More than half of super funds fail service test

More than half of Australia's largest super funds failed a customer service mystery shop of their call centres, while AustralianSuper reportedly failed to answer 90% of calls within 15 minutes.

A new scorecard from consumer advocacy group Super Consumers Australia (SCA) assessed the customer service performance of 20 major super funds and found widespread shortcomings in call centre responsiveness, empathy and support.

The findings raise concerns for millions of Australians who rely on their super fund for help with retirement planning, insurance claims, financial hardship applications and account enquiries.

Across the industry, super funds achieved an average score of just 49 out of 100.

"Almost all of them performed pretty poorly," says SCA chief executive Xavier O'Halloran.

"At an industry-wide average, they only got 49 out of 100. That's pretty bad."

How the super fund customer service study worked

SCA worked with Customer Service Benchmarking Australia to conduct 1000 calls to 20 of the largest Australian pension funds, including Australian Super, Aware and AMP, over three months last year.

Callers posed as either a prospective customer, someone trying to help a relative from a non-English speaking background, or a customer in distress trying to access their super early.

They then graded how customer service agents responded and gave each call an overall score out of 100.

How your super fund performed

Nine funds, including AMP, Cbus and HESTA, received an overall score below 50 out of 100, which SCA considers a fail.

Another nine funds, including Aware Super, Australian Retirement Trust and Rest, scored between 50 and 54.7, meaning no fund achieved a score of 55 or higher.

SCA notes that while there were instances of very good service, with some calls scoring as high as 86, many funds failed to provide empathy and support or shifted too much responsibility for solutions back onto callers.

Best and worst call centres

CareSuper recorded the highest overall score of 54.7.

Two funds included in the study - Australian Super and Team Super -- fell at the bottom of the table because they didn't answer enough calls to be given an overall service score.

"Australian Super, which is the biggest superannuation fund in the country, failed to pick up the call in the 15 minutes that we gave them 90% of the time," explains O'Halloran. "So that's a terrible outcome for anyone trying to get in contact with that fund."

Check SCA's Superannuation Call Centre Scorecard to see how your fund performed.

What the super funds say

A spokesperson for the Super Members Council, an industry body, criticised SCA's study for only focusing on call centres and not including other channels they said consumers use to get support.

They also told Money the study had "limitations" because the test callers were not actual fund members, meaning calls did not progress beyond member verification processes.

The spokesperson added that funds have made "significant investments" to uplift service standards in recent years.

Why the results matter

National Seniors Australia CEO Chris Grice finds the results "alarming," especially as call centres are a popular point of contact for older Australians seeking help with their super.

"[Our] members want to be able to talk to people. They want to talk to them face to face. If they can't talk to them face to face, they want to talk to them through at least a local call centre," he says.

"As AI and robo-advice becomes more prevalent, there needs to be that source of truth and super funds have an obligation to support the best interests of their members."

Calls for stronger service rules

SCA is using the results of its study to push the federal government to introduce mandatory customer service standards across the superannuation system, which it says could be realised by funds committing to independent benchmarking and better staff training.

"Superannuation is mandatory, but good customer service is not. That has to change," says O'Halloran.

The federal government did promise to introduce mandatory standards last year, but SCA says these are yet to be released for consultation.

In a statement, the federal Treasury told Money the government is still committed to bringing in the new rules, which it says will be consistent with the recommendations SCA has made.

It added that it has already consulted with industry, consumer groups and regulators on the standards and still plans to conduct a public consultation.

How to make a complaint about your super fund

Here's what to do if you have a question or concern about your superannuation:

• Your first step should be to contact your fund - one mandatory standard that does already exist is a rule requiring them to respond to most complaints within 45 days.
• If you aren't satisfied with its response, raise the issue with the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA).

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