The Parallel Path: Assistance for Customers Who Still Need a Human Voice

Britain has become expert at designing for the default customer: the smartphone-equipped household with an email address, a stable connection and the confidence to complete a digital journey unaided. Branch closures, app-first servicing and digital verification have made that default more efficient. They have not made it universal. For a meaningful share of UK households, the telephone is still the front door, the Post Office counter is still a point of contact, and a son, daughter, neighbour or solicitor may still be the person who actually makes things happen.

For an assistance group, this is not a niche concern. Assistance is often needed at the worst possible moment: after a breakdown, a home emergency, a medical disruption or a bereavement. The customer who cannot use an app in ordinary life is unlikely to acquire that confidence under stress. Treating analogue customers as a compliance afterthought creates avoidable failure — abandoned claims, repeated calls, missed evidence deadlines and complaints that could have been prevented by design.

Analogue Is Not a Segment; It Is a Set of Circumstances

It is tempting to picture the analogue customer as older, rural and fixed. That picture is incomplete. Digital exclusion is fluid. A customer may be perfectly capable online until a stroke, a bereavement, a house move or a fraud attempt interrupts their access. A small business owner may run operations by phone because that is how the trade works. A family may share one device. A customer in temporary crisis may simply not have the capacity to navigate a verification loop.

The design implication is important. An assistance group should not build a separate ‘older customer’ product and assume the problem is solved. It should build a parallel path that any customer can enter when circumstances require it, with a clear route back to digital channels if they choose. The outcome should be the same: the claim is understood, the evidence is gathered, the supplier is instructed and the customer is kept informed.

What a Genuine Parallel Path Looks Like

A parallel path is not a call centre bolted onto a digital journey. It requires deliberate operational choices.

Voice-first claims. The telephone route should be published, easy to find and staffed by people empowered to progress a claim, not merely log a callback. Menu design matters. Customers in distress should not have to guess which option applies to them. A short, plain-language menu with a clear route to a human being is better than an elaborate triage tree that assumes familiarity.

Paper-based evidence. Requiring a smartphone photograph is a design choice, not a legal necessity. Where evidence is needed, assistance groups should accept posted documents, certified copies and alternative forms of proof where risk allows. The test is whether the evidence establishes the claim, not whether it arrives in the preferred format.

Safe third-party authority. Many analogue customers rely on someone else to act. That can be a family member, a carer, a solicitor or a power of attorney. The service should support delegated authority with explicit consent, time-bound permissions, audit trails and a clear separation between discussing a claim and receiving a payment. Safeguards should be proportionate and understandable.

Non-digital identity checks. Identity verification should be layered and risk-based. Existing policy records, verbal confirmation against multiple data points, postal confirmation and, where risk justifies it, assisted verification through a trusted intermediary can all play a part. The objective is not to weaken controls but to avoid making a smartphone the only acceptable proof of identity.

Consumer Duty and the Commercial Case

The Consumer Duty asks firms to deliver good outcomes for retail customers, including those with characteristics of vulnerability. Channel exclusion is a conduct risk. If a customer cannot access the service through the channel they can use, the firm has not merely provided poor service; it has failed to provide the support the customer reasonably needs.

But the commercial case is stronger than compliance alone. Customers who complete claims by telephone often become advocates because the experience was human when it mattered. Intermediaries — carers, brokers, employers and affinity partners — notice which providers are easy to deal with. A well-run analogue path can reduce repeat calls, shorten claim cycles, lower complaint volumes and protect the brand in exactly the moments that shape reputation.

The Operating Disciplines Required at Scale

Parallel provision fails when it depends on individual good will. It needs management systems.

First, channel parity should be governed. Service standards for telephone and postal journeys should be as visible as those for digital ones. Second, one owner should be accountable for the end-to-end analogue journey, including supplier hand-offs. Third, contracts with repairers, assessors and fulfilment partners should include realistic response times for customers who cannot use digital updates. Fourth, data capture should record channel preference and access needs at the point of claim and carry them forward. Fifth, training should cover both technical process and the judgment required when a customer is distressed, delegating authority or sending evidence by post.

Testing matters too. Telephone mystery shopping, paper-journey audits and reviews with customer advocacy groups can reveal friction that internal dashboards miss. The question is not whether the process exists on paper, but whether a customer can complete it without being quietly pushed back to a channel they cannot use.

A Board-Level Question

As 2026 unfolds, the UK’s digital default will continue to sharpen. That makes the parallel path more important, not less. Assistance groups should ask a simple board-level question: if a customer cannot use our preferred channel, can we still deliver the promise we made?

For CPP Group and its peers, analogue readiness is not nostalgia. It is service design, conduct risk management and commercial discipline in one. The customers who need a human voice are not outside the market. They are part of it.