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Hi,
I’m probably going to lose a player that made me $500+ a month off poker for over the last 16 months; due partly to bad management on the part of a software provider – the player has always been tentative about playing there, but has chosen to play on my word, and that of the pokerroom’s skin (the casino behind the poker room) that all will be right.
Well as luck has it of course; all did not go smoothly and recently my big player was locked out of his account and then when he emailed support he got no replies until finally somebody answered him and they said they weren’t far enough up the food chain to be able to explain why the account was frozen.
This was naturally on a weekend so we couldn’t get human hands into the matter until the following Monday; and since this player knew he’d done nothing wrong, and since he had a shitload of money in the account, he had in the meantime before receiving the email response, (remember he sent several and had up to this point not received a reply)
so he called support and was hung up on after what I’m sure was a brief period of him being rather curt and with good reason as we later find out he’d done nothing wrong.
Here is the letter I wrote to my aff manager and I think you all would benefit to read it and consider incorporating this advice into your situation:
This is an extremely important issue that is the downfall of nearly every online casino at some point in their existence which is easily fixed but must be done and then done again about once every 3 months thereafter.
Now putting all fairy-tale “how it should be” righteousness and fair-play aside: in the real world there are certain situations where it from a businessperson’s point of view; it doesn’t make any difference who is right; who is wrong; and who has the right to tell the other to go to hell, in this case hang up on them which is the same thing.
Just because they’re (the player) is being rude, anything short of physical threats that are a real possibility: is not justification in my eyes for hanging up on my player, not when they are that big!
Let me explain further.
IMHO what needs to be done is first someone you can trust to do this job competently must be charged with the task.
make it part of their job to do this about 4 to 5 times a year.
Have them go around to either each one separately or as a group in whole; and sit the support agents down and explain to them on no uncertain terms that they are there to … KISS THE CUSTOMERS ASS!I don’t know what the current policy is; but it should go something like this
1. find out name and account #, AND LOOK IT UP! if its a player with a history of a lot of gambling been done, or that shows to be a big player; that should automatically send up a “Green Flare” which means basically “anything goes!”
Frankly, I am freakin’ amazed at this; here we are in a time when so much info is desired, accumulated, traded, sold etc, and much without proper permission to do so; and yet here we have a situation where literally tens to hundreds of $1000s of $s could be at stake at any given time (if its the right player to contact support) : and yet while support HAS permission to access this information, this option is not used to verify who and what sized player it is that support is dealing with?
That is pathetic biz. Does nobody care that just because you’re making a lot of money anyway, that they could be making a hell of a lot more if they’d only run a tighter ship? I do, because I don’t have the player base to be able to absorb the losses that come from a support agent having a bad day and deciding to hang up on a player just because he’s pissed-off. (and in this case rightfully so).
I mean we’re talking that because of (#1, the biggest reason of course) XXXsoftware providerXXX’s poor management … but put that aside, it is to be expected by my player in this case, he knows what XXsoftware providerXX is like, and chooses to play there anyway because he believes in me and you; and so when things go to shit and he contacts the place he is counting on to be the difference; and he’s hung up on? I don’t care if he made offending remarks about the support agent’s mother; ……
the very, very worst these types of players should hear from support is …
___________start reply
“Please accept my deepest apologies for having to ask that you wait until I have been able to contact my superior about your situation. You have been flagged by the casino as a VIP player and I am told if I don’t have the power to grant your wish, that I ask your patience while I do my very best to see you are satisfied with the outcome of the matter, and please know I will contact you as soon as possible with either a satisfactory reply or a phone # you can call to talk to someone that has been briefed about the matter. We here at
*___ your casino name goes here ___*
very much value your patronage and are continually doing our best to make your experience with us a pleasant one.”
________ end reply
this is serious stuff because its starting to be more than just the rare find. Meaning I know its starting to cost me some very serious change all because some dumbass $10 an hour pissed-off cause his dick ain’t as big as his brother’s: barely dodged minimum wage … flunkie… (whew!) … is not doing the simple to perform job they’ve been paid to do;
which is to keep our players happy.
I mean, if support wants to play ego games, let them do it on somebody else’s dime, not mine.
there should be a form at the end that pops up asking about each person’s experience with support agent to ensure they are being nice. This should be made known to support agents ahead of time. we’re not trying to catch them, we just want them to conform.the blame falls to management more than support however because you don’t blame the monkey for shooting somebody with a loaded gun. You blame the person that made that gun available to fall into the monkey’s hands.
