Business Stream, the UK’s longest-established water retailer, has partnered with Plain Numbers to enhance how numerical information is presented to business customers. The collaboration supports Business Stream’s Customer Vulnerability Framework by making bills, contract changes and other essential information clearer and easier to understand.

Organisations spend huge amounts of time delving into the details of the numbers, the wording, the layout - but many customers still don’t get it.

Not because the information’s wrong, but because often the communication doesn’t explain roughly what’s going on and why it should matter to them. 

All the detailed product information in the world can’t fix that missing foundation. And it’s not the customer’s fault. These ideas aren’t always intuitive, and most people were never taught them in a meaningful way. 

Whilst the human brain is a powerful thing, it is subject to limitations. Biases are often the result of our brains attempt to simplify things. Fundamentally, our brains have a 2-system approach to making decisions.

We are delighted to announce our new partnership with Rothesay, the UK's largest specialist pensions insurer, purpose-built to protect pension schemes and their members’ pensions.

We are delighted to announce a new partnership with the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS), an organisation that provides high-quality money and pensions guidance to help people improve their financial wellbeing. MaPS do this through the free and impartial service, MoneyHelper.

We’re thrilled to announce our new three-year partnership with Mercedes-Benz Financial Services UK.  

Together, we’ll work to improve the clarity of customer communications – supporting customers to better understand their finance options and make informed decisions.  

Helen is an unpaid carer who was thrown into a world of confusing communications at a time when she most needed clarity. 

Helen’s story is a powerful reminder for any organisation that when people are overwhelmed, time-poor, or vulnerable, unclear communication doesn’t just frustrate – it can harm.

In the communications we all receive, numbers are everywhere – interest rates, fees, projections and more. Organisations often throw these numbers and  financial concepts at customers and hope they’ll understand. But what if they don’t? 

Getting the wrong end of the stick when it comes to numbers can lead to poor financial choices, harm for customers, and potentially hurt an organsiation’s reputation.

We’re excited to welcome the Utility Regulator (Northern Ireland) as the first regulator to become a Plain Numbers Partner.

Over the next three years, we’ll support the Utility Regulator in improving their own communications and promoting good practice among the firms they regulate – helping to make sure numbers add up for consumers across Northern Ireland.

ISAs could be changing. There’s been lots of talk about tinkering with the system and it’s widely expected the government will consult on changes.  

Suggestions have included lowering the amount people can save in cash ISAs tax free from the current £20,000 or even limiting ISAs to just investment.  

While our recent webinar focused on the financial services sector, the insights are relevant across industries - particularly as regulators beyond the FCA increasingly highlight the importance of customer understanding.

Whether you work in utilities, insurance, health, housing, or tech, the message is the same: clearer communication drives better outcomes.

Join Plain Numbers and the FCA together with Nationwide and StepChange, to explore how firms are addressing the Customer Understanding outcome within Consumer Duty.

We’re delighted to announce that the Association of British Insurers (ABI) has extended its Advisory Partnership with us after a highly successful three years.

In its latest review on how firms are supporting customers in vulnerable circumstances, the FCA highlighted  that most firms can do more but it remains very much business as usual for the important role that Consumer Duty still plays.

Ben has years of experience working with people who have low confidence in numeracy and experience maths anxiety. In this blog, he sheds light on what maths anxiety means and how it affects consumers.

We are thrilled to announce a new partnership with Policy in Practice, a social policy software and analytics company.

Policy in Practice identified that millions of people are missing out on £23 billion of support each year. Their products, embedded across local government, utilities and finance sectors, are designed to close the unclaimed benefits gap, helping people to claim support and boost their incomes.

At Plain Numbers, we help organisations communicate financial information more effectively. To test the impact of our unique method, we partnered with ClearScore and Thinks Insights to explore whether clearer, more intuitive credit information could improve consumer comprehension. In particular, we were interested in whether including APR and a representative example helps decision-making. 

Arrears letters are vital to both businesses and the customers who receive them. The effectiveness of these letters hinges on clarity and understanding, as well as communicating with empathy.  

2024 has been a successful year for advancing customer understanding, thanks to the efforts of our dedicated partners. Here’s a look back at some of the highlights that made this year so impactful.

ClearScore and Thinks Insight & Strategy unveil new research on the impact of the Plain Numbers Approach in improving consumer understanding of short-term borrowing on price comparison interfaces.

Key findings include:

Double the number of people accurately understood loan choices when a Plain Numbers Approach to showing the cost of credit is used within the current regulatory framework (i.e. alongside APR)

Nearly triple the number of people accurately understood loan choices when APR and a representative example were removed completely (an increase from 13% to 35%)