Reflecting on 2024: a year of growth and collaboration
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.
Expanding everyday support
Our partnership team achieved new milestones this year by supporting Plain Numbers Practitioners with a record number of communications.
This offers expert feedback and tailored support across a diverse range of materials. While letters, emails and web pages remain the foundation of our work, we’ve explored new applications of the Plain Numbers Approach.
A standout project involved certifying a series of education videos created by Vanquis Banking Group in collaboration with Bobby Seagull. These videos simplified complex financial concepts like ‘what is compound interest?’ and ‘What’s an IVA?’ Released on National Numeracy Day, they were widely covered in the press and viewed on social media.
Plain Numbers Certified videos from Vanquis Banking Group featuring Bobby Seagull
We’ve also extended our expertise to call centre scripts and internal communications, such as pay gap reviews.
It’s been thrilling to see the breadth of ways we can enhance customer understanding.
Celebrating our report launch
In July, we proudly released the Plain Numbers in Practice report, showcasing the wide-ranging applications of our approach.
The report featured compelling case studies from our partners, complete with ‘before and ‘after’ examples that demonstrated tangible improvements. It also highlighted how organisations have successfully embedded the Plain Numbers Approach into their operations.
The report’s launch event was a resounding success, with a strong turnout and enthusiastic engagement.
It was exciting to shine a spotlight on the impactful work being done by our Plain Numbers Partners to make communication clearer and more understandable.
Introducing the Plain Numbers Community Events
This year marked the debut of our Plain Numbers Community Events, an exclusive series for our partners. These events provide invaluable learning opportunities for practitioners and wider organisational teams to deepen their understanding of customer-focused communication.
To date, over 750 participants have attended these interactive sessions, fostering a spirit of collaboration and shared learning.
Topics have included applying the Plain Numbers Approach to graphics and tables, exploring the intersection of mental health and customer understanding, testing comprehension, and using Plain Numbers in legal contexts.
We’re particularly thrilled by the enthusiasm and creativity participants have brought to these sessions, making them a space for professional growth and learning. Looking ahead, we’ve already announced the topics for our 2025 sessions — read more about them here.
And a big thank you to our awesome team!
All this great work and partner support cannot happen with the hard work, energy and enthusiasm of our colleagues. We believe it’s our colleagues who make it a joy to work with Plain Numbers, and why our partners consistently give us great feedback and trust us to help them on some of their most important work.
This year the Plain Numbers team has taken on many new projects and challenges, and it’s continuing to grow as we welcome new colleagues. Thanks to you all!
Looking Forward
As we close out 2024, we’re excited for the progress we’ve made together and for all the exciting things we have coming up in 2025. Thank you to all our partners for your dedication to improving customer understanding. Here’s to an even more impactful 2025!