QSuper has beaten its industry and retail superannuation brand counterparts in generating more member recommendations and greater member value and satisfaction, a new study has found. But, overall, the story is not good.

QSuper topped the ‘Superannuation Benchmarking Study’ of the most popular super brands, conducted by Engaged Marketing. It followed a survey of more than 3,720 people under the ‘Net Promoter Score’ framework.

While QSuper attained the highest score, the industry as a whole achieved an average of negative 29 per cent.  The worst performing brand scored a Net Promoter Score of negative 53 per cent.

QSuper also achieved the highest score of any brand across all key attributes, including overall value, investment performance, fees, overall customer services, overall insurance coverage, access to quality financial advisors, website and financial seminars.

Engaged Marketing managing director, Christopher Roberts, said QSuper was the standout performer among super brands in an industry renowned for low customer engagement.

“The result is a testament to how they have been able to differentiate themselves and demonstrate their value to members, something many other super brands continue to struggle with,” he said.

QSuper’s result was particularly important, he said, given 23 per cent of all survey respondents said they chose their super brand based on a recommendation from a family member, friend or colleague.

“What these results mean is that QSuper is in a stronger position to harness the power of word-of-mouth, which is even more potent in the super industry given recommendations appear to be few and far between,” he said. 

Twelve of the largest Australian super brands were assessed in the survey. They included: AMP, Australian Super, BT, Colonial First State, First State Super, Hesta, HostPlus, MLC, OnePath, REST and Sunsuper.