Communicating with Vulnerable Customers

It is critical that everyone working in insurance and financial services understands the definition of a vulnerable customer, how to identify a vulnerable customer and what the laws and regulations say. However, the critical next step of how to communicate with a vulnerable customer is often overlooked and lacking in most training sessions on the subject of vulnerable customers.

This training session corrects this common mistake by providing key skills necessary to ensure that you are able to communicate clearly and effectively with vulnerable customers.

By the end of the session, participants will be able to:

• identify key skills necessary to communicate clearly and effectively with vulnerable customers.
• understand how vulnerable customers are likely to receive, understand and respond to communication.
• implement a strategy to ensure you stay on the right side of the laws and regulations when communicating with vulnerable customers.

Jeff Heasman is a leading international trainer and is recognised throughout the world for his work around soft skills within the insurance and financial services industries. Jeff holds both a bachelors and masters degree in laws and after many years of experience working within the legal and insurance industries as a litigation executive and senior liability adjuster, Jeff subsequently qualified as a language instructor and is a certified practitioner member of the Academy of Modern Applied Psychology.

Jeff has been Dean of the Faculty of Law at Cavendish University Zambia (CUZ) in Africa, where he was also a lecturer in the law of torts. He has also been a tutor in law and language at Swansea University. He has delivered courses in Business English to MBA students and company directors at ESIC University in Pamplona, Spain. He still provides personal tuition in communication skills to executives in banks and financial services across the world but especially in Turkey and Spain.

Jeff has delivered many public lectures on subjects such as the law of torts and plain language and has provided training in insurance law and practice to some of the world's largest and most prestigious organisations, as well as regularly providing seminars for the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) and Chartered Institute for Securities and Investments (CISI). Jeff is often asked to write blogs and articles for different organisations on law, skills and communication, including for the global industry newspaper, The Lawyer. He has taken part in media debates on the insurance industry in the UK and has also appeared on national television and radio in various countries, primarily talking about professional communication skills. He maintains close links to the insurance industry by providing plain language editing services to help companies ensure their documents are readable and accessible for customers.

Everyone, particularly those involved in customer interaction whether on a face to face basis, over the telephone or through other forms of media.

The Insurance Institute of Bradford values and respects diversity and strives in all of our activities to take account of and respect the interests of all people it serves. There is an expectation that all speakers / presenters and attendees will act in this way too. Please see our Equality Policy on our website.