DANA JOINS AMAR INTERNATIONAL
Nearly two years ago I wrote
an article entitled “Gloria chats with Dao and Jeff Mitchell of AMAR International”. If you missed this you can still read it on the Expat Living page of our website pattayatrader.com. I remember the interview particularly well because Dao and Jeff were both so busy with incoming calls before and after our chat. At one stage I think they had 2 mobile phones each on the go! Such is the urgency of their business it seems they need to be available and on call constantly.
AMAR International deals with repatriations for sick, missing or deceased loved ones. It is exacting work, requiring skill, diplomacy and tact so it makes sense that as their business continues to grow Dao and Jeff have selected a family member Dana Micallef to join the team. Having seen her mother Dao take calls, I am sure Dana has gained valuable experience simply by being in the same room. Plus having worked in France for a completely different business Dana brings new skills and procedures to the AMAR business. She says:
“Before coming to AMAR I was working in PR for an agency in France for three years. It was a totally different industry from the funeral industry. So I spent, I think,actually a year following what you (Jeff) do with Ma; the process of repatriation and cremation, and how you deal with and give respect to the families and the Thai authorities.”
AMAR has grown so much in the last two years with so many new cases, they urgently needed Dana’s help to manage information and navigate timelines more smoothly. She has helped create foundations that enable each case to be handled with more fluidity, especially when multiple nationalities, cultural backgrounds, time zones and legal frameworks are involved. “
It was very difficult, but I
think that we’re getting there. The fact that my mom is Thai but I was working in France, I got to see the benefits of both countries. I liked many of the European processes, you know, the way they manage tasks and implement procedures. Yet I also wanted to respect the Thai management style and the Thai way of working. Now by clarifying processes and supporting the team with the new tools it’s a way for everyone to build new skills. This ultimately leads to better responsiveness, more accuracy and stronger support for the families. “
As Jeff adds: “We try to think about the client first, we want to be available to answer questions and organise on the go. Dana has introduced tools, databases, and systems that make it so much easier to deal with this and our expanding customer base. Most families understandably crave information and updates and what makes our job quite difficult is that there are often people, maybe friends or family, all giving their opinions. Saying :Oh you want to do this, you want to make sure that happens, you don’t need the embassy, etc. So we have to try and dispel that quite quickly and the only way we can do that is to know the information as it’s coming in and disseminate that information to the family quickly. So it’s really like giving live updates all the time.Even if we have no news we’ll let them know that we are still trying to get updates for them because that’s more comforting than silence”
The positive changes implemented by Dana have particularly helped with customer service enhancements.Through the introduction of new tools and standard operating procedures the team at Amar are already seeing improved management of the growing customer base. Yet Dana’s talents are not simply confined to administrative ones. She is a Thai, French and English speaker and in order to fully understand customer expectations and provide effective support, especially in sensitive situations she is getting involved in all sides of the business.
Jeff explains “We’re learning from each other. Dana insisted that she wanted to do casework as well. She’s worked on the office floor with our team, even getting on her knees and crushing ashes. She’s learning from the top to the bottom and back up, which we think is what a family business is all about. And so going back to the expansion of our company, we have quite a few staff now and in order to support them and the additional salaries and overheads, we have to have structure. Dana is really helping to make us more efficient with new tools and systems that are most importantly aimed at enhancing customer service.”
“It’s all about giving the customer better service”!