Benchmarking Superannuation Industry Performance
Forethought is the preferred research supplier of a number of key industry superannuation funds. Collectively, these industry funds represent approximately 980,000 employees in Australia. Our experience in conducting research in the superannuation industry has led the Marketing Science division at Forethought to recently devise an industry superannuation index relating to member satisfaction.
The index consists of key metrics relating to member satisfaction with aspects commonly assessed in the marketing research conducted within the Superannuation industry such as Fees, Investment Performance, Telephone Customer Service, Statements, Website and Newsletters, as well as Overall Satisfaction with the fund.
This index provides our industry superannuation clients with a key benchmark to enable them to see how their results compare to the 'market measure' on individual areas of performance. For example, clients will be able to assess their performance relative to industry superannuation funds overall on aspects such as their member website. Areas in which clients are outperforming and under performing the industry will be easily identified as a result. The index also enables clients to assess whether changes in satisfaction with their fund from Wave to Wave are due to shifts in the market as a whole, or due to changes within the individual organisation.
The index has been structured so that the time periods are flexible to meet differing client requirements. In the case of Overall Satisfaction for example, there has been a gradual increase in the mean satisfaction scores amongst members of industry superannuation funds collectively, on a rolling two-year basis over the last three years. The following numbers are based on an 11-point Likert scale, where 0 is extremely dissatisfied and 10 is extremely satisfied.
Forethought sees this index as a valuable tool for adding further insight to any individual piece of quantitative research assessing member satisfaction, conducted on behalf of our superannuation clients.
