If you ask Mai Pastor, you’ll get a resounding yes. I just completed my third annual around-the-world training event in Dubai at the DEAL show. I was so taken by the energy of this group of symposium attendees. Mai is not your average party person. Let me explain how employment happens in FECs in the Middle East.
In Dubai, they recruit people from India and the Philippines to work the front line positions within the center. Last year, I met the corporate folks from Fun City. Fun City has grown from three locations in 2004 to 17 in 2011. So you can imagine the growth and learning they’ve gone through in the last seven years. Last year, Fun City adopted the TrainerTainment audition process because the recruitment had been very difficult. They would spend one weekend in the Philippines or in India talking with more than 300 candidates and tried to hire them based on a short interview process.
Mai was one of those rare finds seven years ago. She was identified and recruited as a party host at the time. Mai has a real passion for parties — and that is such an understatement. I can’t even find the right words to tell you how great this woman is at her job. She would give the energizer bunny a run for his money. Early on, the leadership in this organization noticed Mai’s attention to detail and commitment to making every party the best one any family had experienced. She was often requested to host parties and families would wait or change dates if Mai was unavailable.
Mai credits her direct manager at the corporate offices with the promotions that took her from a store level position to the corporate leader she is today. I think she gives him too much credit. Mai has tenacity and focus like I’ve never seen. I taught on Monday in Dubai. During the break, Mai ask me a lot of questions. When training was over she wanted more. Mai wanted to know how she and I could spend more time together and made me promise that we could have coffee or lunch on Tuesday after the second session was over. I’m pretty sure that “no” is not in Mai’s vocabulary. I also know that I learned more from Mai than I could ever teach her.
It is incredible to have someone so hungry to learn and so eager to improve the guest experience. I’m sure that Mai was thinking about her own path and career progression, but I believe those thoughts were and are secondary to how to improve the guest experience. She’s obsessed with making Fun City parties the best they can be!
In Dubai, they call it customer care not guest service. I really like that. I believe the world in general would be a better place if we understood that we are truly in service to one another. However, when I think of the idea of customer care, that seems to really fit what we are all trying to do. I know that Mai is an extreme example of care. She cares for her company and her family that is in the Philippines. She is completely devoted to Fun City and gives her all every day. As Mai explained it to me, most ex-patriots who come to work in the U.A.E. region only work for companies for the length of an initial contract that may only last 12 to 18 months. Once they have some experience, an employee typically moves on to another company using that experience to springboard him or her into a new and better paying position.
Mai’s commitment to Fun City seems to be founded in the fact that she was given a lot of leeway to get creative with the position. She loves costumes and entertainment. Even today as the corporate leader of the party programs for all 17 centers, Mai will participate in an event just because she likes to be with the customer. She still gets requests today to do parties and will step into that role once in a while to give the kind of customer care that Fun City guests have come to expect.
My point this month is that the Mai’s of the world are out there. People can be passionate about your business when you are passionate about them. Give your team the opportunity to succeed. Encourage growth and responsibility. Use good systems for selection. I recommend the audition process 100%. You get a chance to try before you buy. The Fun City folks said their new hires with the audition process were 100% better than the staff they hired using traditional interviewing techniques. I’m pretty excited about that. Spend the time you need this year selecting the right people and watch your business grow. Eric Harvey says it better than I can: “The problem with selecting the wrong people is that you end up having to live with them, fix them or fire them. All three are lousy options.”
