Manager, Customer Response And Estates Management

Join a Challenger
Being a traditional bank just isn’t our thing. We are big believers in innovating the banking experience because we believe Canadians deserve better options, and we challenge ourselves and our teams to creatively transform what’s possible in banking. Our team is made up of inquisitive and agile minds that find smarter ways of doing things. If you’re not afraid of taking on big challenges and redefining the future, you belong with us. You’ll get to work with people who will encourage you to reach new heights. We like to keep things fun, ask questions and learn together.
We are a big (and growing!) family. Overall we serve more than 370,000 people across Canada through Equitable Bank, Canada's Challenger Bank™, and have been around for more than 50 years. Equitable Bank's wholly-owned subsidiary, Concentra Bank, supports credit unions across Canada that serve more than 5 million members. Together we have over $100 billion in combined assets under management and administration, with a clear mandate to drive change in Canadian banking to enrich people's lives. Our EQ Bank platform ( eqbank.ca ) has been named the top Schedule I Bank in Canada on the Forbes World's Best Banks 2023, 2022, and 2021 lists.
The Manager, Customer Response and Estates Management is responsible for the overall success of Complaints and Estates department for EQ Bank. As part of the dual mandate, the incumbent is responsible for ensuring timely and objective review and resolution of Customer Complaints; and for managing the Estates processes: from Estates Planning to Estates Settlement, while ensuring all activities are performed in compliance with governing regulations, internal policies and procedures. They will also work closely with the Technical Operations team and pods in order to identify, prioritize, triage and conduct root cause analysis of critical technical complaints. Heavy focus will be on technical skills/ability in order to close out technical complaints/tickets and identify bugs and improvement opportunities for newly launched products.
The Work !

• Monitor and track status of customer complaints and ensure that the Complaints response and resolution SLAs are met; create daily, weekly and monthly reports
• Complaints Management:
• Coach and Mentor Customer Care Agents on how to de-escalate Customer escalation scenarios and create a robust repository of solutions, and workarounds
• Discuss grievances and issues with Customers and attempt to de-escalate Complaints at first contact, without further escalation to Step 2 or beyond, on a best effort basis
• Liaise with Compliance and pull together packages for Dispute Resolution Office investigations
• Own relationship with Tech Operations; jointly manage Jira board for tickets; conduct root cause analysis and prioritize for the pods. Work with pods on resolution
• Perform regular root-cause analysis of technical complaints, identify trends, insights and opportunities for complaints reduction and improvements pertaining to Customer service, Product and Product features, Processes, Policies and Procedures
• Own end-to-end management of the Complaints lifecycle; from complaints reporting, first response, analysis to resolution
• Manage team of technical solutions associates; provide training, coaching and feedback; monitor throughput of tickets and complaints closed
• Work with Customer Care Managers and Continuous Improvement Specialists to implement improvements as it pertains to Customer Care processes and team
• Responsible for maintaining an updated centralized complaints repository that can be used for Senior Management and Board-level reporting
• Ensure that complaints and technical tickets queues remain manageable
• Ensure Customer Complaints are evaluated and resolved in a fair, objective, and timely manner, in accordance with the guidelines defined in the Customer Complaints Handling Process (CCHP)

Estates Management

• Provide guidance to Trustee and next-of-kin on the Estate settlement processes
• Demonstrate empathy, kindness, patience and deep knowledge of Estates and Banking processes when dealing with trustees and next-of-kin while guiding them through the Estate settlement processes
• Perform regular root-cause analysis of Estates complaints and feedback, identify trends, insights and opportunities for improvement pertaining to Customer service, Product and Product features, Processes, Policies and Procedures
• Work hand-in-hand with Legal and operations teams to ensure each case is processed within timelines and serve as a liaison between the legal team and next-of-kin or trustee
• Own end-to-end management of Estates Processes: from Estates planning, notification of death, to Estate settlement
• Responsible for maintaining an updated centralized Estates repository that can be used for Senior Management and Board-level reporting
• Work with Customer Care Managers and Continuous Improvement Specialists to implement improvements as it pertains to Customer Care processes and team
• Review estate documents and work with trustees and next-of-kin to ensure information or documents gathered are accurate and in good-standing for Legal review

Let's Talk About !

• Demonstrated ability to have difficult conversations with customers while maintaining a professional and proactive manner – both written and oral
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Experience with producing reports for senior leadership and ability to communicate the customer contact centre statistics and experience clearly and accurately
• Ability to speak French or other second language an asset
• Sense of urgency around throughput and output; proven operational efficiency
• Storytelling – ability to pull together information from disparate sources to identify the key priorities; persuasion in order to get cross-functional alignment
• Excellent analytical and problem solving skills
• A minimum 5+ years of experience in financial services industry with preference for experience with everyday banking, complaints or estates processes; ideally 3+ years in a call centre, front line or back office customer service management role (e.g., branch, account management, fraud, operations) and 3+ years of experience in a technical position
• Experience working in databases
• Proficiency dealing with customers through multiple channels – call, chat, email, social media
• Excellent Microsoft Office skills
• Demonstrated ability to own an issue and drive to resolution
• Technical acumen, agility and curiosity
• Experience working with external vendors and Law firms
• Ability to communicate with professionals at all levels
• Proven experience working with a high degree of autonomy and self-direction; able to lead and motivate others with similar experience
• Bachelor’s degree in business or related field or equivalent experience
• Strong presentation skills – including delivering formal and informal training
• Minimum 3 years’ people management experience

What we offer [For full-time permanent roles]
💰 Competitive discretionary bonus
✨ Market leading RRSP match program
🩺 Medical, dental, vision, life, and disability benefits
📝 Employee Share Purchase Plan
👶🏽 Maternity/Parental top-up while you care for your little one
🏝 Generous vacation policy, personal days and even a moving day
🖥 Virtual events to connect with your fellow colleagues
🎓 Annual professional development allowance and a comprehensive Career Development program
💛 A fulfilling opportunity to join one of the top FinTechs and help create a new kind of banking experience
The incumbent will be working hybrid and in office time will be spent working from Equitable Bank’s additional office space located at 351 King Street East, Toronto, ON.
Equitable Bank is deeply committed to inclusion. Our organization is stronger and our employees thrive when we honour and celebrate everyone’s diverse experiences and perspectives. In tandem with that commitment, we support and encourage our staff to grow not just in their career path, but personally as well.
We commit to providing a barrier-free recruitment process and work environment for all applicants. Please let us know of any accommodations needed so that you can bring your best self to the application process and beyond. All candidates considered for hire must successfully pass a criminal background check and credit check to qualify for hire. While we appreciate your interest in applying, an Equitable recruiter will only contact leading candidates whose skills and qualifications closely match the requirements of the position.
We can’t wait to get to know you!