Casino Customer Service

What kind of business are you in?  Did I hear you say the casino business?  Or did you say the job creation business, the entertainment business, the escapism business, the food-and-beverage business?

In the more than 15 years I have been working with casinos across the United States, I have heard all of those answers to that simple question.  It’s almost as if a certain term or phrase comes into vogue and that’s what people say.

I’m all for creating jobs and opportunity, but let me ask you another question.  Is that why guests come to your casino?  Do your guests patronize your property because you create jobs?  I doubt it.

Entertainment is probably a better answer.  People do come to your casino to be entertained.  In his song “Piano Man,” Billy Joel wrote, “It’s a pretty good crowd for a Saturday and the manager gives me a smile, ‘cause he knows that it’s me they’ve been comin’ to see to forget about life for awhile.”  That is often true with casinos.  People come for distraction from the real world.

But there’s another way of looking at my question and it has to do with the difference between service and hospitality.  You may think you are in the service business and it’s true that you should always provide great service.  But from a big picture point of view, you are in the hospitality business. 

CNBC’s “Mad Money” recently had a guest who said that “service is doing what you say you will do.”  That is simple and to the point.  To me, this means the personnel at a restaurant are friendly, timely and appreciate my business.  But this person also went on to say that “hospitality is how good you make your customers feel.”  I think this distinction is huge.  Service means you delivered on what you promised, whether it’s written or implied.  In blackjack, for example, the promise is that the guest will be dealt cards and given a chance to win.  But hospitality goes way beyond the promise of cards to the feeling that the casino and its employees create.  You’ve got the atmosphere of the casino, employees doing the best job they can and players trying to have a good time.  Add it all up and what kind of feeling does that create for your guests?  If it’s a good feeling, you’ve got excellent hospitality.

My company deals mostly with the people side of the hospitality equation.  Sure, when we do a 360-degree evaluation of a casino, we look at the physical plant as well as the staff.  But for the most part, our focus is on people improvement.  We want every casino employee that we work with to understand that they have the ability and responsibility to help guests have a great feeling when they walk into and leave the casino.

Now one more point about service.  Many casino employees think that tossing cards or delivering drinks is service.  Well, it isn’t.  That is doing your job at its lowest possible level.  If I visit a casino and I ask for a drink and someone brings me that drink, I don’t feel all giddy and warm inside.  I don’t feel like running out and telling all my friends and family that they need to go to that casino. 

What will make me giddy is wonderful hospitality, and the commitment to establishing a hospitality standard must start at the top with senior executives.  Everyone at the casino needs to know that their job is to positively affect how each guest feels on each and every visit.  This isn’t easy because all too often management focuses on ways to write employees up or fire them.  Less thought is given to providing guests with an amazing feeling.

I know what some of you are thinking.  I can hear you grumbling.  How can I talk about improving service and how guests feel when you, as general managers and human resources executives, are spending most of your day deciding what cuts need to be made?  I understand.  I truly do.  These are not fun or easy times.

Think about this, though – now is the best possible time to improve your hospitality.  You can do training and help create a hospitality mentality.  Your front-line people will see the need for it because they want to earn more tips so they can survive.  For a change, perhaps everyone would be pulling in the same direction.

Commitment to hospitality is not easy to make, but true leaders will jump at the chance and they will do it now.  I was always told that the best time to do maintenance on tools is when you don’t need them.  In other words, you have the time.  The same is true with creating a hospitality culture at your casino.  I believe you have the time to do that today.   Doing it now also leads to a quicker turn-around for you and your people.  The companies that continue to invest and improve during tough economic times are the ones that come around the quickest when the recession is over.

What business are you in?  If it’s not hospitality and creating an amazing feeling for your guest, would your casino and your people be better served if it was?  Now is a great time to make the changes that are easy to put off.  Now is the time to move to the hospitality business.

This article originally appeared in Native American Casino.

To read other articles by Martin Baird, go to www.casinocustomerservice.com./post.htm

Martin R. Baird
Robinson & Associates, Inc.
mbaird@casinocustomerservice.com
www.casinocustomerservice.com
www.advocatedevelopmentsystem.com
480-991-6420

As I write this article, I’m sitting in a hotel in California.  My family and I are on vacation and, considering the fact that we have two young boys, we have plunged into the complete Disneyland experience. 

