Meet our team: Amelia
As a mum of two school-age children and having seen the impact of her own mother’s work as a teacher, Amelia believes in the importance of education and giving kids the foundation to set them up for the future.
Since joining our Family Support team, she has been able to combine her own experience with her extensive background in customer service to build rapport with parents, taking the time to listen to the individual needs of each family.
We sat down with Amelia to get to know her a bit more and her approach when finding solutions for families.
Tell us a bit about yourself, your family and your kids.
I grew up in Auckland over in New Zealand. My mum worked as a kindergarten teacher, my dad was in insurance and I’ve got one older brother. I moved over to Australia with my husband, who’s originally Scottish, about 15 years ago and we have two beautiful children.
Our nine year old daughter loves dancing, she'd probably quite like to get into acting or any kind of performing. She's funny and witty, quite out there and vivacious - a very, very curious kid and likes to ask lots of questions.
And our son is seven. He's just a cool little dude that loves football, soccer, playing all the sports and he's just a jolly little thing.
What do you enjoy most about being a mum?
The best thing about being a mum is watching them grow up. Seeing their personalities evolve and the little humorous comments that they come out with. It's really nice being able to see their observations on the world and how they perceive it - just seeing their little quirks and how they process things. Also hugs at the end of the day and reading to them at nighttime - they're probably my favourite things.Why is education important for your kids?
To give them the best possible start in life. We want to set them up as well as we possibly can to be able to thrive in whatever the future may bring. I think education and a wholesome upbringing is the best way that we can prepare them for that.
We'd obviously be more than supportive of them following any careers they pursue, but just giving them that foundation to give them the best we possibly can to be able to achieve their goals and do whatever they want to do later in life.
Why did you decide to work at Edstart?
The reason why I applied for Edstart was that it was a company that I recognised. I'd seen the ads on the bus, so I knew a little about the company beforehand - education and fees was something that I knew about. On choosing the role after the interview, Maria (our Head of Family Support team) said how important culture was and I knew it was for me. My previous role had zero culture and it really took its toll not being in a supportive and fun environment.Where were you working before joining Edstart?
I've worked in customer facing roles ever since university starting off as a flight attendant for Qantas for 15 years.
After that I worked at a company which looks after workers compensation claims, so you had to be quite compassionate. We'd get calls where someone has been injured for four years where their compensation gets cut off after a certain period. They're literally losing their house so they’re understandably quite distressed. So I've dealt with many, many compassionate phone calls over the years.
I also worked for a software company that managed customer satisfaction NPS software as a Customer Success Manager.
Tell us about your role and what a typical day looks like.
I’m part of the Family Support team managing all of the day-to-day enquiries that come in from parents. This can range from adjusting payments to managing flexibility.
For example, a parent might call to let us know they can't make their next payment - usually we'll come up with a solution like deferring the payment or split it into smaller ones. The biggest stress I think many parents have is not knowing when they're going to be able to make a payment, so it’s important to reassure them by letting them know it's fine. We can easily recalculate their payment plan so instead of having to find say another $600 next week, we can give them some breathing room for them to catch up on their payments later.
How has being a parent helped you with your work?
I guess I understand a parent's desire and the importance of keeping their child in a good school, to provide the best support for their kids as they can.
You do have to be very compassionate and always try to work with them. I think I can take a compassionate ear to it when they're under stress and a real understanding of what they're going through being a parent because we’re all trying to achieve the same thing.
As we know every family situation is different, what have you found to be the best approach to understand their situation and help find the best outcome?
I think it’s about listening to what the needs are of the parents, taking the time to let them speak and providing a solution.
Really listening to them instead of jumping in to work out what the actual issue is and whether it’s a one-off or part of a bigger problem. Letting them tell you what they need help with before suggesting a solution to them, then validating if what you have proposed is actually going to work for them.
Can you think of a moment that you are particularly proud of?
There was one customer who's never missed a payment. She called almost in tears like “I'm really sorry, I'm going to have to miss this payment”. My response was like - “oh it's fine, we'll skip it and calculate it into the rest” - and she was so grateful! I feel like she was stressing so much about having to miss this payment and just giving her that relief where you've taken the stress off someone for a week.What do you find most rewarding about your work?
Getting to build good rapport with parents. It might be a one off phone call - or some calls might be more of a 20 minute longer chat - and at the end of it hopefully that person has had a good customer service experience.
I think these days everyone's so used to such transactional service, like if you call the bank. I think for a customer having an actual personal interaction with someone who remembers their name and is able to say ‘Oh yeah, you told me about your kids’. Just being able to have more of a personal friendly conversation rather than what it's like talking to the bank. I think that's quite rewarding having those more in depth conversations.
About Edstart
Edstart is an education fee management company helping schools improve the payment experience with family care and technology. We offer comprehensive fee solutions that enable schools to increase payment flexibility for families without the added complexity and workload.
To see how we can help your school, visit our main website.
Find out more
Edstart is an education fee management company helping schools improve the payment experience with family care and technology. We offer comprehensive fee solutions that enable schools to increase payment flexibility for families without the added complexity and workload.
To see how we can help your school, visit our main website.
Find out more