The customer centricity goal and performance goal are the two dominant cause-and-effect forces that lead to the sustained success of a casino . They are symbiotic and synergistic ; one cannot optimally perform without the other , and both perform better when managed in combination .
Step 2 : Establish the Institutional Foundation Needed to Bring Back and Sustain Fun
There is a need to declare , announce and initialize the fun . The goal should be declared and announced as a major , critically important undertaking .
The driving strategy to achieve this goal arises from the following observation : Casinos serve hundreds , thousands , and even tens of thousands of customers a day , but they do so “ one customer at a time .” For each customer , it should both feel and be that way .
But modern-day casinos send unintended signals that they may be more interested in attracting large volumes of patrons and then processing the collective “ them ” than serving and satisfying “ me ” individually . Consequently , the driving strategy is to make customer service :
• First , “ It ’ s about me !” individually ;
• Second , “ It ’ s about them ” collectively , not vice versa . The process to achieve the strategy is not complicated . De-construct each individual , grouped , and collective target guest experiences ( TGE ) generated by your casino and then where there is an opportunity , re-construct those TGEs to create and foster an “ It ’ s about me !” environment .
The remaining foundation elements needed to support the “ Bringing back the fun !” initiative follow :
De-Institutionalizing
Regardless of whether a single entrepreneur like Bill Harrah , a tribe , or a publicly traded company , the owner must make a passionate commitment to “ It ’ s About Me !” That commitment must be evidenced in practices and deeds that continuously rise and break through the noise of business and so they can be heard externally by the public , internally by your employees , and ultimately and most importantly individually by each gaming and / or non-gaming customer .
Casinos serve hundreds , thousands , and even tens of thousands of customers a day , but they do so “ one customer at a time .” For each customer , it should both feel and be that way .
Humanizing and Human Scaling
Walking into a building of any type with a million or more square feet is intimidating . Walking into a large , mega , metasized casino that serves upwards of 80,000 people a day is even more so . The challenge is to capture the benefits of size as your casino gets larger without making your customers feel overrun , unimportant , and insignificant — i . e ., the absolute need to humanize your casino and make it about me .
Personalization
Casino TGEs are complicated to conceptualize , produce and deliver . The tendency has been to stamp them out in a relatively small number of variations in large number , e . g ., X-dozens of blackjack tables or Y-hundreds of slot machines . Your casino might be able to more personalize these options following one or more of the following principles .
• Personalizing Playing Areas to Player NWEs
Players typically first determine what table game or type of slot machine they want to play and then go find it . But the information players need to decide where , what , and how to play is largely absent . In all , playing areas and environments could be more varied and personalized and more help provided to the player in finding the right area , game , and machine .
• Personalizing Service to Player NWEs
The obvious method to increase personalized service is to add staff . But after a decade of listening to the beat of the cut ! cut ! cut ! expenses mantra , scored and published during the financial crises , arguing for more staff can still be a hard slog and worse , a career killer . Even so , the burden should be on those who refuse to show why well-researched and thought-out proposals to extract incremental revenue are not probed to determine if they can produce an accretive net increase in earnings , even if they add labor .
• Personalizing Casino Marketing Perks and Benefits Excepting VVIP and VIP players , for all remaining players receiving a perk or benefit from a casino can be an amazingly institutional , inflexible and impersonal exercise , about as much fun as receiving your airline loyalty club statement in the mail . How to personalize service for the other 97 percent to 99 percent of your players is the challenge . Part of the cry for fun to return might be a desire to be recognized and awarded in an earnest , personal , and human manner .
• Personalizing Price / Cost / Value to Players ’ NWEs First , a visit to a casino must be affordable . Once determined to be affordable , the TGEs must create a real or perceived value in the mind of your
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