Senior Dispute Resolution Officer

Job description

About the role

Reporting to the Travel Complaints Team Leader, the External Dispute Resolution Officer carries the responsibility for delivering market-leading customer service outcomes on customer disputes. You will play a crucial role in managing and resolving disputes by balancing commercial, regulatory, and reputational impacts through every decision ensuring optimal outcomes for all parties involved. It holds overall responsibility for a centralised complaints process, generating insight to improve customer outcomes in the AU and NZ business.

 

Responsibilities

·  Leverage a comprehensive understanding of ASIC Regulatory Guide 271 (RG 271) and the internal dispute resolution (IDR) process.
·  Receive and review travel insurance complaints received via AFCA and/or IFSO. Conduct impartial and thorough investigations into each complaint, considering commercial, regulatory, and reputational impacts through every decision ensuring optimal outcomes for all parties involved.
·  Make fair and reasonable decisions, taking into account all available evidence, relevant laws, regulations, and industry codes of practice.
·  Communicate effectively with customers, internal stakeholders, and external parties (e.g., AFCA, IFSO) to gather information and provide updates on complaint investigations, ensuring compliance with relevant guidelines, timeframes and requirements.
·  Manage and resolve customer disputes by effectively handling inbound and outbound calls, ensuring clear communication, active listening, to achieve satisfactory resolutions and maintain high levels of customer satisfaction.
·  Keeps accurate and comprehensive statistics and records, reports complaints and privacy results and provides immediate feedback to relevant areas when necessary for service delivery improvement.
·  Prepare and issue written responses to AFCA and/or IFSO, clearly outlining the outcomes of complaint investigations and any proposed resolutions or remedies.
·  Conduct root cause and cost-benefit analyses to identify potential systemic issues and escalate them for further review and resolution. Monitor and report on complaint handling activities to ensure compliance with internal company and regulatory requirements.
·  Collaborate with other internal departments, such as product, claims, medical, and customer service, to identify opportunities for process improvements and enhance customer experience.
·  Provide expert advice and insights on regulatory requirements and best practices to the IDR Team.
·  Regularly review and assess personal key performance indicators (KPIs) to ensure individual contributions align with team and organisational objectives. Utilise feedback and performance data to continuously improve personal effectiveness and achieve set targets.
·  Complete ad hoc tasks as required by the manager to support the effective resolution of travel insurance complaints and the overall functioning of the dispute resolution process.

 

Continuous Improvement           

·  Analyse complaint data to identify improvements to sales and service call handling techniques, systems, practices and processes.
·  Identify opportunities for improvements, backed by customer experience trends and feed these opportunities to business.
·  Interface consistently with Internal and External Disputes Resolution team to ensure alignment in best practice dispute resolution approaches.
·  Continuously educate the wider Contact Centre on complaints trends, best practice customer service and dispute avoidance techniques.

 

Stakeholder Management         

·  Develops meaningful relationships with all internal and external stakeholders across all levels.
·  Negotiates and influences at senior level, developing a strong understanding of stakeholder current and future requirements.
·  Support the Complaints Team Leader in providing learning and development opportunities to the Complaints Team members.

 

Risk & Compliance        

·  Adhere to the risk management and compliance obligations relevant to each position and comply with policies, processes and training requirements.
·  Report and escalate risk and compliance related concerns, issues and failures to management.
·  Identify, document and communicate risk and compliance exposures including fraud and corruption in operational areas or departments
·  Integrate compliance obligations, risk assessment and the risk management process into business practices

 

Essential skills

·  Proven experience in conflict resolution, including negotiation and dispute investigation.
·  Experience in communicating with the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA), Insurance and Financial Services Ombudsman (IFSO) along with a comprehensive understanding of their processes and the rules governing their decision-making.
·  Ability to interpret and apply policy wording to deliver fair and reasonable dispute resolutions.
·  Strong problem-solving, decision-making, and time management skills.
·  Excellent verbal and written communication, simplifying complex issues.
·  Experience in external dispute resolution in insurance or financial services industry.
·  Strong analytical skills for assessing complex situations.
·  Ability to engage effectively with customers and internal stakeholders.
·  Attention to detail and adeptness at managing multiple tasks in a fast-paced environment.
·  Comprehensive understanding of ASIC RG271 requirements and other relevant regulatory frameworks.
·  Familiarity with travel insurance products and industry practices is desirable.
·  Relevant qualifications in dispute resolution, law, or a related field are advantageous.
·  Experience working with the General insurance Code of Practice (GICOP

68469 | Customer Services & Claims | Professional | Non-Executive | Allianz Partners | Full-Time | Permanent

Allianz Group is one of the most trusted insurance and asset management companies in the world. Caring for our employees, their ambitions, dreams and challenges, is what makes us a unique employer. Together we can build an environment where everyone feels empowered and has the confidence to explore, to grow and to shape a better future for our customers and the world around us. 
We at Allianz believe in a diverse and inclusive workforce and are proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We encourage you to bring your whole self to work, no matter where you are from, what you look like, who you love or what you believe in.
We therefore welcome applications regardless of ethnicity or cultural background, age, gender, nationality, religion, disability or sexual orientation.
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