"I delivered the right solution"

Obviously, as a Service Quality Consultant at one of the AA’s Call Centres I come into contact with our members over the phone every day. Ok, it’s not face-to-face like our Patrols, but it’s enough to get involved in some of the dramas that can occur.

Take this call I got a couple of months ago. The member phoned in to say that she had broken down on her way to Cardiff Hospital. I told her that I would send out a patrol to her, but as she was on a motorway it was too dangerous to attempt to fix her car there, so the patrol would have to tow her to the nearest service station to repair it. When the member was a bit hesitant about this course of action I asked her if there was a problem. It was then that she told me why she was on her way to Cardiff Hospital.

It turned out that her sister was already in labour in the maternity ward and – and the member was the birthing mother. So naturally the member wanted to get there as quickly as possible. That’s when I came up with a different solution.

Together we agreed that the patrol would pick her up on the motorway and then take her straight to the hospital to help deliver her new niece or nephew. In the meantime, I arranged for an AA truck to recover her car and deliver it to her home – safe and sound.

Jatinder Johal, AA Call Centre