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Consumer Duty communications testing

A letter or an ad can pass every check and still fail the customer who reads it

The Consumer Duty asks you to show your customers understood what you told them. Dutified gives you that evidence before any letter, email, ad or web page goes out.

1,000Modelled customers read everything you send, built from your own book
Tested twiceFirst by customers mixed exactly like your book, then by a group weighted towards vulnerable customers, so the people most likely to struggle are heard
FastResults come back quickly, where a face-to-face panel takes weeks

Why it matters

The Consumer Duty changed how customer communications have to be judged

Firms have spent three years on rules checks, sign-off gates and plain language guides. All of that matters, and none of it answers the question the regulator is now asking.

01

Compliant is not the same as understood

A rules check confirms the letter holds the right warnings, costs and deadlines. It cannot tell you whether a widowed customer worked out what her deadline was.

02

The Consumer Duty is judged at the floor

An average score hides the customers the regulator cares about most. A letter can work for 9 in 10 and still fail almost everyone who is recently bereaved.

03

30 people once a year is not evidence

Panels are small, slow and expensive, so most communications go out untested. The first real test is the complaints that arrive afterwards.

The evidence has to come before the letter goes out, from customers who look like yours, at a scale a panel cannot reach.

What Dutified does

What we do

Everything you send checked against the rulebook and tested on your customers

Works on anything a customer reads

LettersEmailsAds and financial promotionsWeb pagesApp screensText messagesCall scriptsChatbot replies
  • Rulebook check against the four Consumer Duty outcomes
  • 1,000 modelled customers from your own book read it
  • A second run weighted to vulnerable customers, every time
  • Real people check a sample, so the scores are calibrated
  • Every sentence customers struggled with, which groups found it hard and a clearer version to use instead
Book a demo

How the engine works

Four layers, from the rulebook to real people

Everything you test goes through the same four steps in the same order, and each problem we find is linked to the part of the FCA’s rules it affects, from the four Consumer Duty outcomes to the guidance on vulnerable customers.

1

Rules

First we check the letter against a fixed list of FCA rules, making sure it has every warning it needs, gives deadlines as dates, shows charges in £, makes leaving as easy as staying and uses words most people can read.

2

Meaning

Next we read for what the letter really tells a customer, flagging jargon, bad news tucked out of sight, benefits shown without the risks and anything that rushes people or makes it hard for them to act.

3

Customers

Then 1,000 modelled customers, built to match your own, read the letter and say in their own words what it means for them, and a separate checker marks each answer against what the letter needed to get across.

4

People

Finally a panel of real people like your customers reads the same letter, and comparing their answers with the modelled ones shows how far the model can be trusted, a figure we print on every report.

Every problem points to the exact FCA rule behind it, taken from our own library of rules instead of written by the AI, so anyone can check it.

Meet the readers

1,000 modelled customers read your letter, and you can click on any of them

Each square is an AI agent built to behave like one of your customers, so you can watch them read the letter and then see who they are, how far they got and what they took away.

How the readers work

Mapped to the Consumer Duty

Every finding lands on an outcome your board reports against

1

Products and services

Does the tone and complexity suit the customers it is actually going to?

2

Price and value

Do customers come away knowing what they pay and what changed?

3

Consumer understanding

Did they understand it well enough to make a good decision? Tested on your own book.

4

Consumer support

Do they know how to switch, exit, get help or complain, without friction?

How it works

From your letter to evidence you can stand behind

Four steps. The population is built from what you already know about your customers.

Discovery

A short questionnaire draws on your complaints, calls and segmentation to set who your customers are, including how many are vulnerable.

Population

We model your book as 1,000 individual customers, with vulnerability tied to age and circumstance the way it happens in life.

Check and test

The rulebook check runs, every customer reads the letter, then the test runs again weighted to vulnerable customers.

Report and debrief

The verdict, the failing passages, who it failed and the rewrites, walked through with your team.

