Effective Campaign Outreach: Some Retirement Considerations
Introduction
As children, I’m sure many of us played the game known as “Telephone” during school recess or at parties. In more rarefied research circles, it’s called “transmission chain experiments,” but the objective is the same: passing on information by indirect communication to see how corrupted it becomes along the way. Passed along from person to person, information inevitably breaks down through inattention or simple misunderstanding. Whatever the reason, the game demonstrates the unreliability of informal communication and human recollection.
Public and private retirement system administrators know critical information about enrollment deadlines, required documentation, and payouts is much too important to be left to informal communication and infallible human memory. Modern, digital campaign management for public and private retirement systems can provide the secure, bi-directional, and omnichannel communication that administrators need to create and deliver targeted campaign messaging for responsive member care and instruction. When paired with a robust customer relationship management (CRM) system, retirement plan administrators can build a secure repository for member data, personas, and analytics, for reliable and collaborative campaign outreach.
Staying on Message
Both public and private retirement systems have two primary obligations to their members. First, to provide critical retirement process information before and after retirement to make the most appropriate planning decisions. Second, to advise members on potential opportunities and best practices through proactive messaging via safe and secure portals.
Whether a large public pension system or a private 401K plan, retirement systems need optimum campaign solutions to collect member activity and demographic data as a “single source of truth” for personalized campaigns, as well as campaign analytics to determine efficacy after the campaign’s conclusion. Support of emails, texts, physical letters, secure messages, and the ability to work with digital self-service to encourage ongoing member engagement are also necessary for successful plan communications.
The CRM Advantage
When paired with a customer relationship management (CRM) system, campaign management systems become all the more effective. With robust CRM capabilities, plan administrators can construct complete profiles of member activity and demographics, to analyze and then personalize future digital member experiences. Powerful CRM systems can also establish a complete record of retirement activity for each member, to provide thorough reports for plan participants and regulators. Administrators can also track member activity and analyze the resulting data to better understand participant preferences for future personalized campaigns that encourage member engagement and proactive retirement preparation. Activity tracking is also useful for retaining up-to-date contact information to ensure proper disbursement of retirement funds. Improper tracking that results in payout error – or no disbursement at all – can result in stiff government penalties, including substantial, multimillion-dollar fines for noncompliance.
Final Thoughts
For public and private retirement systems to fulfill their obligations to plan members, they require modern communication solutions that are effective for the long term. Targeted campaign management solutions paired with robust CRM capabilities can elevate retirement plan efficiency, security, and performance, while improving services for administrators and members alike. By taking advantage of these capabilities for personalized communication, accurate data collection, and reporting, public and private retirement plan administrators can establish collaborative ecosystems for sustained member engagement, relegating miscommunication and inaccurate messaging to the “telephone” game.
