100 Plain Numbers Champions, how RSA embedded the Plain Numbers Approach.

David Lever, Senior Customer Experience Manager at RSA, is passionate about the RSA’s commitment to enhance their customer experience by prioritising clarity in communication and helping to improve customer understanding. To achieve this, he quickly recognised the potential of the Plain Numbers Approach yet also identified potential challenges in embedding this innovative Approach into a large and complex organisation.

While most firms have focussed for years on refining their language, it is often numbers that lie at the core of customer communications, particularly in Financial Services. The Plain Numbers Approach places numbers and numerical concepts at the forefront, striving to empower customers to better understand the communications they receive from firms. The primary way in which change happens is through Plain Numbers Practitioner who receive training in the Plain Numbers Approach and unlimited ongoing support from the Plain Numbers team to elevate their communications.

To successfully embed the Approach across the organisation, RSA trained 15 people to become Plain Numbers Practitioners, carefully selecting individuals from diverse areas such as brand, customer experience, communications, digital content, product, underwriting and regulatory compliance, ensuring a comprehensive reach. Alongside Practitioners, David recognised that wider awareness and a general understanding of the Plain Numbers Approach across the firm was also crucial, and many RSA team members were excited to hear of this new lens from which to view their communications and wanted to find out more. To address this, Ben Perkins, Director of Partnerships at Plain Numbers, organised a Plain Numbers Champions session, with David inviting RSA colleagues who he felt would benefit from a deeper understanding of the Approach. The success of the initial workshop sparked a ripple effect, leading to subsequent sessions and ultimately culminating in the achievement of over 100 Plain Numbers Champions across RSA.

David proudly reflects on the impact of these efforts, noting instances in project meetings where colleagues from across the business are using Plain Numbers language in discussions. Now, every communication (both physical and digital) that crosses someone's desk carries an enhanced awareness of the Plain Numbers Approach, ensuring effective communication of numbers and associated concepts.

The RSA team, led by David, serves as an exciting model of how the Plain Numbers Approach can be successfully embedded across an entire organisation. This enables RSA’s customers to better understand their communications from the firm, make informed choices and thereby achieve good outcomes – and is an excellent example of the cultural change that the FCA sees as an integral element within their Consumer Duty regulation.