27 March 2007 - Publication of DWP research report 425: The International Pension Centre Customer Survey 2006
New research published today by the Department for Work and Pensions presents the findings from a survey of customers contacting the International Pension Centre (IPC).
The customer survey findings are based on 1084 interviews with International Pension Centre customers. It explores customers' experiences, perceptions and expectations of IPC service, highlights their priorities, and enables us to understand what impacts upon their satisfaction with the service they receive. The research will help inform the future design and delivery of IPC services.
The research was carried out on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) by researchers from BMRB Social Research.
The main findings are:
- Nearly all customers contacting IPC were either receiving the UK State Pension or had applied but were not yet receiving it. The remaining customers were either making a general enquiry or contacting on somebody else’s behalf.
- Around half the customers contacting IPC were living outside of the EU. However, the individual country with the most contacting customers was actually the UK, closely followed by Australia, the USA, Canada and Spain.
- The majority of contacting customers (87 per cent) said that they were satisfied overall with the service they had received from IPC since January 1st 2006. A slightly smaller proportion said that they were satisfied with the way in which their most recent enquiry was handled (81 per cent).
- There were a number of elements, in addition to region, that seemed to affect satisfaction with both the most recent enquiry and with IPC overall. Among those that seemed to lower satisfaction were handling of personal documents, enquiry conclusion, enquiry complexity and a high number of contacts.
- IPC is performing best on measures relating to staff performance. These are measures such as “being treated with respect” and “being easy to understand”. The service element with the biggest problem was “dealing with enquiries promptly” and this echoes the general findings in the rest of the study. In terms of importance, the one service element that was rated most highly was “providing accurate information”. While this element was not the best performing for IPC, it was by no means a particular problem area.
- According to IPC customers, the best thing about the service was the staff. Included within this were praise for the general helpfulness and politeness of staff, as well as their friendliness and sympathy. The main area that was highlighted for improvement was speed.
- The most common channel used to contact IPC since January 2006 was the telephone, closely followed by postal contact, including sending completed forms. In addition to being the most commonly used channel for the majority of customers, the telephone was also the preferred channel of contact for the majority of customers. In contrast to this postal communication was preferred by a much smaller proportion of customers than had been using it. Indeed, online forms of communication were actually preferred by a larger proportion of customers than the post.
Notes to Editors
- The research is based on 1084 interviews with IPC customers. The details of customers contacting IPC were recorded over a six week period in March/April 2006. IPC staff recorded, through an extensive sample collection exercise, customers contacting IPC by telephone, post and via email. The research was only focused on customers who contacted regarding a pension. Professional customer representatives, working age customers (unless contacting about their pension status if they were either living abroad or if they were considering moving abroad at a future date), working age customers contacting IPC to discuss medical issues and customers of all ages contacting to notify the service of a death, were excluded from the survey sample. The data was analysed by BMRB International.
- Research Report 425 – The International Pension Centre Customer Survey 2006 is published on 27th March 2007. The report is available on the DWP website and hard copies can be obtained from Paul Noakes, Room 4-26, The Adelphi, 1-11 John Adam Street, London WC2N 6HT.
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