Technology Delivered Customer Service 1998

Speech prepared for the Technology and Gaming Conference on how changes in technology will create enhanced customer satisfaction.
By Andrew MacDonald
Casino Manager, Conrad Jupiters, 1997

The competitive edge of the 90s | Firstly, it is important to analyse the existing impediments to providing exceptional Casino customer service. | How then are comps generated, collated and disbursed? | The problems associated with the system are… | How then might these issues be resolved? | Now that we’ve got the person into the Casino, provided them their game of choice and given them back some added value in complimentary benefits its time to see what they think of us. | Firstly, it can be used to establish customer demographics… |

What is required is a system like “Mikohn’s Safe Games” which are in either an early production phase or still in research and development. This system operates just like a Gaming Machine player tracking system. Total turnover is recorded and an allowance can be made on Blackjack for player skill. Essentially the system requires micro chips within the Casino chips, antenna under the table betting areas and either proximity sensor player cards or magnetic stripe player cards which the player inserts into a slot at the table. No more guess work. Good hard data to work with which is 100% accurate. This “Safe Game” product then interfaces with a centralised database including information on all Casino transactions.

Providing a central database is becoming very important if not critical. Nothing is more annoying than having different cards or different benefit systems within the same operation. A customer’s value should not be determined on any one aspect of the business but on the combined spend they generate within a period. A customer who spends $5,000 on Gaming Machines and $10,000 on Tables in a year is surely as valuable as someone who spends $15,000 on Tables. Obviously you could get smarter and look at profit contributions if you wanted to. The point is the customers true value may be understated if systems have not been interfaced. This can lead to the customer not receiving the correct level of recognition in terms of invitations to special events, offers or other direct or relationship marketing initiatives.

The other significant issue is when will we interface hotel, food and beverage, and other in-house systems with the Casino system? At the moment a human interface occurs when a player wants to be disbursed their benefit. Clearly what needs to occur is a computer interface to allow guests to access their benefits automatically at the point of sale. Why can’t a customer who has played Tables or Machines all weekend “pay” for their Hotel room direct and see their entitlement on “Spectravision” in their room and the balance of the bill. Similarly they should be able to pay for a meal at one of our restaurants using a player card. This does not need to be a stored value card (ie. a Smart Card) but can simply be achieved by interfacing existing systems.

In putting such a system together we have now ensured that benefits are generated accurately, collated into a single data base and disbursed to the Client without inconvenience.

Another area of inconvenience to a Client particularly in a Casino is the availability of various games at different times of the day. With Gaming Machines the same concerns do not exist as the machine sits there 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, passively waiting for the customer to play. Given the cost of labour on Table Games the same is not practical nor efficient and thus the issue of rostering certain tables to open at various times of the day comes in to play. Variable volume rostering relies on the ability to capture product utilisation at distinct intervals during each day of the week. To accomplish this effectively products such as “Mikohn’s Safe Games” may be used. This will capture the exact number of players at each table at any given instant thus enabling management to trend activity levels and open and close tables efficiently and effectively. Again, however, a system interface will be required with whatever computerised rostering package the company employs.