Jo Maxwell’s a born and bred retailer, and often jokes about racing home from school when she was as young as seven to hang out in a family friend’s corner store, and learn the tricks of the trade.
Fast forward a few decades, and those old-fashioned customer service and people skills are still evident in everything she does – whether it’s identifying unique student needs, developing new training resources, or forecasting financial outcomes for programs.
Coupled with her exceptional organisational skills and strong work ethic, this relationship-centric approach has been the building block in a diverse retail career – from humble beginnings rotating milk at the corner store all those years ago, to working as a Trainer and Assessor with education leader Sarina Russo, right through to managing customer service and sales for one of Australia’s leading department stores, David Jones.
And that’s not to mention joining forces with her husband to create her own business, focusing on disability sporting goods!
Since joining the NRA as Program Manager, Industry Trainer and Assessor in 2013, Jo has earned a reputation among members and trainees for being a consummate professional who takes great pride in delivering progressive outcomes, and who will go out of her way to uncover hidden student and member needs, and create a bespoke solution for whatever challenge comes her way.
It’s a rare skill Jo’s been able to cultivate through extensive mentorship and guidance from business leaders in visual merchandising, performance management, leadership, training/assessment and adult education including language, literacy and numeracy.
Now stepping into a new role as the NRA’s National Relationship Manager, Jo is tapping back into her customer service roots, and is looking forward to enhancing experiences for existing partners; leveraging networks; working with the technical teams in generating and developing new ideas; and building relationships with new members.
Get in touch with the NRA today – call 1800 RETAIL (738 245)!