I’ll bet some people have stopped reading this article because I mentioned Disney.  They jumped to the conclusion that I’m one of the mindless people who thinks everything Disney does is perfect and that it represents the service standard that every business and casino should aspire to emulate.  For those of you who didn’t move on, I’ll let you in on a little secret.  I like Disney, but I’m not in love with it.  The Disney organization does many things very well, but even it has room to improve.

Nevertheless, our Disneyland vacation offers many lessons for casinos that aspire to give their guests a great experience.

For example, like most Americans, I have used my credit card more than a few times while at Disneyland over the last few days and, without exception, each person has handed it back to me and used my first name.  Think about this for a moment.  I’ve been to hundreds of casinos and used player club cards as well as credit cards and my name has been mentioned less than 2 percent of the time.

So does Disneyland have a customer service standard that requires all employees to use a guest’s name whenever possible?  I’m a huge fan of standards.  They make it crystal clear what is expected of each casino employee during every guest interaction.  Casino employees have free will and that means you need to explain, measure and monitor the specific service standards that your property expects staff members to follow.  Disney employees are so consistent in using customers’ names, I suspect they are indeed implementing a rule.

Now let’s consider the hotel where we are staying.  It’s less than a mile from the entrance to Disneyland and it’s an older property that doesn’t have a big brand name on the front of it.  As soon as we drove up, we knew that the hotel had been there awhile.  But when we walked in, we saw that it had been renovated.  It has the look and feel of a fun, modern California hotel.  It’s fun because one quickly forgets that it’s an older facility.  The first people we interacted with were at the front desk and they were GREAT.  They made us happy that we chose to stay at this property.

When we entered our room, we saw more evidence of renovation.  The old bones still looked like those of many dated rooms, but the modern colors, large flat-screen television and great bedding yelled out that this is a new hotel.  But it’s not!

The best part of the hotel is its people.  As we come and go, the staff takes every opportunity to be warm and welcoming.  They say hello and ask how our day is going.  If we are heading out for the Disneyland park, they share little-known ideas and suggestions.  When we return tired and spent, they smile and ask if we had fun.  I think the service they provide was best exemplified on our first afternoon there.  I called down and asked if I could get a shuttle pass to the park.  This very nice woman said sure and that I should come and ask for her by name.  It took me a minute to get ready to go.  But before I could make it to our room’s door, we heard a knock and when I opened it, there was the lady I had talked to.  She explained that she was going on break and wanted to make sure I got my pass.  Now that’s service!

Give our hotel experience some thought.  This is not a new, sparkling Disney hotel, but an older property that has been updated physically to look more current.  The decor is great, but the service is even better.  The people truly make the difference.

I’m sharing these thoughts because they mirror the opportunities that many casinos have.

First come standards.  If you want to achieve long-term success, you must decide what you expect of your employees and put it in writing.  Assuming everyone knows what is expected will not lead to greatness.

Next, use the standards to create a memorable experience for your guests.  Casino management and employees often think they are too busy to provide a great service experience.  I know your casino is busy.  On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, you have people standing three deep just to get on a machine.  That is great!  But at Disneyland, people wait in line for 30 minutes just to order barbecue ribs that are over priced and not particularly good.  To me, that is busy.  But when I order, the Disney employee still interacts with me and thanks me – by name – for visiting.

Finally, it comes down to people.  The hotel we are staying at is fine, but the people are special.  My guess is that many of them have worked at Disneyland because the service they provide is exceptional.  Understanding the importance of the people factor is critical for all casinos.  It is especially so for many rural casinos because they don’t have the newest property or all the amenities that some others may offer.  But they can more than make up for that with their people.  They can hire and train the best of the best.

Well, it’s time for me to head back to Disneyland where I will stand in long lines and pay crazy prices for bottled water and ice cream.  And love every minute of it!

This article originally appeared in Native American Casino.

To read other articles by Martin Baird, go to www.casinocustomerservice.com./post.htm

Martin R. Baird
Robinson & Associates, Inc.
mbaird@casinocustomerservice.com
www.casinocustomerservice.com
www.advocatedevelopmentsystem.com
480-991-6420