ANZ appoints Rhonda Day as Customer Advocate
ANZ today announced the appointment of Ms Rhonda Day as Customer Advocate, following the retirement of Mr Bill Robinson, who has held the role since 2002.
ANZ’s Customer Advocate is an independent position, reporting directly to the Chief Executive Officer. The role aims to resolve disputes, which have been through ANZ’s internal complaints resolution procedures and have not reached a satisfactory resolution, quickly and objectively for the customer.
Ms Day was previously the Assistant State Ombudsman in Victoria and joins ANZ from Monash University where she was the interim University Student Ombudsman. She holds a Masters in Public Policy from the University of Melbourne. Ms Day has extensive experience in dealing with complex investigations and mediation.
ANZ Chief Executive Officer Mr Mike Smith said: “I would like to set a new aspiration for ANZ to significantly differentiate ourselves in the speed and objectivity we bring to resolving complex and protracted customer complaints.
“Rhonda has extensive experience in dispute resolution and customer issues and I believe she is ideally suited to build on the progress we have made since the role was created in 2002.“
There has been an encouraging downward trend in the number of complex complaints made to the Banking and Financial Services Ombudsman this year. However, Rhonda’s appointment also provides the opportunity for the Customer Advocate to play an active role in independently examining the underlying causes of these types of complaints and making recommendations on how we can accelerate progress in reducing the instances of protracted complaints.
“I would like to thank Bill for his contribution and wish him well in his retirement,” Mr Smith said.
The appointment of the Customer Advocate was part of ANZ’s 2001 Customer Charter. The Customer Charter is a series of commitments to provide customers with more convenient and simple banking, more efficient complaint-handling procedures and more responsible lending practices.