Maria Zaky loves any opportunity to help RBC clients and her colleagues. In her role as a Hybrid Collections and Fraud Agent, Maria’s biggest reward is assisting clients as their first point of contact with RBC and knowing how her guidance and expertise have impacted them.
“In Collections, I am able to communicate different solutions to clients who are in financial distress due to loss of employment, family death, separation or divorce, illness or disabilities,” explains Maria. “By agreeing on a payment plan, we are relieving our clients from worrying about one more thing and can be saving an entire family from suffering further financial consequences.”
RBC offers clients different types of debt management tools and payment arrangements and Maria helps them figure out the best solution for their situation. “I have had a lot of clients at the end of our conversation say ‘thank you so much for your help with this.’ And I really feel that I’ve been able to lift the weight off their shoulders,” says Maria.
Beyond assisting clients, Maria helps her colleagues by sharing tips and tricks she has learned along the way. As a result, she has not only inspired their potential, but she has also developed new friendships and strong connections within her team. “Working alongside supportive and motivating colleagues, even during tough times such as the pandemic, is something I am very grateful for,” she says.
Maria is also extremely grateful that RBC clearly demonstrates how much it values diversity and inclusion. She points out that the bank offers paid religious holidays for the ones that aren’t officially recognized and has zero tolerance for any racism that employees might experience during calls.
“All communities are well supported by RBC no matter the age, skin colour, origin or accent,” says Maria. “We can see that during virtual meetings. Coming from an Egyptian woman, it's great seeing different faces associated with different ethnicities and cultures.”
Maria credits this inclusive environment and the back-to-back training that RBC offers for her development both personally and professionally. She started as an Early Low Outbound Collections agent in September 2020, and after just four months she was offered training to assist Fraud agents with their higher volume of calls. That’s how she got onto the Hybrid team.
Maria’s willingness to go above and beyond for clients and her team was recognized in August 2021 when she won the Q3 Elite Banker Award. She was nominated by a fellow Hybrid agent for her mentoring skills and for stepping out of her comfort zone to reach her potential. “In less than a year of working at RBC, I can proudly say I have accomplished so much more than the goals I had previously set for myself at the beginning of my journey,” says Maria.
