The missing step in customer communication: explaining what’s really going on.
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.
The rules of the game
Every financial product has its own underlying dynamics - the basic rules that explain how things really work. Here’s a few examples:
Mortgages: the trade-off between time, monthly payments, and total cost.
Pensions: how small, early contributions can grow exponentially through compounding.
Credit: how interest accumulates and affects future costs and choices.
Often communicators are creating detailed communications - pension projections, investment summaries, cost comparisons - all full of precise figures but forgetting to tell the bigger story.
The communicator’s challenge
The temptation is always to jump straight into numbers. They feel concrete, authoritative, and helpful. But without the big picture, they’re meaningless.
Before crafting any communication, teams should ask themselves:
> Do customers understand the basic rules of how this product or decision works?
> Have we set the scene before introducing the detail?
> Would someone with no background knowledge grasp what’s going on here?
> Can we summarise broadly what’s happening in one simple sentence?
If you struggle with that last question, your customers will too.
The path forward
It takes discipline, resisting the urge to jump into the specifics, and taking the time to establish foundations and build the narrative. But the payoff is huge.
Communications that actually communicate what is needed, customers who genuinely understand their options, and stronger relationships built on clarity.