Quilter has unveiled a new client communication guide tailored to enable financial advisers to enhance the efficacy of their communications with clients.
Rooted in behavioural science, the guide equips advisers with a structured framework, dubbed ‘CLEAR’. This strategy has been meticulously crafted to adhere to the ‘Consumer Understanding’ outcome under the Consumer Duty. The CLEAR acronym embodies:
Capture my attention: Directing customer focus to pertinent information when most apt.
Lighten the load: Streamlining complex data to ease comprehension.
Explain what it means for me: Clarifying information to resonate with customer relevance.
Arrange the content simply: Employing layout for smooth visual navigation and comparison.
Reassure me: Infusing assurance through positive language.
For each CLEAR component, Quilter has delineated two behavioural science methods, designed to align advisers with the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) stipulated customer support standards. The FCA has delineated five best practice pillars: engagement, layering, simplicity, relevance, and timing.
Quilter is also in the throes of integrating CLEAR principles across all its client-geared materials, encompassing brochures, letters, forms, and disclosures. The firm is committed to the consumer testing of its content to gauge its communicative impact.
Jeremy Mugridge, Quilter’s marketing director, said: “The FCA’s Consumer Duty clearly demarcates the benchmark for customer decision-making support. Communication is pivotal, yet tricky to nail. Our objective is to offer advisers tangible tips to meet FCA standards and to boost their business communication.
“Leveraging behavioural science can help eliminate mental roadblocks, leveraging innate human behavioural cues to foster improved understanding.
“Our CLEAR framework, as evidenced in our consumer tests, has been impactful. While it’s not mandatory to utilise every CLEAR tenet consistently, it offers advisers a robust, user-friendly blueprint for both routine and special communications.”