Anybody with any experience and good biz sense would tell you that there are certain areas that must be continually checked for competency and one very big area is any place where people are paid a small amount to do a job that can make or break your biz. They are going to be much less likely to give a damn whether your biz is good or not. In fact, I’d guess many times they don’t mind a bit if they just cost their low-wage paying employer a 20k a month player.
Here’s the thing, while I understand fraud is rampant etc, and that support has every reason for being short on patience and long on tangible response (such as hanging up): there needs to be some changes to take place.
Support needs to take a page from Las Vegas. (sigh), I’ve said this before too many times; but I’ll say it again because its THAT important. What made it possible for an entire city to spring up in the middle of a damn desert and actually have people paying to get there to spend their leisure time was and remains one thing; customer service.
That’s why the big whales like Larry Flynt go to Vegas to play; not for the desert air; not for the 100+ degree days or freezing nights; and certainly not for any logical reason I could ever think … except one; that is; people get treated well. They’re not stupid, they know they are going to likely lose a lot of money; but they don’t mind. They rationalize that its okay because I’m on vacation and I’m being treated like a king.
They would never be as likely to get in the car, on a plane, and travel to the middle of a desert so they could lose their money at the rate casino games take it; which is fast; and on top of that; be treated like they were thieves or conmen.
But that is exactly the feel I usually get whenever I have to contact support at nearly all online casinos. I feel like they’re sitting there with their eyes squinted and accusation is in the tone of every word spoken to me.
Even when I get a support agent that is nice friendly, I know they are ready to jump to assumptions with the slightest provocation. Or I feel that way anyway, and its because I’ve been trained to feel that way over the years.
You want to stand out from the crowd? be one better than the next casino which is offering the same software ie the same games? Here’s the answer.
Don’t just send out a “memo”, nor an email. Have a real human make eye contact with all the support agents and go over this and then remind them again in 3 months.
That they’re job is to … KISS THE CUSTOMER’S ASS!
So here’s the short list.
1. need to have the talk with the support agents :
That they’re job is to … KISS THE CUSTOMER’S ASS!2. get it set up so that when support looks up a players account; that if its a big player, or a proven loyal small timer: that they (support agents) are immediately made aware that this is a VIP and therefore EXTRA! ASS KISSING is in order!
3. have the below mentioned reply made available to support so they can cut and paste it if necessary. Perhaps if its in a form response, it will be easier for support to be
“nice about it”What is your casino’s policy towards players contacting CS?
do you have any sort of plan or strategy the agent is suppose to follow in respect to the agent finding out how big the player is: before they start throwing out replies which they know are not going to please the player?
I will go on record right now to state that if its a big player, and push comes to shove, take the damn money out of my earnings rather than piss-off the player: if that is what its going to take.
But under no circumstances allow a player worth $1000s to be turned-off because he’d said the game he was playing froze up and now the casino owes him $75, before you say no way, I say: take it out of my share; I can’t afford to lose a player like that over a stinking $75.
I hope this hasn’t fallen on deaf ears. It seems like I make this post about once a year, and I don’t keep doing it because I forgot that I’d already published the first time; but rather because it seems the casinos forget and need reminding.
Agreed. Pi$$ing off big players is stupid and bad business.
You tell ’em, Steve.
I have made this issue painfully clear to various casino operators, sometimes in person, sometimes while on stage giving a presentation or sitting on a panel – and some of the people here at CAP who have seen me speak will tell you that I do not hold back just because I am on stage – I am not afraid to embarrass an operator publicly if he/she is not able to deliver the goods, whether it be an affiliate or a player issue.
Some operators, as a result, keep me at arm’s length, but don’t block me out completely because not only am I usually right, but because they fear the consequences if I should decide to take further action (such as letting you all know LOL).
Other operators understand that I am no-nonsense and are able to take constructive criticism the right way. And some operators just argue with me until they see the light… then conveniently forget that there ever was an issue.
Customer support is the #1 failure of ALL casino operators – I am convinced that only operations such as 32Red and Trident have a decent operation – with the rest trailing way behind, even if they think they are doing well. Though Phoenician sort of falls in between, as they actually are pretty good.
Face it, operators – your support will be your downfall in the long run – you cannot afford to let uninformed or newbie support staff run your operations.
