Phoenix Group, Europe’s largest life and pensions consolidator, today announces it is partnering with Cowry Consulting, an award winning behavioural science consultancy. This follows on from a number of successful pilots with its pensions and long term savings business, Standard Life Assurance Limited. The partnership is helping us to build on our existing strong focus of helping customers to achieve good retirement outcomes.

The partnership is focussed on utilising nudge theory to help customer service teams (employees) transform customer experiences. This includes supporting members of workplace pension schemes, to deliver the human touch, be it digitally or through conversations with customer service teams.

Nudge theory involves redesigning experiences and processes, making the complex simple and removing barriers to create improved outcomes for customers. In the context of our business this ensures customers are clear on the value of their pension plans and how it will meet their needs in retirement (and those of their loved ones). It can be applied to help build better digital journeys for policyholders and enable the customer service teams to communicate in a way that is relevant to an individual customer.

Michael Reed-Smith, Retail Director at Phoenix Group says: “We believe in partnering with Cowry given their expertise and proven methodology using cognitive and behavioural psychology that really works. Through our pilots we have already seen significant benefits across a number of areas of the business in terms of how we’re supporting customers and making it easier for them to engage and make good decisions about their financial futures.

“For example, applying behavioural science from the beginning of a call can enable customer service teams to really put a customer at ease, by clearly articulating how they can help and demonstrating their expertise. It can provide important reassurance and help a customer feel more confident, which is likely to result in a better outcome.”

Jez Groom, Founder of Cowry, says: “The Phoenix team have really embraced the principles of behavioural science and are delivering compelling customer experiences across conversations in the contact centres, better designed digital journeys and letters and emails that people can understand and act upon.”

The partnership with Cowry supports Phoenix Group’s commitment to customers and its focus on driving even greater customer centricity across the business. Standard Life Assurance Limited recently reviewed all servicing touch points and introduced customer feedback functionality to its mobile app and customer dashboard.

Working with Cowry has enabled the customer service team to redesign how they engage with customers, for example, encouraging them to add a beneficiary to their pension plan, which is vitally important as a pension is not covered by a will. They now use the “power of because” to help people see the financial option adding a beneficiary can give their next of kin.

Cowry will also be reviewing the invitations to pre-retirement seminars which are held in the run up to retirement for Standard Life customers, in collaboration with Phoenix Group’s strategic partner, Standard Life Aberdeen.

Michael Reed-Smith adds: “These events always receive positive feedback and we’re keen to engage more of our customers with the events, to help them understand more about their choices when they come to retire and what a good outcome may be for them.

“We’re finding that in the digital space, our customers are really good at providing feedback and letting us know of potential enhancements that may inform our digital roadmap in the future. With the help of Cowry’s expertise, we will be having conversations to explore their feedback which will ensure the customer experience we create is even more relevant to their future needs.”

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Enquiries

Shellie Wells
Head of Corporate Communications
Phoenix Group
020 3735 0922 / 07872 414 137
shellie.wells@thephoenixgroup.com

Notes to editors

About the Phoenix Group

About Phoenix Group

Phoenix Group is the largest specialist consolidator of heritage life assurance funds in Europe. Its main focus has traditionally been on closed life fund consolidation where it specialises in the acquisition and management of closed life insurance and pension funds (its heritage business). Alongside this, it has an open business which manufactures and underwrites new products and policies to support people saving for their future and when they come to retire. This open business is underpinned by a strategic partnership with Standard Life Aberdeen following the Phoenix Group’s acquisition of Standard Life Assurance Limited in 2018. Standard Life Assurance is a long-established expert in workplace pensions, personal pensions, long term savings and retirement solutions, and its customers and clients include individual savers and some of the largest employers in the UK, as well as professional advisers. Phoenix Group also has a market leading brand - SunLife - which sells a range of financial products specifically for the over 50s market.

Phoenix Group is a member of the FTSE 100 index, and has 10 million policyholders and £245 billion of assets under management. It has four operating life companies and operations in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Germany.

About Cowry Consulting

Cowry Consulting is the leading Behavioural Economics consultancy specialising in the financial services, retail, utilities sectors. A team of behavioural economists, psychologists and cognitive scientists, they use behavioural science to help businesses attract, keep and grow customers at a lower unit cost.

To date, they’ve delivered transformational results for clients such as Amazon, Sky, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morgan Sindall, Aegon, Fidelity and Standard Life. Projects have included improving their customer service, remodelling their communications, optimising their UX and improving their health & safety.

After conducting a friction audit of the psychological obstacles standing in the way of desired outcomes, their team of Behavioural Designers and Choice Architects translate these into fluent behavioural designs. It is the gap between theory and measurable solutions based on real science that is often most difficult to bridge, and this is where Cowry’s team thrive.