Nicola has over 25 years’ experience working across many industries including professional services, aviation, banking and finance. She has a passion for creating a positive experience for the customer.
Tell us about your role
My role is to develop strategies and programs that bring the member voice to life.
I lead a team that manages member complaints, runs member feedback surveys, and develops culture programs, such as member forums and sharing member stories.
Using the Listen, Learn, Act framework, my team is able to connect member feedback and stories to the right teams, who can make a difference for members through new processes or initiatives. We help take the ‘guess work’ out of developing and implementing member-driven plans and programs.
Ultimately, the shared knowledge will lead to improvements – from product changes to the way we communicate - to make super simple and easy, and help members feel confident and secure in their retirement. For example, we’ve improved communications about unit prices and how they work, and are looking into a clearer online switching process and other ways to help members transact with us more easily.
Another important area is providing extra support and care for members who may be experiencing vulnerability. This is particularly relevant during these unprecedented times and we want to make sure we adapt our services to accommodate the changing needs of our members.
Nicola Smith
Head of Member Experience and Complaints
What gives you satisfaction about your work?
This is a new role with a new team, and I’m excited to work in an organisation that really values its members, has a purpose of being a force for good, and focuses on responsible investing and the community. I also enjoy solving problems and being able to help members when things go wrong.
How do you manage complaints?
Aware Super’s vision is to be the most trusted choice for super, retirement and advice. Earning and maintaining trust includes helping our members when things go wrong. We have a culture that welcomes and values complaints. They’re an important second chance for us to make things right for our members, to learn from and do things better in the future.
We care deeply about our members and want them to feel confident and satisfied so responding well to member complaints is really important to us.
What are you looking forward to?
- A new complaints system so that we can capture and manage complaints more effectively for our members.
- Continuing to hear more from our members about what works well and where we can improve.
- Outside of work, spending time with family and friends, travelling (when allowed) and relaxing down the south coast of NSW.
