Client experience

Serving Clients when, where and how they want

We put Clients at the centre of everything we do. We aim to consistently provide great service experiences for our Clients.

Our approach

To meet Clients’ evolving expectations, we’re simplifying our processes, improving the way we handle complaints and enhancing communication. We’re working hard to support their financial security and health management goals, too. Our efforts in these areas are discussed in the Financial Security and Client Health sections.

We are both increasing and personalizing our Client outreach in ways that make the most sense to each Client. That could be through an advisor, in person, or by phone, videoconference, email, digital apps, text or social media.

We’ve also made substantial improvements in the way we communicate with Clients. Since 2016, we have worked to apply plain language principles across our business, from our prospectuses to our Client forms and letters. Plain language is our priority because we want Clients to easily understand our materials, plans and products. We want to help empower them to make the right choices by offering the clear, concise information they need. 

The fair treatment of Clients is an integral part of our ethical culture. We, and our third-party representatives, are committed to keeping Clients top of mind when designing, marketing, selling and delivering our products and services. We all have a responsibility to consider our Clients’ interests in all stages of the product life cycle and to ensure our products and services provide fair value to them.

Our compensation, commission and incentive structures help encourage good sales practices.

We strive to communicate in ways everyone can understand and in ways that aren’t misleading. We want people to know the key facts (including benefits, risks and costs) about our products and services, so they can choose what’s best for their needs. 

We take Client concerns and complaints seriously. They are opportunities for us to learn and improve, so we get things right, and create positive experiences.

Across Sun Life, we have clear channels and processes to receive, track and address concerns and complaints. For example, in Canada our goal is to resolve Client problems within our problem resolution teams. When this isn’t possible, our Client Advocacy team works with Clients and our internal problem resolution teams. Our social media team also tracks online comments and facilitates responses to Clients within one business day. 

We measure our success in delivering a great Client experience through several metrics, including:

  • Client experience index: This index measures a Client’s overall experience from all their interactions with us.
  • Business performance outcomes: At the beginning of the year, each business is responsible for identifying and committing to measurable Client outcomes. This emphasis on outcomes ensures a strong focus on service delivery.

These two factors make up 25% of our annual incentive compensation. We also monitor Client join-and-leave rates, complaints and problem resolution results. In addition, we continue to track Net Promoter Score®1. This globally recognized methodology measures the likelihood that Clients will recommend Sun Life to others.

2021 highlights

  • 99% of Sun Life Canada employees completed Client-focused training
  • Continued to provide more simplified, plain language information and tools for our Clients worldwide
  • Launched a new pilot in Hong Kong to collect Client feedback after key moments with Sun Life

Learn more about our progress and performance in our 2021 Sustainability Report and ESG Performance Tables.

Words matter: Communicating in ways our Clients can understand

Too often in the financial system, consumers face overly-complex information and documents. We wanted to change that for anyone interacting with Sun Life. 

Learn more

Recognition

Most trusted brand in the Philippines

Sun Life Philippines was recognized as the most trusted insurance and investment brand at the Trusted Brand Awards 2021, organized by Reader's Digest.

1 Net Promoter Score, Net Promoter, and NPS are trademarks of NICE Systems, Inc., Bain and Company, Inc., and Fred Reichheld. For more information about the annual NICE Satmetrix Net Promoter® Benchmarks, visit https://www.satmetrix.com/nps-benchmarks/.

Refer to Sustainability Data Scope.