Source: Radio New Zealand
A small number of KiwiSaver schemes have been sending gifts to members this Christmas. 123RF
Have you had a Christmas gift from your KiwiSaver provider?
A small number of KiwiSaver schemes have been sending gifts to members this Christmas.
RNZ has discovered an umbrella sent to a member from Generate KiwiSaver, who said he received a gift last year, too.
Pie Funds said it liked to give gifts to recognise customers.
“Christmas is a time for giving, and at Pie Funds we view our investors as whole-of-relationship clients, not just account holders,” chief executive Ana-Marie Lockyer said.
“At this time of year, we like to recognise and thank our clients for the trust they place in us and have been lucky to be able to do so in person with many over the last month at our annual investor updates.
“Any Christmas gift we provide is personal to the individual client and reflects that relationship, rather than being a broad promotional item or incentive. There is no universal entitlement or set criteria – it is about acknowledging our clients in a thoughtful and appropriate way at the end of the year.”
MAS, while not giving a gift to customers, is giving gift bags showcasing New Zealand food and beverage products to customers at random through the pre-Christmas period.
The largest KiwiSaver provider, ANZ, said it was not sending gifts.
Simplicity did not give gifts but donated to charity. Milford said that was its strategy, too. It had donated $66,600 each to Nurturing Families, Pet Refuge and Pillars this year.
Bodo Lang, a marketing expert at Massey University, said showing customers they were appreciated was “seldom used but is an incredibly powerful tool to keep customers for longer, particularly when the relationships are likely long-lasting and revenue and profit from each customer is high”.
“So sending gifts to every person who buys Wattie’s baked beans would not be feasible but sending gifts to highly profitable customers in subscription industries, such as banking and finance, can be well worth it. The success of such tactics would have been calculated in advance. The campaign would have taken place because that analysis showed it would likely be profitable.”
Mike Lee, of the University of Auckland, said it could help keep the KiwiSaver provider top of mind for a service that did not have many opportunities to provide immediate benefits.
“So just something to remind their customers that the relationship still exists and potentially to stop them from transferring their funds to another provider.”
Rupert Carlyon, founder of KiwiSaver provider Koura, said people were better off to pay lower fees and miss out on Christmas gifts.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