The report

Written for the people who sign it off

A plain English verdict first, the provenance your compliance team needs last, and in between, exactly where the letter breaks and how to fix it.

Your own letter, with the failing sentences marked

Every passage that confused customers is highlighted, with a count of how many named it unprompted as the moment they lost the thread.

It is usually the sentence added in the final legal review.

No initial charge will be applied. The ongoing charges figure is currently 0.71 per cent per annum, as compared with 0.62 per cent297 Shareholders who do not wish to participate may redeem or switch without charge up to the valuation point on 27 October441 No action is required.

Who it fails, and by how much

The Consumer Duty is judged at the floor, so every vulnerable circumstance is scored next to everyone else.

A letter that works for 9 in 10 can still fail most of the recently bereaved.

All customers
54%
Not flagged vulnerable
63%
Recently bereaved
28%
Cognitive decline
19%
Low digital confidence
36%
Worst-served tenth
12%

Hear it in their words, then fix it

Customers who struggled explain what lost them, and every failing passage comes back with a rewrite that keeps your meaning.

Your team accepts or overrides each one, and every decision is recorded.

"I don't know what a valuation point is, so I don't know when my deadline is."

Aged 78, managing the family finances after a bereavement

may redeem or switch their holding without charge up to the valuation point on 27 October
If you don't want your money moved, you can switch or cash in for free. Tell us before 12 noon on 27 October.

Our reference panel

Everything you test is read by people like these, 1,000 times over

Alongside your own population, every test runs a fixed panel of the customers the Consumer Duty worries about most. Your team gets to know them by name.

M
Margaret81, widowed last year

Her husband ran the money. She reads every word slowly, twice, and still worries she has missed the part that matters.

Needs a date, not a valuation point
D
David67, retired engineer

Confident with numbers and quick to skim. Reads the first paragraph closely and the rest far less carefully.

Needs the change before the detail
P
Priya44, attorney for her mother

Managing an account that is not hers, between work and hospital visits. Wants to know what she is allowed to do.

Needs to know who can act and how
J
James29, inherited a portfolio

Substantial money, no experience and reluctant to admit it. Agrees with anything that sounds authoritative.

Needs the risk in plain words
E
Eileen76, early cognitive decline

Loses the thread of long sentences and says she understands when she does not, because asking feels embarrassing.

Needs short sentences and one action
R
Robert58, mid treatment

Tired by evening and opens post in batches. Acts only on what looks urgent.

Needs the deadline where he will see it

Vulnerability, modelled properly

Vulnerability in wealth looks different to vulnerability in retail banking

Your most exposed customers are often the ones with the most money, so we model the circumstances that actually appear in an investment book.

Advanced ageCognitive declineRecent bereavementNewly responsible for family moneyPower of attorneySerious illnessSudden or inherited wealthSensory impairmentLow digital confidenceRelationship breakdown
Tested twiceOnce with your real mix of customers and once with extra weight on the ones who are vulnerable
Those who struggle mostWe judge each piece by how the customers who find it hardest got on, because that is how the FCA judges it
Your own figuresWe use your data to decide how much weight vulnerable customers carry, so the results stand up if the FCA asks

Method and governance

Built so every result can be traced and checked

Reproducible

Same letter, population and settings give the same result. Every report carries its run reference, date and model versions.

Checked by real people

A human panel reads a sample so the modelled scores are calibrated against real understanding, and the agreement rate is reported openly.

Auditable

Inputs, answers, findings and your team's decisions are stored against each run and export cleanly for audit or a regulatory review.

Dutified reports the evidence. Your firm makes the call. Accountability under the Senior Managers regime stays with your named executives, and every report gives them evidence they can use when they decide and record what they send.

Book a demo

Test your next letter, email or ad before it reaches a single customer

Bring a live communication. We will run it through both layers and walk you through what the report shows.

Thank you

We will be in touch within one working day to arrange a time.