Search past winners/finalists


  • MESA logo

John Hancock Signature Services, Boston, MA

Gold Stevie Award Winner 2012, Click to Enter The 2014 American Business Awards

Company: John Hancock Signature Services, Boston, MA
Company Description: JHSS consist of 146 associates and serves as the transfer agent and service provider for John Hancock Investments (JHI), its shareholders and financial advisors. JHI manages more than $100 billion* in open-end funds, closed-end funds, private accounts, retirement plans, and related party assets for institutional investors with more than one million shareholders worldwide. *as of 9/30/2013
Nomination Category: Corporate Communications, Investor Relations, & Public Relations Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Communications or PR Campaign/Program of the Year - Investor Relations

Nomination Title: Fast, Simple & Secure

Tell the story about this nominated campaign since January 1 2013 (up to 525 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

We’ve all heard the expression “If you build it, they will come," but rarely does that work as a business model. Transitioning to a digital world has been an ongoing effort for the financial services industry with well documented expense savings for both the firm and its clients. However, getting mutual fund shareholders to partake in a paperless environment is a challenge. Making documents electronically available, secure and easily accessible is not enough to achieve the desired level of participation.

In an effort to meet the digital needs of our customers, JHSS generated soft copies of all customer documents to represent 100% of all statements types produced. JHSS also took action to offer the full complement of on-line access to their account documents with a simplified logon process.

Once JHSS offered easy access to all financial documents, a marketing strategy was needed to get the message to our customers and persuade them to consent for electronic record keeping over hard-copy statements.

Our research revealed that JHSS was below the industry averages for financial service clients receiving their documents in this format. In 2012, with only 6% of our customers utilizing electronic delivery, JHSS recognized a need for improvement. A fact finding mission was launched to discover why so few customers preferred soft-copy documents vs hard-copy. We explored:

•Feedback collected during service phone calls
•Surveys with industry peers through the Transfer Agent Advisory Committee (TAAC),
•Information provided through the Investment Company Institute (ICI)

From those efforts, it was learned that security was the primary concern preventing many customers from signing up. Now that JHSS understood the resistance, a two-fold marketing strategy was launched to put an emphasis on:

1) Promoting security.
2) Emphasizing the benefit of immediate and easy access.

The result was a new electronic delivery slogan – Fast, Simple, Secure.

JHSS began communicating the benefits of electronic delivery using strategic messaging on all communications, including quarterly statements and envelopes stressing the “Fast, Simple, Secure” slogan. Email campaigns were implemented next to target customers with an email address on file, but not using this service.

JHSS also targeted a select population of shareholders by developing standalone consent forms, as well as, consent options for Electronic delivery when establishing an account by application.

To address customer fears regarding security, JHSS also conducted a redesign of its website to include additional security features and a prominent display of our electronic delivery logo with our slogan on every page. Customers who had not consented for electronic delivery also received email reminders each time they logged onto the website to further enhance the shareholders' awareness of the benefits of electronic delivery.

Lastly, JHSS launched an internal incentive plan to motivate customer service representatives to promote electronic delivery during the phone service call. The program was implemented in February of 2014 and has already increased our monthly number of E-delivery consents by signing up an additional 390 new users per month.

Implementing a multifaceted approach dramatically increased the population of shareholders consenting for electronic delivery.

As of March 31, 2014, JHSS:
•Surpassed the industry average of customers utilizing electronic documentation.
•Increased its Electronic delivery population participation from 6% to 18.61%.

Upload a collection of supporting files and web addresses to our server to provide more background information to the judges. You may upload any number of attachments and URLs through the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above. (Do NOT list your URLs below.)

 

Provide a brief (up to 125 words) biography about the leader(s) of the team that carried out this campaign:

John R. Hatch is President and CEO of John Hancock Signature Services, mutual fund transfer agent at John Hancock, and Vice President, U.S. Variable Annuity and Fixed Product Operations. He oversees operations, communications, and product support.

He previously served as Vice President/General Director of Sales for John Hancock Insurance Services.

Mr. Hatch’s experience prior to joining John Hancock includes: VP of Annuity Operations, Mass Mutual Life Insurance Company; principal consultant in Investment Management and Securities Operations, Price Waterhouse; Director of Corporate Treasury, Liberty Securities Corporation.

Honors: 2008 American Business Awards - Best Executive, Financial Services.