Introducing financial capability resources for telephone clients: the toolkit September, 2015

This toolkit was developed as part of a pilot around identifying financial capability needs to clients that contact Citizens Advice over the phone. This approach is a light-touch model of financial capability, and aims to build broader knowledge and expertise to those advisors already engaging with clients over the phone. This toolkit is provided to support any local offices who wish to add this to their service offer. Clients that contact Citizens Advice via the phone are – by definition – engaging with us on a channel with very different strengths and weaknesses to face to face advice. Traditional methods of delivering financial capability no longer apply, and so resources have been developed to take this into account. Why use this toolkit?

Strengths: Clients are contacting us in real-time, so can answer questions immediately. Clients can take onboard new advice straight away as the advisor discusses it with them. What is so different about clients over the phone? Weaknesses: Call times can be targeted, and so providing extra advice or in-depth questioning can be difficult. It can be hard for advisors to identify what can be considered a need for financial capability.

Clients that contact us over the phone will often reveal certain basic facts that betray a lack of financial capability on their part. The toolkit lists 18 clear and obvious triggers that an advisor may notice, and offers two different ways to respond to them. Advice during the call – Short call scripts are provided which an advisor can use to address any obvious gaps in a clients financial capability. Advice after the call – The same short scripts are actually arranged into 6 different factsheets. The advisor can – if the option exists – offer to the appropriate factsheet to the caller after the call. Identifying the right advice for each trigger – The toolkit contains a clear flowchart explaining what factsheet and scripted piece of advice applies to each of the 18 triggers. The approach in the telephone toolkit

The advisor isn’t expected – at this stage – to ask any probing questions to establish if there’s a need for financial capability. If the client doesn’t provide evidence of this during the call, the advisor is not expected to use the toolkit.. If a local office offers financial capability sessions - or has a local partner that does – then they are encouraged to recommend this in any suitable call. If an advisor chooses, they can send the caller more than one factsheet. The toolkit contains a one-page quick-reference guide that those advisors who are regularly on the phone can print out and keep easily accessible. This should speed up their responses to callers. Tips to keep in mind

For those local offices interested in new and innovative models, which are catered to address the differing channels and needs of our clients, they can see the various toolkits available in the Resource Toolkits tab of the financial capability section of the Citizen Advice website. Further toolkits will be added as they leave the testing stage of their respective projects. What happens next? The telephone toolkit in being rolled out in several Citizens Advice projects, but is still in the early pilot stages. The Toolkit is provided for all local Citizens Advice and partner organisations to use, but is still very much a ‘ work-in-progress’ and should be used as such. New versions will be uploaded online at regular intervals, in response to continued feedback and practical testing.

For any further information or feedback, contact us at

Christy McAleese Team manager David Mahon Forums / Training & resources Hannah Luck Forums / Communication & information The Financial Skills for Life team Also … Basam Diablos Financial capability development consultant

Presented by: Date: