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Understanding our customers – their financial needs today and in the future – helps drive what we do and enables us to create commercial value. We’re constantly looking at what our customers tell us to see how we can meet their changing needs and how to make improvements to the experience we give them.

Knowing our customers

We operate in a very competitive market, and a strong knowledge of our customers is crucial in developing the right types of products and services to suit their needs. This means more than simply having accurate information on things like demographics, personal wealth and attitudes to risk, as has traditionally been the focus in our sector. We believe that it’s just as important to know how customers think and feel.

During 2013, we commissioned research to help us understand more deeply how people feel about saving for the long term. Our

Saving in mind research has helped us understand more clearly how emotions and positive communications can help us build stronger customer relationships. We also published a report on how families share and talk about their money called The Family Financial Tree – looking at how money passes through the generations and, significantly, how families talk to each other about their finances. The insight can help us develop products and services that help customers to make informed savings decisions and be more confident about their financial futures, and we think it can also inform approaches taken across our whole industry. Another type of insight we’ve used to help inform the way we build customer relationships is a concept called ‘Personas’. By using pen portraits of our customer groups, this concept helps us understand the needs of different types of customers when we are designing or reviewing the services we offer to them. This type of insight is a powerful tool to help us shape our activities across the Group, and to deliver tailored and targeted experiences to our customers.

We continue to find better ways of generating valuable customer insight. For example, we have hired a dedicated customer insight manager for our Asia and Emerging Markets business. We have also set up a working party to build a consistent approach to customer measurement and segmentation across the Group. This is made up of members of our UK and Europe, Canada, Asia and Emerging Markets and Standard Life Investments businesses. They look at the aspects of customer measurement and insight that can be shared across the business, as well as sharing best practice and helping to build a more comprehensive view of our customers around the world.

Helping our customers

Online technology plays a big part in the ways we help our customers deal with us quickly, more easily and at times that suit them. We use feedback from customers to continue to improve the online experience. The main areas we looked at improving were around the information, guidance and transactional services that we offer. During 2013 we launched Lifemap, a tool we have developed to help customers with their financial priorities. It allows customers to select what their current priority is and receive some guidance accordingly.

We have continued our relationship with our online community, which now has more than 1,500 customer members. This is used on a regular basis to get feedback on products, services and experiences from our customers to inform our decision making, as well as for research into customer needs and expectations.

In 2013 we also launched our Financial Inertia programme in Canada. Following research that we commissioned, we found out that over 40% of Canadians are concerned about their finances, but that life goals, behaviours and values can hold many back from taking action. The Financial Inertia programme offers a dedicated website which provides a series of educational tools to help people reach their long-term savings and investment objectives. By using these tools, it can help people understand more clearly what might be holding them back from long-term saving, and how they can make this fit more easily into their lives.

Treating customers fairly

For many years we have aimed to put our customers at the centre of everything we do, and one of the ways we show our commitment to this is through the policies we follow.

In the UK we are committed to following the Treating Customers Fairly principles – the UK financial services’ guiding principles for companies in this sector. Since 2009, we have used these principles as a minimum requirement in our approach to customer service, and we continue to invest in improving our customer processes and understanding with the aim of exceeding these outcomes. In 2013 we strengthened this commitment by creating a new policy. The new Conduct Risk policy helps us show that our commitment to delivering fair customer outcomes at all times – everything from our people, processes, leadership style and systems are key parts of the culture of our business.

In Canada, we also follow the Sound Commercial Practices Guideline, which includes properly informing customers being offered a product or service and acting fairly in dealings with them.

Satisfied customers

We have worked to improve how we measure and understand the experiences that we deliver to our customers. We continue to measure customer complaints and the causes of these issues, which gives us a clear idea of what we can do to put things right. In 2013 we received 5,785 customer complaints in the UK, which was down from 5,979 in 2012. We have also established new measures to help us understand more clearly how our customers feel about their experiences with us. Across our businesses in the UK, Canada, and Asia and Emerging Markets, we use the Net Promoter Score (NPS) measure to find out how likely people would be to recommend us. We use NPS along with a number of other measures, to plan and prioritise changes we can make to

improve these experiences. We will continue to build up our insight of our customers in 2014 and, importantly, take action as a result.

Another important focus area in 2013 was finding out how we can improve customer engagement through the communication channels we use – by testing and learning to help us produce quicker, more regular communications activity. For example, the digital retailing department we’ve set up in our UK business is responsible for delivering services that are driven by customer needs and the evolution of digital servicing. Its work involves improving our online channels and producing analysis and insight into customers’ digital requirements. By using this insight to inform our decision-making processes, it will help us prioritise the changes we should make to drive our future activities.

Awards and recognition

Awards and recognition for our individual businesses in 2013 include:

UK and Europe

• Communication Innovation of the Year at the Professional Pensions UK Pensions Awards

• Auto enrolment Innovation of the Year at the Professional Pensions UK Pensions Awards

• Best benefits communications for a large company at the Employee Benefits Awards

• Best flexible benefits plan for a large employer – highly commended at the Employee Benefits Awards

• Five-star rating awarded for online service at the FT Adviser Online Service Awards

• Standard Life Wealth won the Gold Standard for Discretionary Portfolio Management at the Incisive Media Awards

• Best Group Pension Provider at the Corporate Adviser Awards.

Standard Life Investments

• UK Equity Unconstrained Fund won the UK All Companies sector award at the Moneywise Fund Awards

• Multi Asset Investing Team won top prize for the second time at the Scottish Financial Services Award

• Large Investment Group of the year and the top awards in the UK equity category for our UK Equity Unconstrained Fund, and the Absolute Return category for our Global Absolute Return Strategies Fund, at the Investment Adviser 100 Club Awards 2013

• Best Client Service by an Investment Manager at the Engaged Investor Trustee Awards

• MyFolio team won the adviser award for best Fund of Funds/Multi Manager at the Investment Week Fund Manager of the Year awards

• DC Investment Provider of the Year, SRI/ESG Provider of the Year and Multi-Asset Manager of the Year at the UK Pensions Awards 2013

• Best New Fund Launch for our MyFolio range at the Professional Adviser awards

• Platinum award for our Global Absolute Returns Strategies Fund at the Portfolio Adviser Fund Awards

• Keith Skeoch was named European Personality of the Year, by Funds Europe, the business strategy magazine for Europe’s asset management professionals. The award criteria were for someone who has made a major and significant contribution to the European funds industry in 2012/2013. It also took into account longer term achievements in, and contributions to, the industry.

Canada

• Fundata Award won for Ideal Monthly Income Fund for superior risk-adjusted performance relative to peers

• Award of Excellence for Fund Information from the Insurance and Financial Communicators Association for our Global Equity Fund materials.

Asia and Emerging Markets

• Best for Adviser Support/Customer Service in the Asia category of the International Adviser Life awards

• Readers’ Choice award for the Best International Life Company – Global at the International Adviser Life awards

• HDFC Life Smart Woman Plan voted as 'Life Insurance Product of the Year 2013' – Nielsen's Product of the Year Consumer Survey.

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