Key measures that were introduced by the government to maintain stimulus in our market such as the furlough scheme, mortgage payment holidays and the stamp duty holiday, have now ended. But Covid forced us to react quickly and lessons have been learned on what can be achieved when push comes to shove.

The well know proverb from Greek philosopher Plato: “Necessity is the mother of invention”, has never been more appropriate than in the past 12 to 18 months.

If some of the decisions made in extremely short time frames had been presented to boards up and down the country prior to the Covid era, the presenter and respective team would have been laughed out of the room.

The fact, however, that for the most part decisions were acted upon in short time frames highlights how resilient our market is and what can genuinely be achieved when working well with our partners.

Another key learning from the past 18 months has been the fact that customers are willing to accept things might not be perfect – as long as their bank, building society or financial institution are trying to improve their offering and the customer experience. As the economist John Maynard Keynes famously said: “Better to be roughly right, than precisely wrong.”

Too often in the past, organisations have sought to get their offering 100% perfect but, as time passes, the goal posts move and they have missed the mark in what they were originally seeking to achieve. This could in fact be one of the most valuable lessons of the past year and a half, in this writer’s humble opinion.

Of course, to achieve the ‘new norm’, we should persist with the changes developed or deployed over the last 18 months or embellish them further. The boards and decision makers will need to fully commit to their chosen strategies and evaluate their own ecosystem and partners. They must ensure that their customers, today and in the future, get the products and service they expect.

In the last couple of months, we’ve seen a continued confidence in the market, but the ability to hire key resources has become a challenge for many. Recognising the skills, assets and capabilities partners can provide will be key for each institution’s ability to continue to react quickly, maintain their market share and their unique selling points.

Whilst no institution ever reaches the perfect offering, those who collaborate with the best teams will undoubtedly stand the greatest chance of keeping ahead of their competitors.

Adam Oldfield is head of sales and account management at Phoebus Software