What this outcome means for you
The Consumer Understanding outcome expects that clients get the information they need at the right time, and in a way they can understand.
This means you must communicate with all clients in a clear, transparent and accessible way when discussing products or services.
This includes making clear any benefits, risks or costs involved with products, so that clients can make informed decisions based on their personal circumstances and needs.
How you can do this
- Help clients make decisions that deliver good outcomes: using our research and data, you can make clients aware of product and service costs, ongoing changes and what they mean for them - so they can make informed decisions
- Understand your clients’ needs: you should confirm their needs and goals, and understand any vulnerabilities, so you can determine how best to communicate with them
- Review client communications across all channels: your verbal and written communication must be plain-English, jargon-free and easy to read, with attention paid to vulnerable clients who may have accessibility needs or financial difficulties
- Tailor communications to fit the needs and circumstances of clients: this doesn’t mean personalising communications for every client, but rather particular groups of clients, so they’re given to the right people, at the right time, in a suitable way
- Monitor your approach in the long term: client feedback methods, such as surveys or customer testing panels, can confirm if your communications are clear and effective. You can alter and improve your approach over time to reduce complaints and time spent resolving them.
Identify ways to deliver good customer outcomes
We’ll work with you to provide useful data, insights and support to help you better understand your clients’ behaviours and financial situations – and spot opportunities to improve outcomes and avoid foreseeable harm.
Pensions: Help clients understand the pension products you recommend
Whether you're trying to help your clients understand their pensions or the benefits of their workplace pension scheme, these resources can support your client conversations by explaining our pension products and services in a clear way.
Protection: Help your clients understand your protection product recommendations
Our protection resources can support your client conversations and help them understand the reason you're recommending a product to them, the value of that policy and more.
Understand and review your clients' personal needs
These resources can help you identify the needs of your clients so you can create clearer, engaging and more helpful communications.