Helen’s story: when customer understanding isn’t just important - it’s essential.
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.
Helen Lord
When you are an unpaid carer, as I am, you are catapulted into uncharted territory – it is often a place that you hadn’t expected to be in, and you certainly don’t want to be. That comes with a spectrum of challenges – the relentless day-to-day grind, the tasks that you never knew you’d have to do or even could do.
One of the hardest things to manage is a whole new sphere of financial considerations which need to be addressed when you are at your lowest emotional ebb. Even the most well-equipped of us can struggle with numbers and decision making when we are worn out.
These are some of the areas I have had to fathom out and manage – none of these were easy:
What benefits we are eligible for and the associated completion of applications and forms – income and expenditure.
Managing somebody else’s finances – this includes the challenges associated with proving you have the authority to act on someone else’s behalf but also the everyday management of a third party’s finances. This ranges from health care to pensions, investments and insurance, bank accounts and paying for care.
Understanding what is funded and what is self-funded and the implications of that.
Dealing with difficult to understand council correspondence – unintelligible statements relating to discounts in council tax.
At a time when clarity is most needed, it’s often the hardest thing to find.
The last thing you need when in an overwhelming situation is to be confronted by what feels like the equivalent of an exam in advanced maths because all you can see is a sea of numbers. Even for those with strong numeracy skills, unclear information becomes another obstacle at an already impossible time.
For an unpaid carer correspondence needs to be quickly and easily dealt with, if it isn’t, it will either not be dealt with at all or it will be another layer of pressure on somebody who is already drowning.
Like many things in life, there is no manual for being an unpaid carer – carers are often dealing with new situations, with the unknown. Effective communication and transparency could not be more important.'
This is another reason why customer understanding must be a priority for every organisation.
When you get the numbers right, you make life a little easier for everyone, but especially for the people who need it most.