Head : Advisor and Client Experience

About Discovery

Discovery’s core purpose is to make people healthier and to enhance and protect their lives. We seek out and invest in exceptional individuals who understand and support our core purpose, and whose own values align with those of Discovery. Our fast-paced and dynamic environment enables smart, self-driven people to be their best. As global thought leaders, Discovery is passionate about innovating in order to not only achieve financial success, but to ignite positive and meaningful change within our society.

About Invest

Launched in 2007, Discovery Invest offers the full range of investment products for any client need, providing access to our top performing range of Discovery funds as well as a wide selection of leading local and international fund managers. Recently, Discovery Invest launched a unique offshore offering to enable South African investors unparalleled ease in accessing international investment opportunities. Discovery Invest is seeking to leverage the shared-value model to promote financial health and freedom for millions of South Africans. Through unique behavioural incentives and benefits, we reward clients for positive investment behaviour with extra investment returns. Discovery Invest is the only shared value investment platform in the country maximizing client outcomes before and after retirement. It is important for our employees to provide world class service to our internal and external clients, thereby ensuring long and sustainable relationships.

Key Purpose

The executive owner of the Advisor & Client Experience strategy, service excellence agenda, advisor advocacy outcomes, communications capability and customer-centric transformation programme for Discovery Invest

Objectives of this role

The Head of Advisor & Client Experience will:

• Develop and execute a market-leading Advisor & Client Experience Strategy that positions Discovery Invest as the preferred investment platform for financial advisors. 
• Champion a customer-centric culture by embedding advisor and client needs into business decisions, service design, communications and operational priorities. 
• Drive measurable improvements in Service Perception Scores (SPS), Member Based Research (MBR), Customer Effort Score (CES) and advisor advocacy metrics. 
• Strengthen strategic relationships with Financial Advisors, Distribution teams and Discovery franchises. 
• Lead the transformation of communications, service excellence and advisor engagement capabilities to create differentiated service experiences. 
• Influence strategic and operational decisions across Discovery Invest through customer insights, stakeholder feedback and market intelligence. 
• Build and lead a high-performing leadership team capable of delivering exceptional service experiences and sustainable business outcomes. 
• Create a scalable service model supported by effective processes, technology and continuous improvement disciplines.

Responsibilities

Advisor & Client Experience Strategy

• Develop and execute a comprehensive Advisor and Client Experience Strategy aligned to Discovery Invest’s strategic objectives.
• Devise a service strategy that meets and exceeds the evolving expectations of all advisors and clients
• Define and embed advisor and client experience principles, standards and service commitments.

Customer Experience (CX) Leadership

• Drive the adoption of a Customer Experience (CX) approach in everything Discovery Invest does.
• Ensure advisors and clients remain at the centre of business decisions, process design and service models.
• Lead journey mapping, service design and customer insight initiatives.
• Drive simplification and reduction of customer effort across all interactions.

Service Excellence & Operational Enablement

• Identify and remove service pain points and process inefficiencies.
• Partner with Service Delivery, FLC & BI, Systems and Product teams to improve advisor and client journeys.
• Embed service standards that consistently deliver exceptional outcomes.

Advisor & Distribution Relationship Management

• Act as the voice of the advisor within Discovery Invest.
• Support advisor engagement forums and feedback mechanisms.
• Partner with Distribution teams to strengthen advisor advocacy, engagement and loyalty.

Communications & Engagement Leadership

• Provide leadership and oversight to the Communications function.
• Ensure communications are relevant, personalised, easy to understand and effective.
• Drive the transformation of Discovery Invest communications channels and engagement approaches.

Operational Leadership

• Contribute to operational strategy, planning and business prioritisation.
• Support regulatory, transformation and strategic initiatives.
• Manage risks impacting advisor and client experience.

People Leadership

• Lead, inspire and develop a high-performing team.
• Create a culture of accountability, innovation, collaboration and customer obsession.

 Education

Essential

• Bachelor's Degree in Business, Commerce, Communications, Marketing, Customer Experience or related discipline.
• Postgraduate qualification in Business Administration, Leadership, Customer Experience, Marketing or Strategic Management.

Advantageous

• Professional qualifications in Customer Experience, Service Design or Change Management.

Experience

Essential

• 10+ years' experience in financial services.
• 5+ years' experience leading teams and managers.
• Significant experience in advisor-facing and client-facing environments.
• Proven experience driving customer experience, client service or advisor engagement strategies.
• Experience engaging with senior stakeholders and managing strategic business relationships.
• Strong understanding of the investments, wealth management or financial advisory environment.
• Demonstrated success leading business improvement and service excellence initiatives.

Highly Advantageous

• Customer experience transformation experience.
• Communications leadership experience.
• Exposure to adviser practice development and adviser engagement strategies.

Required Competencies

Strategic Leadership

• Develops and executes long-term strategies aligned to business objectives.
• Anticipates advisor, client and industry trends.
• Balances strategic thinking with operational execution.

Customer & Advisor Obsession

• Deep understanding of advisor behaviour and customer expectations.
• Consistently places advisors and clients at the centre of decision making.
• Drives service differentiation through advisor and client insights.

Executive Influence

• Builds credibility with Executive Committees, Distribution leadership and key advisory practices.
• Influences without authority across complex stakeholder environments.
• Communicates with confidence at all levels

Relationship Management

• Builds trusted partnerships internally and externally.
• Strong networking and stakeholder engagement capability.
• Able to manage complex and sometimes conflicting stakeholder requirements.

Commercial Acumen

• Understands drivers of advisor advocacy, retention and platform growth.
• Connects service excellence initiatives to commercial outcomes.
• Makes data-driven decisions that balance client and business needs.

Change & Transformation Leadership

• Leads large-scale transformation initiatives.
• Successfully drives adoption of new ways of working.
• Demonstrates resilience through ambiguity and change.

Innovation & Continuous Improvement

• Challenges traditional thinking.
• Applies customer experience (CX) principles.
• Drives simplification and service innovation.

People Leadership

• Builds and develops high-performing leadership teams.
• Coaches senior managers.
• Creates an environment of accountability, engagement and ownership.

Preferred skills

Customer Experience & Service Excellence

• Customer Experience (CX) strategy development.
• Journey mapping and service design.
• Service excellence framework design.

Advisor Engagement

• Experience working with Financial Advisors.
• Advisor relationship management and engagement programmes.
• Distribution support and intermediary servicing models.

Leadership & Transformation

• Leading managers and multi-disciplinary teams.
• Large-scale change management.
• Organisational redesign and operating model implementation.

Analytics & Insight

• SPS, NPS, CES or equivalent customer metric programmes.
• Customer and advisor research.
• Data-driven service improvement.

Communications & Stakeholder Engagement

• Strategic communications leadership.
• Stakeholder engagement planning.
• Executive communication and presentation skills.

EMPLOYMENT EQUITY   
                             
The Company’s approved Employment Equity Plan and Targets will be considered as part of the recruitment process. As an Equal Opportunities employer, we actively encourage and welcome people with various disabilities to apply.