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Casino Improvement Index
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Casinos That Invest in Their Employees
Through Training Reap the Rewards of Improved Performance
By Martin R. Baird
I was at a gaming conference recently and an industry marketing
consultant talked about a publicly traded gaming company that spends
37 percent of its revenue on marketing. I know of a property in a
very competitive market that spends more than $1 million a month on
marketing.
Unfortunately, much of this money is going right down the toilet.
Gaming properties are throwing away precious revenue. The same
property that spends millions on marketing balks at investing one or
two percent of that marketing budget on training its people to
provide outstanding guest service. Or on putting together a
meaningful reward and recognition program for employees to encourage
them to give their guests an outstanding gaming experience. They
just can’t find the money.
Here’s the truth of the matter. The cost of employee training is not
an expense, it is an investment. An investment in the casino’s
employees – the people who provide the service that keep guests
coming back. Training is a critical element of adopting internal
improvements to boost the casino’s future performance.
There’s a marketing adage that says it’s 10 times more expensive to
get a new customer than it is to keep an existing one. There’s a lot
of truth to that. So it makes good fiscal sense to invest in
employee guest-service training and a reward and recognition program
to reinforce that training so your people are doing everything they
can to keep guests happy. Great guest service is critical to
success.
If you could reduce your marketing expense and increase play,
wouldn’t you be more profitable? If your guests had a better time
while they’re at your property, wouldn’t that lead to increased
play? Marketing and quality guest service each serve their own
purpose and they can work hand in hand. Marketing’s responsibility
is to generate trial. However, while it can set the expectations, it
can’t control the guest’s experience. If your marketing shows happy,
smiling dealers and spectacular food, that is what guests will
expect. Now each person who works at the property must be trained to
deliver that and more.
So if marketing is spending all this money on getting new people to
visit your property, what is human resources investing to help your
people have the skills they need to give guests great service?
Employees aren’t born with the amazing guest-service gene. New
behaviors must be encouraged and that takes training and setting
standards.
Here are a few things to think about as you roll out training and
reward and recognition programs.
If you want an employee to smile while assisting a guest – or
demonstrate any other kind of service-oriented behavior – it helps
if they understand why they should do that. It also helps if they
know how this new guest-service behavior affects them directly.
Knowing that management wants them to smile is not enough to create
change. People need to know how it affects them so they will
consider making the behavioral switch. Employees need to know how
improving guest service affects their wallet, not the company’s
bottom line. After all, people are more interested in themselves
than others.
The human tendency to be self-centered makes it a challenge to
improve guest service. Employees have to start thinking less about
themselves and more about the needs of others. That makes
guest-service training a priority because the people working at your
property must see the guest as the most important person in your
business. Ray Kroc, the famous founder of McDonald’s, put the
customer on a pedestal. He knew that for McDonald’s to succeed, it
needed to focus on the customer more than the burgers, milk shakes
and fries. He was right.
The same is true in gaming. If more attention is placed on the
guest, the property will be more successful.
So how do you get marketing and human resources to work together so
that one of them doesn’t spend its gigantic budget bringing in new
guests only to have them quickly leave because they didn’t win and
get the level of service they expected? It takes a team approach.
Both sides need to work together. Just getting new customers isn’t
enough. You need to generate trail and then get them to stay because
of the wonderful service they receive.
If you can’t accomplish that, then you’re just flushing marketing
dollars down the drain day after day.
Martin R. Baird is author of “Advocate Index™: An Operational
Tool” and chief executive officer of Robinson & Associates, Inc., a
customer service consulting firm for the gaming industry. Robinson &
Associates helps casinos determine their Advocate Index, a number
that indicates the extent to which properties have guests who are
willing to be advocates, and then implements its Advocate
Development System to help casinos create more guest advocates. The
Advocate Development System uses the proven methodology of Advocate
Index in combination with best business practices to chart a course
for growth and profitability. More information about the Advocate
Development System and Robinson and Associates is available at the
company’s Web sites at
www.advocatedevelopmentsystem.com and
www.casinocustomerservice.com. A copy of “Advocate Index:
An Operational Tool” may be obtained by calling 206-774-8856.
Robinson & Associates may be reached by phone at 206-774-8856 or by
e-mail at mbaird@casinocustomerservice.com. Based in Annapolis,
Maryland, Robinson & Associates is a member of the Casino Management
Association and an associate member of the National Indian Gaming
Association. |
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