The Consumer Friend Academy
Welcome to the Consumer Friend Academy
At Consumer Friend, we are Louise Baxter MBE and Adam Carter—Consumer Champions in every sense. Our mission is to:
Support consumers and businesses by ensuring consumer information, advice, and education are simple and accessible to all. Everyone in the UK should know their consumer rights.
Help businesses embed consumer vulnerability in everything they do and design inclusive services, ensuring every consumer gets the best deal for them.
The Consumer Friend Academy is a comprehensive training program that certifies individuals as Consumer Vulnerability Champions. This certification ensures that your team is not only aware of consumer vulnerability issues but also actively equipped to support and advocate for vulnerable individuals within your organisation.
Aim
Everyone has the right to understand and be understood. This course is designed to help you understand the differing needs and desired outcomes of consumers.
Why?
Providing inclusive services and greater consumer support can enhance business reputation.
Who is it for?
This course is designed for consumer facing businesses, small and medium sized enterprises.
What’s covered
The training goes beyond theory
✔ Interactive, online sessions on identifying and managing consumer vulnerability
✔ Inclusive service provision
✔ The diverse nature of consumers, neurodiversity, age, gender
✔ The current landscape and current consumer issues
✔ Communication, language and plain English
✔ Managing consumer expectations
✔ Redress and complaints
✔ Practical assessments to improve communication and service delivery
✔ Reflection on case studies that highlight real-world examples of success and areas for improvement
Learning objectives
✔ To help you identify and assist consumer vulnerability
✔ To help you understand the diverse nature of consumers
✔ To help you ensure that consumers receive the information necessary in the right format to make informed decisions and are not exploited
✔ To help ensure the consumer gets the best outcomes for themselves
✔ To help develop strategies to ensure consumer vulnerability, inclusion and diversity are always considered
✔ Provide the opportunities for considering how you can change things within your own organisation
Training options available
✔ Virtual classroom
Consumer Friend Academy
The Consumer Friend Academy supports you and your organisation to become a Consumer Vulnerability Champion. We help you Identify, understand and respond your consumers vulnerability with empathy, clarity with an inclusive approach.
Businesses are increasingly focused on delivering better outcomes for all consumers with consideration of all consumer needs and ensuring that are treated fairly with consideration for their situation by regulators.
How do you identify vulnerability, provide appropriate helping ensure you processes are effective.
Consumer Friend is a champion of vulnerable consumer, simplifying how you help embed the knowledge, skills and experience to deliver vulnerability awareness and an inclusive service.
Consumer Friend skills from Trading Standard and scam prevention leads the market based on our unique experiences Louise Baxter MBE and Adam Carter provides decades of experience. Our mission ensures professionals and organisations are Consumer Vulnerability Champions through practical, engaging, and impactful learning.
Our, 12-week programme ensures you and your organisation has the skills. We help organisations across key sectors including housing, finance, utilities, retail, health, and retail. Our Academy empowers you and your organisation to ensure all vulnerable consumers are supported effectively.
Be a Leader. Be at the forefront of consumer advocacy by mastering the skills to help every customer.
What You Get
✅ 12 Weeks of Support & Learning
Structured over four live online sessions (2-3 hours each) with engaging content and hands-on activities.
✅ 9 Hours of Interactive Training
Group discussions, practical exercises, creative tasks, case study to learn from, and real-world examples.
✅ Weekly Homework & Reflection
Activities between sessions to help embed learning, grow your skills , assess your policies, and learn from case studies.
✅ On-going Peer Support
You become part of our network, with opportunities to share insights and challenges in a safe, supportive space with who you learnt with.
✅ Access all our Unique Resources
Support does not stop when the course finishes, access to our secure hub with training materials, templates, reading lists, insight emails, and 1-to-1 or group support .
✅ Organisational Implementation Tools
Apply learning directly in your workplace—use our tools to review and redesign internal policies and procedures.
✅ Certification
On completion, you receive a Consumer Vulnerability Champion Certificate, recognised for your commitment to inclusive, person-centred service, valid for 2 years.
Course Outline
Session 1: Understanding Consumer Vulnerability
Meet the trainers. Explore vulnerability in the UK context and start identifying how it affects your consumers.
Session 2: Effective Communication
Learn how language, tone, and format affect understanding. Master the art of plain English and inclusive communication.
Session 3: Providing Inclusive Services
Explore how to meet diverse needs, manage expectations, and deliver effective redress. Spot blind spots in your service delivery.
Session 4: The “And What?” Wrap-Up & Graduation
Review learnings, share success stories, and identify actions for long-term improvement.
