Senior Customer Experience Marketing Manager (15 month contract)

 INTERVIEWS: First round are currently planned to take place on 19 and 20 December 2023.

The Company

CFA UK is a professional membership body representing a community of 12,000 investment professionals in the UK. Our purpose is to connect, educate and inspire our members to help build sustainable futures for all.

The society is the leading platform for intellectual investment debate. CFA UK campaigns for sustainability and DE&I and is the guardian of ethics and professionalism in the industry. We are proud to have won the CFA Institute Outstanding Society 2021 – a global award for the society’s exceptional across-the board performance in advancing professionalism in the investment industry.

The society is part of the worldwide network of member societies of CFA Institute, the global, not-for-profit association of investment professionals, that awards the CFA and CIPM designations.

CFA UK is the awarding body for the Investment Management Certificate (‘IMC’), an entry-level qualification for investment professionals, the Certificate in Climate and Investing and the Certificate in Impact Investing. CFA UK created the Certificate in ESG Investing which is now marketed globally by CFA Institute.  CFA UK also promotes the CFA Program for which CFA Institute is the awarding body.

CFA UK’s values are respectful, purposeful, collaborative, adaptable and pioneering – we ask all staff to work to meet these values.

Job summary

Working closely with the Director of Customer Experience, you will have responsibility for strategy, planning and delivery of customer experience through a marketing lens. Your role will include driving the collection and analysis of customer data, identifying and honing customer journeys, utilising data and intelligence to build an evolving marketing strategy across multiple platforms. You will help drive and shape the membership strategy in line with CFA UK’s three-year business strategy. In addition, you will lead the customer marketing and service team within the wider Customer Experience team.  The activity of you and your team will focus on delivering a personalised customer experience that boosts retention, acquisition and customer satisfaction.

Role purpose

Your role sits within the customer experience team and is critical to CFA UK delivering on all four of its strategic goals:

·       To meet the investment community’s needs for skills and knowledge

·       To bring the investment community together

·       To help people build rewarding careers within an inclusive and diverse investment community

·       To help the investment community serve its stakeholders well

You will develop strategy and plans for the customer acquisition and retention life cycle that help CFA UK to meet these goals alongside KPIs and shorter term objectives. You will work closely with your line manager, the Director of Customer Experience, to regularly review and evolve the strategy. You will need to be analytical and data driven, but also able to offer up creative and lateral thinking. You will work with a range of internal and external stakeholders to help create and drive a positive member journey digitally and through great customer services.

The Senior Customer Experience Manager has two key areas of operation that align with their two direct reports that they line manage and have responsibility for personal development:

·       The Member Services Manager – Where you have oversight of membership systems and processes, the Member Services Manager will drive these systems and processes. In turn, the Member Services Manager line manages the Member Services Assistant who is on the front line of customer service. In addition, the Member Services Manager is responsible for implementation of the membership marketing campaigns to achieve the acquisition and retention targets of CFA UK members. You will oversee their campaign implementation in this area, guiding them to deliver campaigns that are both creative and data driven, involving wider stakeholders where necessary.

·       The Membership Engagement Manager who is responsible for improving the onboarding experience of new members. Utilising your experience and insights, you will guide them to plan and implement a yearly schedule of activity that positively engages as many new members as possible with the aim of driving loyalty and retention.

The Senior Customer Experience Manager is responsible for all communication touch points experienced by members in their life cycle with CFA UK. This includes the website and other digital systems. Therefore, this role operates closely with the IT and Digital team to ensure a smooth digital experience. You will also be closely involved in membership engagement and will work with other teams such as the marketing team and content team on this.

The Person

You are able to think both analytically and creatively. You are equally comfortable developing strategies as you are in implementing them. Highly organised and solution-focussed, you will be able to deliver plans involving multiple stakeholders across the society. You are great at anticipating and mitigating problems as they arise and can deal with issues pragmatically and efficiently.

The Team

This role will be part of a customer marketing and service team within the wider customer experience department. You will be working with talented and highly motivated people who are passionate about delivering the best possible member experience.

Reporting to the Director of Customer Experience, you will lead on customer acquisition, retention, cross selling and satisfaction through marketing and digital journeys.

Key responsibilities:

Strategy and planning

·       You will lead in the development, delivery and evaluation of the customer acquisition and retention marketing strategies.

·       You will lead a team of three (two you directly line manage) to success in meeting CFA UK’s strategic goals and objectives while working in alignment with CFA UK’s values.

·       You will regularly report on progress against strategic goals.

·       You will work with the senior leadership team to produce quarterly forecasts of membership numbers.

·       You will develop and deliver robust annual membership retention and acquisition plans, ensuring efficient use of resources.

·       You will produce planning documentation that is clear and demonstrates strategic reasoning.

·       You will make recommendations for innovations in membership marketing, the membership proposition, and membership structures and processes.

·       You will guide the Member Services Manager to produce marketing planning documentation at a high standard.

·       You will work with the Member Engagement Manager to create, review and evolve a strategy for engagement of members in their first and second years.

