How do you help a bank live up to the FCA’s Consumer Duty?

We rewrote a host of different comms, moving important bits up, changing banklish to English, explaining jargon, switching passives to actives and generally trying to channel the way a friendly HTB advisor actually sounds.

Here’s a little snippet:

Before

I am writing following your recent communication regarding account number XXXX. I am sorry that you are not satisfied with the service you have received.
We take all customer complaints seriously and we will fully investigate all the issues raised and aim to resolve matters for you as quickly as possible.

After

Thanks for getting in touch with your complaint. I’m sorry you’ve not been happy with our service.
I’m looking into it and hopefully we can get to the bottom of what’s happened as quickly as possible.

Of course, we’ve got a pretty good idea of how to write something in a Consumer Duty-friendly way. But we wanted to be extra sure, so we commissioned some research.

First up, we asked 2,000 people: do you understand the communications you get from financial organisations like banks? 49% said those comms were clear, and 35% said they were easy to understand.

Next, we put our rewrites in front of 2,500 HTB customers and asked: is this clear? Do you understand it? Does it feel effective?

The average overall score was 81% – a massive uplift. And let’s not forget that a good chunk of these comms were potentially inflammatory, including complaint rejections and Ts&Cs.

Everybody wins! People banking with HTB get clearer comms. HTB gets happier customers. And we get a super happy client.