Throughout the course of an individual's life, there are certain benchmarks that are hit, and one of the most prominent ones is finding a job that helps contribute to a person's overall development as well as fulfilling their dreams.
With some professions, helping and giving back to the community is an essential part of the job. However, very rarely do people get the opportunity to make a huge difference to many people's lives, just through a phone call.
Connector sat down with Priya Boney, Head of Customer Service and Winners Engagement at Ewings, the operator of Mahzooz, who has been changing the lives of many people, all from behind the scenes.
Mahzooz is a weekly draw based in the UAE, that gives participants the chance to change their lives by winning big.
Recently, Mahzooz has doubled the the top prize, with the grand draw winner receiving Dhs 20 million and through the raffle draw, one winner each week is guaranteed a Dhs 1 million prize.
All participants have to do is register on the Mahzooz website and spend Dhs 35 on a water bottle, that is given to charity.
Having been with Mahzooz since 2021, Priya has been making a difference in the lives of many, as she is tasked with being the bearer of good news, and responsible for making the calls to tell people that they are now millionaires.
Priya sees her job as an amazing experience and shares that being able to communicate with the winners and give them life-changing news, makes her job all the more worthwhile.
Priya said, "It is a big plus to the job I do, that I get to hear the happiness and excitement, and you feel so good. It is a great opportunity that I get to see so many people whose lives transform from just ordinary or in a lot of trouble. Many of our winners have been leading such challenging lives, and suddenly this happens, and it is truly life-changing."
With constantly delivering good news to the winners, Priya feels immense joy making the calls as she is able to transform the lives of people and is seen by many of the winners as a ray of hope in their lives.
Priya added, "When you see Mahzooz, it is a huge team effort to make this happen, but at that moment when you are talking to that person, for some reason, the person gives you the emotion as if you are the one bringing it to them and it is a very unique feeling. Also, you would never get that level of gratitude from anybody, as I am the bearer of news that would change their lives drastically and in a very positive way."
Due to the immense gratitude and happiness from receiving the call, many winners have shared their past struggles as well as their accomplishments after winning with Priya, saying, "Many of the winners stay in touch with me after and still see me as that one person who brought the news that changed their life, and I do not think that the opportunity comes to many. I am lucky that I get to do that."
With Mahzooz, there are multiple tiers to winning, as after picking five numbers, if it matches, the person becomes a jackpot winner. If four numbers match, the person wins on the second tier, with the third tier winners being people that got three out of five numbers.
Priya said, "We reach out to all the jackpot winners, whoever wins big and also the smaller winners that have won on tier two, which we call a match four when they happen to match four winning numbers, out of the five chosen by the machine. I have a team that informs them that they are the winners and reminds them that they need to check their accounts and follow the process. The only ones that do not get a call are the ones who win on tier three, those that match three numbers out of five."
As with any business, Mahzooz follows a strict process to ensure the winners meet the set rules.
Priya said, "We have a proper KYC (know your customer) process that goes to verify the winner because we have set rules that we have to follow stringently, where we need to verify whether the person is over 18 years old and if someone is not on a watch list of some sort. So we do a proper check on each winner with the details we have."
To verify the details of the winner, the basic information which was provided while registering is used to reach out.
While getting in touch with the winner, since Priya has been making the calls from the start, she now knows how to deal with any situation, as many that get the call can experience a range of emotions, from shock, disbelief, being emotional to being in awe over the news, saying, "To be honest how much ever you prepare for or look at and think about that this would be the react we could expect one can turn out to be something new."
One of the first calls Priya has ever made was to the first jackpot winner of Mahzooz, where while talking, the winner was stern and serious but once the shock wore off, he was full of life and ever ready to talk, with him requiring a few days for the amazing news to set in.
Although each winner's story is special to Priya, one winner, Arlene who won Dhs 10 million, stood out, as her story was so emotional, it moved Priya to tears.
While sharing her conversation with Arlene, Priya felt immense happiness from being able to share the news with her, as Arlene was previously struggling for money and led to it also impacting many people in her family saying, "She was in tears throughout the call and when you listen to her story, it was about how she was praying and hoping that one day she would be the winner and when she said, 'Ma'am, you conveying this message to me, you can not imagine the joy and happiness you have brought to me'."
As the individuals choose the numbers, many people's luck is changed overnight, through the Mahzooz draws.
Priya said, "The way Mahzooz works is that we do not pick a winner. It is the winner who has chosen the numbers. It is not us picking the winner, it is the winner picking themselves."
At Mahzooz, the payments are made within 30 days, as soon as the details and documentation are all in place.
Priya added, "The way our system works, the moment the draw results are published, our systems automatically run and whoever has the right matching numbers, their account will automatically be updated with the right amount. If someone is unsure if that a legit person is calling them, we stay on the line and wait till they check their account."
In some situations, however, where the winner has a low-income job and does not have a bank account, Priya along with the team at Mahzooz, help ensure they receive the money.
A previous winner was a labourer, who was not earning enough to open a bank account. Priya helped in guiding and assisting them in getting the right details and documentation in place, and with a letter of confirmation from Mahzooz, the bank was then able to assign a bank account for the individual to receive their money.
One of the key factors, as Priya mentioned, is to protect the identity of the winner, and although a press conference is held, only basic information, like their first name or the country they are from is announced.
Priya added, "As a business, the winner being public gives us the credibility and the seal of it being real. There are always questions from the general public if it is real or fake, especially when it comes to our kind of product, and it is normal for a person to question it quite a bit."
For Priya, being able to share the good news that the winner will soon have millions in their bank account is a job she can not get enough of, as it gives her immense joy, being able to provide that confirmation that the winner's life has now been changed for the better.