·       You will work with the Director of Customer Experience and across the wider organisation to help build an implement a wider customer experience strategy.

·       You will bring your team together to create an end-to-end customer experience that builds customer loyalty and cross sells products.

Working with data

·       As the product owner of membership data and processes in the CRM, you will need to work closely with and guide the IT team to maintain, update and improve how data is captured, processed and analysed.

·       You will work with systems and processes to effectively access and organise member data for use in campaigns, analysis and reporting.

·       You will organise member focus groups and surveys to collect quantitative and qualitative data.

·       You will segment data effectively to deliver tailored marketing messaging and associated reporting.

·       You will analyse multiple data sources to identify membership trends, behaviours and demographics.

·       You will report on the impact of marketing activity, providing clear analysis, action points and narrative.

·       You will think creatively about the data and how it can be interrogated, thinking laterally and asking a range of questions to deliver new insights.

Marketing delivery

·       You will guide and support the Member Services Manager in their delivery of marketing plans.

·       You will regularly work with the Member Services Manager and the Director of Customer Experience on the creative process to come up with innovative ideas for customer reach.

·       You will support the Member Services Manager with copy writing and proof reading.

·       During busy periods, you will deliver parts of the marketing plans such as email campaigns etc.

·       You will sometimes liaise with third party suppliers such as design agencies and print houses.

Systems and processes

·       You will gain a detailed understanding of the systems and processes involved in CFA UK’s membership journey with enough knowledge to run these as the need arises.

·       You will lead biweekly meetings with the IT and digital team to trouble shoot and problem solve any technical bugs or issues that are impacting negatively on customer experiences or membership processes.

·       You will line manage the Member Services Manager to effectively manage systems and processes alongside providing excellent customer services.

·       You will work closely with the IT team and the Director of Customer Experience to champion and own the membership portal product with a remit to help ensure a smooth customer journey while minimising staff workload.

·       CFA UK runs projects through cross departmental teams called squads – you will participate in the Digital Retainer Prioritisation Squad, the Website Search Squad and the Marketing Platform Squad.

Working with other stakeholders

·       You will work closely with all members of the customer experience team as well as the marketing team to identify opportunities to create member engagement.

·       You will work closely with staff at CFA Institute to understand how we can link closely with their own membership marketing.

·       You will work closely across education and customer experience departments to link the exam candidate experience and the member experience.

·       You will develop an understanding of the specialist interests and skills of members to help match CFA UK services with members’ interests and career needs

Essential experience

·       You have proven experience in running customer marketing campaigns ideally in the context of a membership organisation or professional body.

·       You are an excellent communicator with the ability to communicate with a variety of audiences.

·       You have experience of using CMS and CRM packages (preferably Dynamics).

·       You have a track record in data analysis.

·       You have experience line managing a team to success.

Key attributes

·       You are an adaptable and resilient self-starter with independent judgement and work planning.

·       You work with initiative and enthusiasm to deliver high-quality work.

·       You have a strong interest in the customer and understanding of the marketing opportunities to maximise impact.

·       You work well as part of a team and to manage positive and productive relationships across the broader organisation to achieve CFA UK’s strategic goals

·       You consider and correctly interpret communications from others and respond appropriately and timely.

·       You are open in sharing information and keeping people informed.

·       You have intellectual curiosity and ask questions to clarify and expand your knowledge.

·       You have strong project management skills across a variety of deliverables, ability to own a project completely and to work under own initiative alongside collaborating effectively with multiple stakeholders

·       You are conscientious and efficient in meeting commitments, observing deadlines and achieving results; shows persistence when faced with problems or challenges; remains calm in stressful situations

Inclusion, equality & diversity statement

CFA UK is committed to encouraging inclusion, equality and diversity among our workforce, and eliminating unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation by complying with the Equality Act 2010.We want a working environment free of all of the above, where individual differences and the contributions of all staff are recognised and valued. To do this, we will proactively tackle discrimination and disadvantage and ensure that no individual or group is directly or indirectly discriminated against for any reason.

Benefits

Annual Leave 

·       25 days annual leave prorated for part timers (+ bank holidays) 

·       Discretionary leave day(s) between Christmas and New Year. 

Work-Life Balance 

·       Currently piloting hybrid working which requires staff to be in office 6 days per month. 

·       Work from home equipment such as laptop, screen, etc available and can obtain chair and desk if needed. 

·       Full-time is 35 hours per week 

·       4-week paid sabbatical following long service 

Pension Scheme 

·       Generous employer pension contributions: 5% (or 6%) employer pension contribution – after probationary period passed- depending on personal contribution level 

Employee Experience 

·       Lunch & learn events 

·       Colleague socials and get togethers 

·       Opportunity to attend member socials and two annual receptions annually in prestigious location 

·       Employees interested in investments can attend most CFA UK events on complimentary basis  

·       Significant training budget for programs relevant to roles 

·       Interest-free Loans 

·       Season ticket loan after probation. 

Group Life Assurance 

·       Lump sum life assurance benefit equal to three times current annual salary in the event of death in service.