When an NRMA member is broken down on the side of the road and makes a call for help, it’s a customer service representative like Annette Nini who answers it.
She and her colleagues are in essence first responders; they need to gather information, assess the situation and act upon it, all while keeping the member calm and reassured that assistance will be on its way.
They’re the often-unsung heroes of the NRMA’s legendary roadside service. While patrols have been the heroic and happy face of the organisation ever since the NRMA’s first ‘guides’ took to the streets back in 1924, getting the information to the patrols has always been a vital part of the process.
Annette has been a customer service representative with the NRMA for almost five years. Prior to becoming part of the team, she was looking around for a new job when a familiar acronym caught her eye. “My parents had always been with the NRMA and the NRMA is a really good name,” Annette says. “I’d been in pharmacy for a very long time, and then after that I worked at CreditCorp as a debt collector,” Annette explains. “So there’s a big difference!”
She lives close to the Sydney Olympic Park office, so the short commute is a bonus, but she says it’s the people she works with that really make her job enjoyable. “You come to work and you love it. It’s a very nice environment, your colleagues really help a lot.”
Most of the calls Annette takes are regulation stuff – getting people moving again, organising a tow truck, or arranging to have a new battery delivered. But if there are unusual circumstances, or if it’s a hot day, she and her colleagues can face the brunt of stressed members.
“They think I know where they are automatically,” Annette laughs. “‘Hey, it’s 2020, don’t you know where I am?’ So they’re really stressed, especially when it’s hot and they’re in the middle of the road or on a motorway and they’ve blocked the lane.”
This is where her experience as a customer service operator comes to the fore. She understands that the members are stressed and under pressure and, if they lash out, she doesn’t take it personally. It’s all about resolving their situation as quickly as possible. “There are a lot of people that, if they start yelling, they actually call back and say, ‘Can you apologise to Annette? I didn’t mean it.’”
While rainy days used to lead to a high number of callouts, these days the call centre’s busiest time is often Monday morning. “I’ve realised that on the weekend they just leave their car,” Annette explains. “They don’t want to go out Saturday afternoon they breakdown, they’re not going to do it on Sunday, and there are no mechanics open on Sunday. So Monday, we are very busy in the morning.”
Even though the NRMA hasn’t provided traffic reports in many years, members have long memories and call the number on their membership card for information. “They just call me because they’re travelling to Bathurst and they want to know if there are any roadworks or there are any accidents on the motorway,” Annette says. “So I just go on the RMS Live Traffic app and tell them.”
The most challenging part of the job is fielding a call for a baby locked inside a car. “You’ve got a stressed mum on the phone, you just want to get there as soon as possible,” Annette says. “Or when there’s an elderly member broken down. They don’t know where they are, they’re travelling, they’re on a motorway... It’s a rewarding job, though. I love it.”
