Brilliant people backed by smart technology

My name is Richard Basham Jones, I'm the head of customer experience for pensions and also for operational support teams.

For me, good service means a whole variety of different things. The first thing has got to be that we make it as easy as possible for anybody coming to us, wanting a service from us, whether that be a financial adviser, an employer or an end-customer. So we got to make things as easy as possible and deliver the best possible service. That means we very much got to listen. We've got to adapt our style and approach to make sure that we can fit all those different individual needs

And, you know, we've got to deliver on our promises to build up that level of trust. So if we say we're going to do something, we're going to commit to do it. We've actually got to deliver that. And that, of course, builds up that trust that takes the ownership element from our side. So if we make sure we're listening properly, delivering what you're asking, making sure we got that ownership in there, that will ultimately build up that trust.

So a whole variety of different things, I think, for me about and building up the overall end to end customer experience.

On screen question: How has Royal London looked after it’s people and it’s customers during the pandemic?

So we got an incredible amount of work in this space, actually, so certainly trying to focus on supporting our end customers it's to try and make things even easier. So we know that customers haven't been able to post things in the same kind of way, you know, financial advisers, haven't been able to do that and employers haven't. So we tried to move to far more online and digital technology

We've tried to move to signature less, far more to make that whole experience easier. And that's definitely worked. And we've had some great feedback on the back about which I think has been really important. We've also very much looked at some activity where we've been sending out regular updates and communications, be that via our app on the pension side, but also, of course, via our newsletters to employers and out to IFAs as well so I think that's been really well received.

On the colleague side we've done a whole host of activity, as I mentioned earlier, actually looking at how can we focus on making sure that people are in the best place possible. So a whole range of support activity we've had external speakers in to help people understand how they can regulate their own stress. We've educated our leaders far more with a whole range of different topics, but mostly delivering about how to manage the remote team now in this environment. So an awful lot of activity and work done both to focus on our people and the course on the customers as well, which are both as equally as important to us.

Rajinder: My name is Rajinder Signh and I'm a customer service consultant in the group pensions department.

Richard: My name is Richard Basham-Jones. So I'm the head of customer experience for Pensions and also for operational support teams.

Aimee: Hi, everyone. My name's Aimee Robertson and I'm a customer service consultant within Royal London's Group Pensions Department.

Mark: My name's Mark Robinson and I'm an implementation manager at Royal London

Rajinder: Case management means to me, great service and an over and above service for advisers, we in case management, we oversee a book of business, which can contain a number of employer schemes, and we organise weekly or monthly meetings with advisers and discuss what is going on with those schemes, what status they are at, how we can get them to perform as best that we can, and whether that means actually work items that are outstanding for members, whether that's administration of the schemes to help the employers. It's a tailored service that Royal London offer and I think it's proving to be very well received.

Richard: There are so many fantastic roles and people who are involved in delivering end to end customer service at Royal London and that goes from creating the right technology, the right support functions for our colleagues, but so, so many people are involved in delivering that. But actually, there's two key roles I probably want to talk to you about a little bit today.

One of those is our implementation manager role, and that's about making sure that in our group pension space that we really hand hold new business into our organisation. And that role is absolutely pivotal in building relationships with our financial advisers out there and really making sure that they, as I said you know, hand hold that business in. One of the other key roles for me as our case manager role. And we have a couple of different case manager roles. One is on the new business side and individual and servicing again, all about building relationships, really making sure we support you in delivering business in to us and the other role is very much in the our case management on the servicing side, which is really about making sure that we with employers and with financial advisers, again, you have a point of contact, someone to talk to and we really make sure we bring the best possible service to you.

Aimee: Case management is a direct point of contact for financial advisers and all their schemes that they help that they give financial advice to, I administer them all. So, they come to me with anything that they have for these individual schemes. So I'll look after them and be monitoring them and making sure everything is basically in line with the pensions regulator.

Mark: Great customer service is supporting the employer and giving them training and support on how they use our dashboard. And we spend a lot of time giving them training so that they can use the systems effectively and manage their time really, really well. And it's great to see some employers that are slightly nervous that they're joining Royal London and they're having to learn a whole new technology. But we give them that support that one on one and train them on the system. And it's lovely to get to the end-point there where they say, Mark, I know what I'm now doing. I can do this on my own and it's really slick and easy for me to manage on a monthly basis. And that adds a lot of value. And I really like that level of service that I'm able to give clients.