Knowing their customers is something in which everyone takes some amount of pride. Indeed, most business owners, salespeople, financial advisers, consultants (and you name it) would be affronted if it was suggested that they didn’t. And yet, as certified financial planner Sam Whybrow asks, “Do you really know anyone to that extent?”
He makes a good point. “We can’t possibly know our clients from a two-hour meeting every year.” This seems like an admission of failure, but this honesty comes from Sam’s desire to always improve. “We’re not trying to be the best business, but we’re trying to be the best version of ourselves.”
The realisation came to Whybrow after he had adopted MARS, the MorganAsh Resilience System, which is used to assess, manage and report on vulnerable consumers. MARS automates much of the administration needed to comply with the vulnerability requirements of the FCA’s Consumer Duty.
One of the assessments collected by MARS “shook me, really”, says Whybrow, “because I pride myself on understanding clients.” The assessment showed that the client was dyslexic – a communications vulnerability which affects about ten per cent of the UK’s population, and four per cent severely so. Yet, how many suppliers can name those ten out of a hundred of their customers who are affected, and the four who will be really struggling with what we might consider to be business-as-usual communications?
Whybrow realised that his usual method of providing information was far too detailed and onerous for this client, and that to continue to do so would be failing her as a financial adviser. Once the vulnerability was discovered, it wasn’t complicated for Whybrow to address the issue that it raised and he continues to advise her – he now provides most information in the form of videos, which are far easier for her to take in. This doesn’t take any more time than preparing the detailed written reports previously used.
Whybrow is certain that, without MARS, he would have continued to be unaware of this client’s vulnerability – but he’s not challenged by this. Indeed, he sees it as an opportunity to step up, work with the vulnerability and “fundamentally, be a better person – if I know them better, I can be better at the job I do”.
Whybrow selected MARS, in part, because he’d worked with MorganAsh for some time. But it was also because he doesn’t want Consumer Duty to be a “box-ticking exercise”. MARS has in-built treatments, helping him to work out what to do next when a vulnerability is discovered. As he says, “If I identify that a client is vulnerable, what am I supposed to do? What I found was, with the treatments, it helped me to put some kind of process in place.”
Whybrow also says that MARS gives him greater confidence not only because of the offered treatments, but also because of the nurse-based services which can be called upon if needed – for example, for an expert mental capacity test.
He sees Consumer Duty as an opportunity. “You have to embrace it – at the end of the day, because fundamentally what is it? It’s helping people. Helping people deal with their finances. What’s not to embrace, really? Surely that’s a good thing that you’re trying to help your client?”