How Plain Numbers is helping Direct Line Group with customer comprehension ahead of A New Consumer Duty

By Lisa Taylor, Communications Governance Manager & Plain Numbers Practitioner, Direct Line Group.

In recent years, there’s been a focus on supporting people with poor reading and literacy skills. From initiatives such as the Plain English Campaign and the Flesch readability score, to numerous courses and online tools, there’s help available for any writers looking to make sure all readers can engage with their work.

And this is great when it comes to words. But, what about numbers?

“But numbers are just numbers, right?”

Not entirely.

Half of UK adults have the everyday maths skills expected from a primary school child (Government-commissioned Skills for Life survey), and many people suffer from maths anxiety.

So, for any business communicating with customers, it’s incredibly important that you give as much attention to numbers as you would words. The way you display and explain any numbers matters more than you may think.

That’s why it’s good to see that the new FCA Consumer Duty introduces a Customer Understanding outcome. It’s also interesting to see the guidance specifically drawing attention to poor numeracy and asking firms to take account of it when they communicate.

The new rules greatly build on the current guidance of being clear, fair, and not misleading. Communications should be useful for all customers and help them to make informed decisions about any product they’re engaging with.

The key focus for Plain Numbers is aiding customers to understand what numbers actually mean, which in turn helps them make better financial decisions. There’s already plenty of evidence to prove that Plain Numbers does exactly that.

How the Plain Numbers methodology can help.

In line with the FCA Non-Handbook Guidance, Plain Numbers training gives Practitioners (like myself) guidance on how to meet many of the Consumer Understanding requirements.

Here’s how the Plain Numbers methodology aligns with some of the good practice set out in the new rules.

Layering.

Different people need different amounts of information to fully understand something. So, knowing how best to layer information (keeping key information upfront and having supplementary details close-by) is a great skill to have.

Engaging and well-timed.

Less is more. By reducing repeated numbers, cutting out unnecessary information, and displaying content effectively, it helps customers engage with what they really need to know.

A big part of this is timing. Showing customers the right content at the right point in their journey.

Relevant and accessible.

Determine the purpose of any piece of information for both the customer and the firm. This ensures the most relevant content is given prominence, and that any actions needed by the customer are clear.

It’s vital you consider your target audience and any vulnerabilities of the intended recipients, then you can provide information in a way that’s accessible to everyone.

Simplicity.

Simplicity isn’t always simple to achieve. It’s important to test and use learnings to make sure you’re giving information in a logical manner. Language is key, and any context given around numbers needs to be as simple and digestible as possible.

Testing, monitoring, and adapting.

How do you monitor success? You need to know what ‘good’ looks like for you and how to check customer comprehension. From there, you can design iterative changes to help improve results, because there are always improvements you can make.  

The new Consumer Duty rules show a clear expectation for checking customer understanding through testing, so learning effective ways of questioning is an invaluable part of the training.  

While it’s focussed on numbers, the Plain Numbers Methodology goes far beyond just that.

It teaches you a different way of approaching the content and design of all your communications, and gives you the skills to make sure every customer can understand everything that matters to them.

And with the new Consumer Duty rules, that’s more important than ever.