Thank you to all the Plain Numbers Partners and Practitioners who have made 2024 such a success . It's been our biggest year yet for improving communications 🥳 While letters, emails and web pages remain the foundation of our work, we’ve explored new applications of the Plain Numbers Approach, extending our expertise to videos, call centre scripts and internal communications. It’s been thrilling to see the breadth of ways we can enhance customer understanding. A particular highlight for the team this year was the launch of Plain Numbers Community Events, exclusively for partners. Over 750 people attended overall and we were blown away with how engaged and collaborative participants were. We're excited to continue this, alongside our training and comms support into 2025. Read more in our year in review in the comments below 👇 From all the Plain Numbers team we wish you all a very happy festive period! 🎄
Plain Numbers
Business Consulting and Services
Lewes, East Sussex 1,645 followers
We provide organisations with training and support to improve the way they communicate numbers.
About us
In the UK, nearly half of adults have numeracy skills of a primary school child, which is a vulnerability that many organisations overlook when crafting their communications. Yet, low numeracy is one of the most widespread vulnerabilities, affecting 20million working age adults. Recognising this, the FCA has led the way in considering numeracy as a customer vulnerability. The Plain Numbers Approach: Our approach transforms how organisations communicate with their customers. By viewing each communication through the lens of customer understanding, the Plain Numbers Approach has been proven to double the number of customers who understand a communication. In long-term partnerships, we equip organisations to present numbers clearly. Our partnership model includes tailored training, ongoing support, and expert guidance as you embed the Plain Numbers Approach across your communications
- Website
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https://plainnumbers.org.uk/
External link for Plain Numbers
- Industry
- Business Consulting and Services
- Company size
- 2-10 employees
- Headquarters
- Lewes, East Sussex
- Type
- Public Company
- Founded
- 2021
Locations
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Primary
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Lewes, East Sussex, GB
Employees at Plain Numbers
Updates
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Nothing makes the team at Plain Numbers happier than a great before and after 🥳 Thank you to Mimi Oloni, a Plain Numbers Practitioner at Santander, who has shared her recently certified Savings vs Investing support web page. This is now live on the Santander website and is an excellent example of how communicating financial concepts clearly means people can make more informed decisions around their finances.
🌟 Exciting News! 🌟 Earlier this year, I had the privilege of training with Plain Numbers, an organisation dedicated to enhancing the clarity and comprehension of numbers in communications. 🔢 Through this training, I became a certified Plain Numbers Practitioner. One statistic that really stood out to me during this journey was that only 45% of adults in the UK have the numeracy skills expected of primary school children. So, over the past few months, I’ve been working closely with Plain Numbers on a project to improve a communication piece of my choice, with the goal of earning their accreditation. I selected Santander UK's Savings vs Investing support webpage – a critical step in our decision-making funnel for customers considering whether to save, invest, or both with Santander 📈 I’m thrilled to announce that the improved webpage has been accredited by Plain Numbers and is now live on Santander UK's website! 🎉 - https://lnkd.in/ez9_UtDq To highlight the impact of this project, I’ve attached images showing the original version (first image) and my improved version (second image). This has been a fantastic opportunity to apply the skills I’ve gained through Plain Numbers training. By communicating numbers more effectively, I can empower more customers to make informed decisions with confidence. #Numeracy #PlainNumbers #Santander #SavingsAndInvestments #Communications #CustomerExperience #SantanderJourney #Accreditation
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Does APR help consumers understand the costs of short term small sum loans? Fair4All Finance will be hosting a webinar on Thursday 23 January, 1pm - 2pm, in which ClearScore and Thinks Insight & Strategy will unveil new research on the impact of the Plain Numbers Approach in improving consumer understanding of short-term borrowing on price comparison interfaces. Mike Ellicock our Chief Executive will be speaking alongside them and the Financial Conduct Authority and consumer representatives. Register now to gain valuable insights into how reshaping the communication of short-term lending can transform customer understanding. Sign up for free here - https://lnkd.in/emBPbs-N
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Our Chief Exec Mike Ellicock joined James Hill at Flexys to discuss one of the largest customer vulnerabilities - low levels of numeracy - and why this is significant for those in debt management. ⬇️ Have a listen
17.7 million UK adults (34%) have poor or low levels of numeracy. In debt management, this can mean: 🗓️❗Customers are more likely to miss payments in the first place. 🤔❓Those in arrears are less likely to understand the action they need to take. 🙅♀️🚫 People are more likely to avoid engagement. In this episode of Flexys Meets..., Mike Ellicock, CEO and founder of Plain Numbers, explains how the Plain Numbers approach 'lowers the bar' to increase the accessibility of common processes in debt management. Listen now and pick up some useful tips on tackling one of the most widespread forms of vulnerability: https://hubs.la/Q02-xq7H0 #debtcollection #vulnerability #reducerisk
Flexys Meets... Plain Numbers
flexys.com
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Improving customer understanding through Plain Numbers: real success stories. We were thrilled to share insights in our recent Plain Numbers in Practice webinar, where we heard directly from our Plain Numbers Practitioners on how they are using our approach to transform customer communication. Special thanks to our guest speakers at Thames Water and StepChange. Here’s a glimpse into what they shared: 💧 Thames Water: Proactively alerted customers to potential leaks using clearer emails, achieving an impressive 95% open rate (vs. the 52% average) and helping customers resolve issues efficiently. 💌 StepChange: replaced a lengthy PDF with a series of clear, timely, and tailored emails, supporting their vulnerable audience with information delivered exactly when they need it. These case studies prove that clear communication is about presenting numbers and information in ways that empower understanding and action. If you missed the session, email us for the recording: [email protected].
