The technology behind the human touch: How Keystone is helping its clients reimagine pension administration

When workplace pension providers evaluate digital transformation, the conversation usually revolves around cutting costs and pushing users toward self-service. While operational efficiency matters, the overarching goal of any modern pension administration platform is building trust and financial peace of mind for the end user.

Keystone helped to support partner Smart Pension’s recent customer transformation, which highlights a powerful paradox in financial technology. By focusing on automating routine tasks, they haven't made their service cold or detached. Instead, they’ve made it more human.

At the core of this strategy is Smart Pension’s partnership with Keystone. The cloud-native pension platform and advanced pension technology ecosystem has given Smart Pension the foundation to transform its approach to customer service. Smart Pension’s results speak for themselves:

• 90% of everyday pension tasks are now resolved instantly by members directly inside the app
• Under 10 second average call wait time for members who choose to phone in
• Average call time of 25 minutes to support members with uninterrupted, unscripted human conversation dedicated to those navigating complex retirement planning or bereavement

How Keystone can transform customer service

Here is how Keystone’s underlying architecture makes this balance of rapid automation and deep empathy possible.

1. Eradicating data silos with unified architecture

Legacy pension platforms are notorious for fragmented ecosystems, with separate databases for text messages, emails, telephony, and core ledger balances. When a member switches communication channels, the context is lost, forcing them to repeat their story to multiple agents.

Because Keystone is built as a single, cloud-native platform with easy connectivity, it has been able to support its client - Smart Pension as they integrated email, phone and text channels. When a  member's journey transitions from an AI-guided chat to a live phone call, their identity, verified credentials, and conversation history travel with them instantly. Sue Whittington COO, Smart Pension, says:

"We've moved our contact channels - email, phone and text - onto a single cloud platform. This means members don't have to repeat their story when a conversation moves between channels."

2. Strategic automation that empowers human expertise

Many financial institutions deploy Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a digital roadblock to keep customers away from human staff. Keystone flips this on its head.

By utilising Keystone’s cloud-native automation to handle high-volume, highly repetitive administration around the clock, the platform acts as an operational shield for Smart Pension’s customer service team. It absorbs the noise of basic balance checks and address updates.

The structural payoff? The Smart Pension team can explicitly allocate more time for retirement conversations, which on average last 25 minutes. Keystone doesn't replace the expert. It simply buys the expert the time they need to apply real human judgment, understanding, and reassurance in the moments that matter most. 

As Michael Connell, Head of Customer Service at Smart Pension, notes:

"AI and automation are deployed to empower staff rather than replace them, allowing us to spend more time with members, employers and advisors."

3. Unlocking hyper-agility and speed to market

The pension landscape is shifting under the weight of regulatory changes like the upcoming pensions dashboard. Providers using inflexible legacy systems can take months, or even years, to deploy simple updates or process optimisations.

Keystone’s modular, API-first architecture allows for rapid, continuous integration. When customer data and feedback identify an administrative friction point, engineers can safely deploy digital journey updates in days. This continuous evolution is why the Keystone platform is aiming to deliver 95% of Smart Pension’s everyday tasks digitally by 2027.

The takeaway

Workplace pensions are inherently emotional. They represent a lifetime of labor and a future of security. Providers cannot afford to hide behind rigid, scripted digital interfaces, nor can they scale effectively using manual legacy processes.

Smart Pension's 4.7/5 Trustpilot rating proves that you don't have to choose between digital scale and human empathy. With the right technology platform, you can achieve both.