained trust, as well as enduring confidence and interest, the principles of good customer service are crucial. This includes

• Making communications and interactions simple and hassle free
• Telling customers what they need to know, not just what you want to tell them
• Helping and signposting areas of further support for the more complex areas which require decisions.

Who knows, if we get all that right, we might just see pensions becoming that dinner table discussion for years to come.