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Plain Numbers reposted this
Reminder: Join us at 1pm tomorrow (Tue 19th). Our Plain Numbers in Practice webinar is just around the corner - so come along at lunchtime tomorrow + spread the word to colleagues who might be interested (sign up link is in comments). We’re thrilled to welcome Plain Numbers Practitioners from Thames Water and StepChange Debt Charity as they share how they’ve successfully applied the Plain Numbers Approach to enhance consumer understanding and address the challenge of low numeracy skills. This is a fantastic opportunity to see the real-world impact of our approach, hear directly from our partners, and participate in a Q&A session designed to provide insights on how our partners are communicating numbers effectively.
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Our final Plain Numbers Community Event of 2024 is this Thursday. If you're a Plain Numbers Practitioner don't forget to sign up. More info ⬇
I'm just having a final look at the slides for our upcoming Plain Numbers "Communicating numbers in tables effectively" Community Event - and it is looking great. It is right down in the details of the Plain Numbers Approach so is only for Plain Numbers Practitioners. The session is going to be delivered by the 'peerless' (according to a recent LinkedIn post) Practitioner favourite, Ben Perkins. We've got loads of practitioners from across our 40 Plain Numbers Partner firms coming already and this is what they are going to be getting: Are tables an effective way to communicate numbers? The Plain Numbers Approach often encourages you to question whether tables are needed. There are times when using a table is the best way to present complex information. So, what’s the difference between a good table of numbers and a bad table of numbers from a customer understanding perspective? Join us to learn how to apply the Plain Numbers Principles you learnt about in your training to tables of information and make them as easy as possible to understand.
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As one of our Plain Numbers Practitioners has discovered - our training on how to communicate numbers clearly means you'll look at the documents and comms you receive from organisations in a whole new light... #ClearCommunication #Numeracy #CustomerUnderstanding
Thanks to Plain Numbers I see confusing numbers EVERYWHERE. My Plain Numbers Practitioner training taught me to look for the numbers in our comms and ask questions about how they’re being presented and whether they’re actually communicating the information they need to. Especially considering that 50% of the UK adult population has low numeracy and 20% suffers from maths anxiety. But now I see problematic numbers everywhere. Just today I got this bill(?) for LPG and I don’t fully know if it means I owe them money. And I got a quote for my poor broken car, which is in the garage, but they only told me the price for the various bits as ‘x amount plus VAT’ so the envelope was me frantically trying to do maths while on the phone to them. (Yes LPG costs the earth and yes my car is absolutely trashed!) (Also, if the maths is wrong don’t tell me: my maths anxiety and I don’t want to know.) Just makes me aware that the work Plain Numbers is doing is so needed and businesses I’m interacting with are not serving me the numbers in the way I need.
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Our Chief Executive Mike Ellicock and Head of Business Development Mark Brown were at Fair4All Finance's parliamentary reception last night on the important topic of Tackling Financial Exclusion Together. Mike's thoughts here ⬇
Great to be back in Westminster last night for the Fair4All Finance parliamentary reception on Tackling Financial Exclusion Together - and to be joined for the first time by Mark Brown from my Plain Numbers team. There is huge enthusiasm from across the political divide and from businesses and Third Sector organisations to really see some action this parliament. The speeches from Tulip Siddiq, Daisy Cooper, Brian Holland from NatWest Group, Vikki Brownridge of StepChange Debt Charity, Kate Pender and Rt Hon John Glen MP were brief and impactful. Here's a stat from Kate that was new to me: The gap in provision of short term credit to people in financially vulnerable circumstances is estimated to rise to at least £3bn by 2025. On that, I'm excited to have the opportunity next week to present findings of research led by ClearScore and conducted by Thinks Insight & Strategy into alternatives to APR to support Customer Understanding for short lines of credit to the Financial Conduct Authority and HM Treasury - having seen the headline findings, if they don't spur action then I'm not sure what will... It was excellent to chat with Christopher Veale Mike Regnier Richard Lane Peter Tutton Muna Yassin MBE Jake Attfield Diana Kamil-Salmon Jemma Waters Brian Pomeroy and James Daley amongst many others trying to make a difference for the most financially vulnerable.
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📢 We’re excited to announce our new partnership with Registry Trust Ltd Registry Trust is a not-for-profit organisation with responsibility for maintaining the statutory Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines. Registry Trust data is used by a wide range of organisations to support better, data-driven decisions. Over the next three years, we’ll be working closely with their team to apply the Plain Numbers Approach, helping to further improve the clarity and accessibility of their reporting and communications. This collaboration will empower Registry Trust to further support individuals in vulnerable situations by making complex data more accessible and helping highlight the stories behind the numbers. Together, we aim to make a real impact on those in financial difficulty. #ClearCommunication #FinancialWellbeing #PartnershipsForChange
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