Customer Advocacy Specialist

The Customer Advocacy Specialist is responsible for handling escalations coming from various customer channels. This role requires a high level of empathy, professionalism, and problem-solving skills to ensure customer satisfaction and uphold the organization's reputation. The complaints specialist will collaborate with various internal departments to address issues and implement solutions that enhance the overall customer experience. 

By taking full accountability for the customer journey, the Complaints Governance Specialist ensures that customers receive timely, empathetic, and accurate service.

The impact of this role is central to our ambition to deliver differentiated services during critical moments—where our brand promise is fulfilled and customer trust is either strengthened or lost. 

Position Responsibilities:

• Serve as the Single Point of Contact for Assigned Cases: Customers often feel lost when they are passed between departments. With this role, we ensure continuity, reduce confusion, and build a relationship of trust and become the customer's advocate, ensuring their needs are heard and addressed.
• Track Progress and Proactively Follow Up on Pending Actions: Complaint cases can stall due to missing documents, unclear requirements, or internal bottlenecks. Complaints specialists actively monitor progress and initiate follow-ups to prevent delays, demonstrating ownership and a commitment to resolution.
• Service Coordination: Ensure seamless service delivery by coordinating with various departments and monitoring performance to meet customer expectations.
• Ensure Timely and Accurate Documentation of All Interactions: Clear documentation supports continuity, compliance, and accountability. It ensures that every touchpoint is traceable, every commitment is recorded, and every team member can pick up the case with full context if needed.
•  Issue Resolution: Address and resolve customer issues proactively, escalating complex problems when necessary. 
• Process Improvement: Analyze and enhance aftersales processes for greater efficiency and satisfaction, collaborating with teams to streamline workflows. 
• Proactive Customer Updates: Regularly inform/update customers to reduce anxiety and demonstrate attentiveness, fostering confidence and respect throughout the process. 
• Active Listening and Empathetic Responses: Listen carefully to uncover concerns and respond with care, ensuring customers feel heard and supported especially during challenging times. 
• Documenting Feedback for Improvement: Capture customer sentiments and feedback to enhance service delivery and align future interactions with customer needs. 
• Cross-Functional Liaison: Act as connectors between internal and external customers to chase dependencies, preventing bottlenecks and ensuring timely service delivery. 
• Case Status Alignment: Facilitate smooth, context-rich transitions between teams to maintain alignment on case status and next steps, avoiding delays and miscommunication. 
• Active Participation in Huddle/Meetings: Contribute team’s insights during case huddles and escalation meetings to resolve complex issues efficiently, ensuring customer context is maintained. 
• Customer Advocacy: Serve as the customer’s voice within internal teams to ensure decisions and processes prioritize customer needs, especially in unique cases. 
• Receive and Investigate Complaints: Collect and thoroughly investigate customer complaints to understand the issues and gather all necessary information.  
• Develop and Implement Resolutions: Propose and execute effective solutions to resolve customer complaints efficiently. 
• Communicating with Customers: Maintain clear and consistent communication with customers throughout the complaint process to keep them informed and ensure satisfaction.  
• Analyze Trends and Provide Feedback: Monitor complaint data to identify trends and provide actionable feedback to departments for service or product improvements.  
• Maintain Records and Report: Document all complaints and resolutions and prepare reports for management to support decision-making and improve processes. 
• Capture Customer Feedback: Record both verbal feedback and emotional responses to understand the true customer experience, guiding empathetic service improvements. 
• Spot and Address Pain Points: Identify recurring customer frustrations and suggest targeted improvements to enhance processes, communication, and policies. 
• Engage in Experience Reviews: Participate in design sessions and workshops, ensuring improvement initiatives are grounded in real customer experiences. 

Required Qualifications:

• Graduate of any at four (4) year business course
• 3-4 years of customer service, insurance or financial services, complaints management or contact center experience, or equivalent demonstrated through one or a combination of the following: work experience, training and education.
• Excellent organizational and motivational skills
• Complaint handling and customer service skills 
• Excellent written and oral communication skills
• Effective collaborator and team player
• Data-driven and analytical
• Process development and optimization
• Risk management
• Customer-centric
• Quick thinker and can work independently under pressure

When you join our team:

• We’ll empower you to learn and grow the career you want.

• We’ll recognize and support you in a flexible environment where well-being and inclusion are more than just words.

• As part of our global team, we’ll support you in shaping the future you want to see.

About Manulife and John Hancock

Manulife Financial Corporation is a leading international financial services provider, helping people make their decisions easier and lives better. To learn more about us, visit https://www.manulife.com/en/about/our-story.html.

Manulife is an Equal Opportunity Employer

At Manulife/John Hancock, we embrace our diversity. We strive to attract, develop and retain a workforce that is as diverse as the customers we serve and to foster an inclusive work environment that embraces the strength of cultures and individuals. We are committed to fair recruitment, retention, advancement and compensation, and we administer all of our practices and programs without discrimination on the basis of race, ancestry, place of origin, colour, ethnic origin, citizenship, religion or religious beliefs, creed, sex (including pregnancy and pregnancy-related conditions), sexual orientation, genetic characteristics, veteran status, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, family status, disability, or any other ground protected by applicable law.

It is our priority to remove barriers to provide equal access to employment. A Human Resources representative will work with applicants who request a reasonable accommodation during the application process. All information shared during the accommodation request process will be stored and used in a manner that is consistent with applicable laws and Manulife/John Hancock policies. To request a reasonable accommodation in the application process, contact recruitment@manulife.com.

Hybrid