From generic to personal
Right now, pension communication focuses mainly on the move to the Dutch Future Pensions Act (Wtp). Pension funds need to tell members what’s changing, comply with laws and regulations, and deliver a complex transition at the same time. Communication teams have their hands full. That’s understandable, because no one has been through a transition like this before.
The phase after the transition opens a very different chapter for pension communication. Pension funds are expected to reach members at the right moment, with a relevant message and in the right context. A twenty-year-old starting their first job has different questions from someone who’s about to retire. Financial knowledge, digital skills and personal circumstances also differ from person to person. In this phase, generic communication works less and less well, and more personal communication becomes the norm.
A bigger task
That’s often easier said than done. Many teams have faced a high workload for a long time. On top of that, communication teams often work with different systems, channels and suppliers. Data sits in different places, changes take time and the website, member portal and other channels don’t always connect well. That makes an omnichannel strategy harder to deliver. Dependence on pension administrators and IT suppliers often gets in the way of quick changes to communication too. The result: lots of manual work, and communication that’s harder to deploy quickly and precisely.
So the task is getting bigger. That’s why we help communication teams do more for members with the same capacity. We make a difficult story easier to follow, in a clear and human way. We enjoy it, and we’re good at it.
How we make communication teams stronger
For us, that support isn’t about automating as much as possible. Good pension communication remains the work of people: they bring the human touch to a subject that’s serious by nature. But technology, data and AI help communication professionals do that work faster and smarter.
That’s why we’ve developed tools for content creation, validation, distribution and monitoring, among other things, to give communication teams more options. One example is our synthetic users: AI personas that we build and enrich with real user data. Through this ‘test panel’, a communication adviser tests copy or member journeys with different types of members at an early stage. With synthetic users, a fund sets an initial direction faster, improves its content and then tests further with real members. This creates a process of continuous learning and improvement, efficiently and at lower cost.
Continuous improvement
That continuous improvement matters more and more. The Wtp asks pension funds to show what they want to achieve with their communication and whether they’re succeeding. That’s why we help funds turn their communication goals into measurable results in dashboards. Instead of a baseline measurement followed by a new check a year later, you measure and adjust along the way.
The same applies to choice guidance. By mapping members’ journeys, you see where people drop out before making a choice. You then investigate why that happens, adjust the communication and measure again. Step by step, communication grows with what members need to make good choices about their pension. And the dashboard lets you show the AFM (the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets) how you do that and what the results are.
Even more personal
The next step is to tailor communication even more closely to the individual member. That requires combining communication with data and IT. We already use behavioural data, for example: where does someone click, how does a member move through a digital environment and where do they drop out? As you combine that more closely with personal details, pension data and information about the member’s situation, new opportunities arise for relevant, personal guidance.
This is where communication, data and IT meet. Data helps you understand who you’re communicating with. Technology makes personalisation at scale possible. Communication turns complex pension information into something people understand and can act on. We bring all of that together. We’ve used this approach successfully in other sectors, and we’re now bringing that fresh perspective to the financial sector.
Smart combinations give you superpowers
Our solutions are modular. A large fund with a wide variety of members has different needs from a smaller fund with a more uniform membership. That’s why we always look at which combination of strategy, research, tooling, dashboards, content and support you need. Automated where that works well, human where it’s needed. In this way, we give pension fund communication advisers superpowers, so that after the transition they’re better equipped to help members on the way to the pension they want for themselves.
