Manager, Card Experience

Standard Bank Group is a leading Africa-focused financial services group, and an innovative player on the global stage, that offers a variety of career-enhancing opportunities – plus the chance to work alongside some of the sector’s most talented, motivated professionals. Our clients range from individuals, to businesses of all sizes, high net worth families and large multinational corporates and institutions. We’re passionate about creating growth in Africa. Bringing true, meaningful value to our clients and the communities we serve and creating a real sense of purpose for you.

The Manager, Card Experience Department is responsible for end-to-end ownership of service support for customer experience across debit, credit and prepaid card products. This role ensures seamless card usage, servicing, dispute resolution and card lifecycle management while driving customer satisfaction, operational efficiency and revenue growth.

The Manager will oversee the team to ensure world-class support for all card-related enquiries, proactive issue management, and continuous improvement of the customer card journey. The role sits at the intersection of products, operations, customer experience, fraud, technology and contact centre performance.

Key Responsibilities:

• Define and execute card experience vision and roadmap across physical and digital touchpoints.
• Provide strategic leadership and direction for the Card Experience Team.
• Develop and implement card-specific customer experience strategies and policies.
• Oversee end-to-end resolution of complex card disputes, fraud cases, and escalations.
• Ensure efficient handling of card issues such as lost/stolen cards, declined transactions, disputes and chargebacks.
• Ensure seamless coordination with Products, Compliance, IT, Customer Contact Center and external partners (Visa, Mastercard, processors).
• Drive root-cause analysis of card-related complaints and implement preventive measures.
• Monitor card performance trends, SLAs, and team KPIs (AHT, FCR, CSAT, NPS).
• Manage team performance, identify training needs, and foster a culture of excellence.
• Partner with Products, Fraud and Risk teams to balance security and customer experience.
• Improve customer communication during fraud, blocks and investigations.
• Drive the adoption of digital card features (virtual cards, controls, notifications self-service tools)
• Support automation and AI-enabled servicing initiatives
• Champion customer centric innovation across the card lifecycle.
• Translate insights into service improvements, policy changes and product enhancements.
• Prepare and present regular reports on card support performance to senior management.
• Ensure adherence to regulatory and bank standards in all card support operations.
• Own customer feedback loops and complaint reduction initiatives
• Track and analyse CX metrics (NPS, CSAT, complaint trends, call drivers, dispute volumes).
• Ensure proper documentation and audit readiness for Card Experience review.
• Ensure card processes comply with CBN regulations, PCI-DSS requirements and card scheme rules
• Oversee balance transfer, limit adjustment, contract closure, reactivation request, generate specialised reports etc. for Credit and Prepaid cards.

Key Performance Measures:

• Improved card customer satisfaction and reduced complaints
• Improved dispute and chargeback turnaround time
• Consistent, compliant and scalable card experience
• Achieve the target customer satisfaction (CSAT) and Net Promoters Score (NPS) for card-related interactions.
• Reduce card-related escalations YoY
• Achieve the target First Contact Resolution (FCR) rate
• Ensure 100% compliance with card dispute resolution timelines.
• Achieve team productivity and occupancy targets.
• Increased adoption of digital self-service adoption for cards

Knowledge:

• Strong customer journey and service design capability
• Deep expertise in card products such as (Credit, Debit, Prepaid, Corporate), EMV, tokenization, and payment systems.
• Data-driven decision making and performance management
• Strong understanding of banking regulations, fraud management, and card network rules.
• Proficiency in data analysis, reporting tools, and contact center technologies.

Required Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in business, Finance, Economics or related field (MBA or professional certification preferred).
• 8 – 10 years’ work experience preferably in Bank or Fintech.
• Strong hands-on experience with card operations, customer experience, or contact center leadership.
• Proven engagement with card schemes, switches and regulators

Behavioral Competencies:

• Strong leadership and people management skills.
• Excellent communication, problem-solving and decision-making skills.
• High integrity and customer-centric mindset.
• Ability to work under pressure and manage multiple stakeholders.
• Proactive, innovative, and results driven.