About 18 months ago, the question for super funds was whether they should go online or not. The question now, says David St George, an associate in William M Mercer’s communications practice, is what they should be doing online. And, the answer, it seems, is a good deal more than they are doing now.
Indeed, it is often said that superannuation sites lag those in other parts of the financial services industry, especially banking and stockbroking.
“There are some reasonably good sites out there in the superannuation area, but nothing that’s cutting edge or spectacular,” says St George. “Superannuation sites tend to be dense, legalistic and they are not written with the user in mind.”
Hesta’s marketing and business development manager Bruce Stafford, who looked at almost every industry fund site before revamping Hesta’s, holds similar views.
“Most industry fund sites have brochure-ware with limited interactive content,” he says.
However, the e-business manager at Pillar Administration Gordon Sneddon cautions: “It’s important not to compare apples and oranges — while they’re both fruits, they satisfy different needs. Our customers have different needs to other market sectors.”
Admittedly, many super funds, especially corporate funds, cannot justify the expense of a state-of-the-art site. And, according to St George, others argue that they have already spent a fortune on their sites and they don’t want to spend any more. But he says: “They should ask themselves the question: ‘If the site doesn’t meet the user’s needs, why have it at all?’ It’s a real waste of money if you don’t have what members want.”
Towers Perrin’s head of communications Anthony Schiavo notes that many super funds have been through a steep learning curve in the recent past and are now going into “Web rehabilitation”.
“We are sending them off for a bit of R&R to put their feet up and to think about what they are trying to achieve,” he says.
He adds that when some funds take stock, they find they have mixed up their messages. They often have hundreds of pages on their site, many of which say different things, and they need to install systems that control content and ensure that it is uniform.
A related problem being encountered is that the message and branding of a fund’s Web site is often out of kilter with that experienced in its print literature or when calling its call centre.
“We sometimes see Web sites and print communications which are so different they could be from two totally different funds,” St George observes.
Schiavo adds: “[Some funds] fail to distinguish themselves on the Web and the risk of doing so is higher when they buy off the shelf Web site capability from their administrators… It’s harder to distinguish your fund if you are using a standard engine as a driver.”
Stafford notes that while using administrators’ products provides access to better economies of scale and the latest technology, the site is likely to be much the same as other funds using the same administrator. Nonetheless, he says administrators are trying to tailor their offerings these days and he expects more flexibility in the future.
The starting point in super fund Web design these days is not technology, but research into members’ needs. The site has to give members what they want and a reason to come back.
According to Schiavo, the most compelling reason for members to come back is to find out how much they are worth. The next is to get personal details about their super and after that, to get regulatory updates. The data needs to be “live with a heartbeat” and the experience should be fun, he says.
“The job isn’t finished when the site goes live. It has just begun,” St George adds.
NSP Buck’s general manager of electronic services Karen De Angelis believes that the next wave of development will be privilege-type programs where super fund sites also offer other services like home loans, travel and health insurance. These sites, she says, will be built around the employee and become one-stop shops for a wide range of services provided either by links to suppliers or by badging the service as the fund’s own.
Stafford expects the application of CRM (Customer Relationship Management) on super fund Web sites to improve in the future. When members log in, they will be recognised and the site will be tailored to their personal needs. This, he says, will give funds “the Holly Grail in marketing” where they become more relevant in the offers they make to the individual.
Another likely future occurrence, according to Stafford, could be the arrival of standard protocols for rolling one’s super into another fund online. These will make online changes quick, simple and cheap, but will also increase the churn in the industry.
“If a member is disgruntled with a fund, he or she will be much more likely to go,” he says.
