Bupa UK has partnered with the Plain Numbers Project, a social enterprise that enables businesses to better communicate with customers who struggle with numbers.
Through employee training, document certification, and on-going assistance, Bupa and Plain Numbers will collaborate over the course of a three-year relationship to assist the health insurer in better understanding how to convey numbers and statistics to its clients.
Selected Bupa employees will be educated to become Plain Numbers practitioners and convey key numbers simply and fairly in documents like insurance quotations and renewal letters using insights from behavioural science and Plain Numbers’ knowledge of adult numeracy levels.
Poor numeracy is the most frequent client risk, according to data from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), and just slightly more than half of adults in the UK have the basic math abilities required for an 11-year-old.
Bupa UK general manager Richard Washington says: “Our ambition at Bupa is to be the most customer-centric healthcare company in the world. We want our communications to be clear and easy to understand so that our customers can make well-informed decisions when they purchase or renew a policy from us. We’re delighted to be working with Plain Numbers to continually improve our customer experience.”
Anne Marie Cooklin, Head of Communications at Bupa UK, who recently completed the Plain Numbers Practitioner training said: “Insurance and financial services can be complex. Simple changes to the way we communicate numbers can make a huge difference for our customers. It’s great to be able to help them, especially those who are vulnerable, understand important information we give them and make things even clearer.”
Mike Ellicock, CEO and Co-Founder of Plain Numbers said: “We are delighted to be working with Bupa UK to help ensure as many Bupa customers as possible understand the numbers around their health insurance. We’re thrilled to be starting our new partnership and can’t wait to work with Bupa’s newly trained Plain Numbers Practitioners to start embedding a Plain Numbers Approach together.”