Accent has wide ranging experience in the financial sector and works for clients in a variety of financial services sectors, carrying out quantitative and qualitative research projects.
Areas of Expertise:
- Customer experience
Accent has carried out numerous projects in the area of customer experience across the Financial Services sector. A lot of our research focuses on the automotive sector measuring customer experience with finance agreements. We have also completed customer experience research for investment providers, insurance providers and home emergency services providers.
- Stated Preference
A sophisticated form of conjoint, Stated Preference (SP) research is used by Accent in many different sectors including financial services, to assess customer priorities and willingness to pay for products and services. In a recent project we used this technique to estimate the effect that an increase in Insurance Premium Tax would have on customer retention and acquisition for a provider of Private Medical Insurance. We have also applied this methodology to support general insurance providers in the development of new products.
- Communications Development
Developing communications for new or existing propositions can take many forms. We have applied a range of both qualitative and quantitative techniques to developing communications materials for providers of automotive finance, fuel and expenses cards and general insurance.
- Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs)
Demand for research support for RCTs in financial services has seen an increase in recent years and Accent has worked on several large scale programmes on behalf of a financial regulator in the UK. The most recent project focussed on easy access cash savings products. The regulator undertook Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs) in collaboration with four firms to test the effectiveness of treatments aimed at improving disclosure and simpler/easier switching. A key element of the fieldwork surrounding RCTs is to ensure that all participants are treated equally within the research. This meant that interviewers all work randomly across different sample groups. Daily checks (and significance testing on key metrics) are conducted to ensure fieldwork progresses as expected. Previous to this project we carried out a similar assignment focussed on automatic renewal in general insurance comprising of 4,000 CATI interviews.
- Product compliance reviews
With the introduction of Treating Customer Fairly (TCF) and ongoing thematic investigations by the FCA, many providers of financial services have worked to implement a process to ensure compliance and build an evidence bank. Over the past few years, for instance, Accent has carried out a series of ‘compliance reviews’ for a provider of automitive finance. Through a mixed methodlogy (qualitative and quantitative) approach we helped the client establish whether the finance products it provides are sold in an appropriate manner, that customers are sold the best product for them and that they are clear on the product’s features, bemnefits and potential disbenefits.
For more information please contact any of the following:
Rob Sheldon, Managing Director
Olivier Boelman, Research Director
BACK TO SECTORS
