Nicolas Plaister

Since returning from Australia I have been fortunate enough to return to my Senior Collector & Negotiator role.

This is a very challenging and rewarding role, supporting the most vulnerable members going through financial hardships, supporting members through their finances to help them manage their debts and accounts going forward.

This role requires a lot of empathy, critical thinking and the ability to think outside the box and sometimes outside of process to ensure we are doing the right thing and coming to the right outcomes for our members. The ability to adapt to any situation and change in conversation is essential.

I went to Australia for a second year working holiday, this was an opportunity only available until you're 33 so I made the difficult to choice to leave Nationwide.

During my year here I started working for 7 months at a 5 star rooftop hotel in Brisbane where I got to meet and take care of a lot of rich and famous people.

My last 4 months in Australia I was fortunate enough to be a temporary contractor for National Australia Bank. I was taken on to work a temporary remediation project as an internal audit had discovered a widespread non disclosure of bank guarantee fees since a system change in 2017. I was part of a group responsible for analysing digital documents and reporting directly to NAB executives our findings on business contracts where fees were undisclosed to ensure remediation was carried out correctly.

This was a very exciting opportunity which required high level of accuracy as this remediation issue was costing the business millions and potentially having harmful impact on the banks reputation so everything had to be checked and crosschecked and pass checks by 3 individuals.

I joined Nationwide as a Senior Collector & Negotiator, this is a challenging and fast pace role where we support some of the most vulnerable members going through financial hardships.

We would need to use effective questioning and conversation to understand someone's financial and personal situation to ensure we come to the right outcome for that individual, sometimes needing to think outside of the box and outside of process.

I quickly developed my skills in this role and within 2 months was taking an active role in my team to support my colleagues where needed if support chats were busy.

After losing my overseas work due to COVID and then Brexit implications I started working for Thames Water the UK's larges water provider.

I worked in their billing department dealing with complaints and leak investigations. This was a very fast paced telephony role, as Thames Water supplies over 15 million households in the UK.

I was responsible for handling complaints, using effecting questioning to identify if an investigation was needed for leaks or joint supplies. This role required the ability to have difficult conversations as I was responsible for ensuring that company money and engineer investigations weren't wasted where not necessary and to help people understand their water usage.

During my time at Thames Water, due to my work quality and strong work ethic I was promoted to a specialist. this role was a support role supporting agents on the phone with queries and taking over calls with difficult or abusive situations.

I did my first working holiday in Australia in 2019. I spent most of this year traveling mostly the east coast of Australia. I had lots of amazing experiences, completing my scuba diving certification at the great barrier reef, working on farms in the outback. I worked temporary farm jobs during this year and also did some fundraising work for Red Cross.

In April 2016 I started my overseas work. I started as an Overseas Holiday Courier, my responsibilities included:

Cleaning and preparing accommodation to a 5 star standard.

Managing bookings and requests

Working reception hours, dealing with check ins and check outs, resolving complaints on site to avoid compensation requests and negative reviews when guests return home

Basic repair and maintenance training

After my first year I was promoted to an Overseas Team Leader where I managed a small team on a resort in Venice, Italy.

I was responsible for a team of holiday couriers ensuring their work was up to 5 star standard, ensuring customer service standards were met as well checking in on personal wellbeing and ensuring there was team bonding and cohesion as we were all away from home working overseas and all from different countries.

I also managed a small on site budget to ensure it was used effectively to enhance guest experience throughout the season.

During my time with Eurocamp I completed an ILM level 2 leadership and management qualification.