It’s elementary and common knowledge that excellent support staff is an extremely important key to the overall reputation and long-term success of a business.
Having great software is good, but having great software only to follow it up with rude or ignorant support staff is inexcusable.
In most cases, the support staff are the only people who interact directly with the customer, and they are the casino as far as the customer is concerned.
It’s well worth it to invest in proper training and decent wages to insure that your customers will be treated professionally and with great care.
To do otherwise – to hire low-payed and poorly trained people to save a few pennies – is a bad business plan that costs more in business than the money saved. It makes no sense, and we all pay for it in the long run.
thanks so much to everyone for the support.
This truly is an unecessary blemish on an industry which is inherently plagued with bad press to begin with; the last thing we need is to further muddy the waters by saving a few dollars on as Fergie so correctly puts it
the support staff are the only people who interact directly with the customer, and they are the casino as far as the customer is concerned.
since the majority of your players come from the US, how many of you have agents that can actually speak the language fluently without a heavy accent?
said with no offense intended; I can hardly undertand most the aff managers I have ever talked with on the phone. Most the time I just say yes and uh-huh because quite frankly I get tired of saying “pardon me, could you say that again?”
I’ve said this before, that perhaps emails are better than phone calls for that very reason. (+ everything is on paper if you need to reflect on a conversation)
Now imagine you’re a big player who has a 5 digit account with a casino and you have a problem and so you call and you get a support agent that you can understand about as well as you can understand someone you’ve talked with on a semi-regular basis that has an extremely thick accent.
Would you be so patient with a support agent as you are with that person? likely not because you’re the one with the money and they’re the ones that need your business.
thus the casino just lost at least $120,000 a year from just that one player.
How much money did you save by hiring that thick accent now?
Originally posted by bb1webs
since the majority of your players come from the US, how many of you have agents that can actually speak the language fluently without a heavy accent?said with no offense intended; I can hardly undertand most the aff managers I have ever talked with on the phone. Most the time I just say yes and uh-huh because quite frankly I get tired of saying “pardon me, could you say that again?”
Now imagine you’re a big player who has a 5 digit account with a casino and you have a problem and so you call and you get a support agent that you can understand about as well as you can understand someone you’ve talked with on a semi-regular basis that has an extremely thick accent.
How much money did you save by hiring that thick accent now?
Steve, that is exactly right. I avoided saying it, because I didn’t know how it would be received.
Not being racist or anything else, it’s just another no-brainer. The majority of the players I believe are American. Because of this, not only must the support staff be fluent – but it would be more of an advantage if they had little or no accent.
The reason is simple: People are going to trust people more if they are like themselves. People, and particularly Americans after 911, may be distrustful of anyone with a thick foreign accent.
Gambling is all about money. Trust is without a doubt THE most important ingredient for any casino to have.
Not being racist or anything else, it’s just another no-brainer.
couldn’t have said it better.
the player has always been tentative about playing there, but has chosen to play on my word, and that of the pokerroom’s skin
oh man, if that ain’t enough to make you feel like an ass. stick your neck out to make a sale and then what happens? ouch.
the importance of quality customer service cannot be over emphasized.
for the accent thing, i think it’s a more a matter of clear communication than cultural bias. problem resolution is difficult enough without clear comminucation, and if there’s a constant string of “excuse me could you repeat that?” it doesn’t help. well, it probably just helps tempers rise.
Some very good points made here.
Whats really interesting in this thread is the lack of affiliate manager comments.
Originally posted by titus
Whats really interesting in this thread is the lack of affiliate manager comments.I totally agree with all the comments made on this thread. We take customer service VERY seriously at Winward Casino, that’s why we have been in business since 1998. In fact, I sent a link to this thread to our office a couple days ago just as a reminder to everybody that affiliates care about customer service as much as we do.
I hesitated to post because I thought it would look like “spam” … but since you asked … I agree 100%
Now, I can’t honestly say that mistakes never happen. But rest assured, that at our company we have ALWAYS drilled into our customer support staff that their #1 job is to keep the customers HAPPY so they will keep coming back.
Sometimes that is very difficult to do when a guy is consistently losing $2,000 to $10,000 per month … but we have managed to hang onto whales like this by going out of our way to make them feel like they are being treated fairly and honestly — and giving them lots of comps!
Hi,
just out of curiosity, what kind of software does Winward run?
Originally posted by bb1webs
Hi,just out of curiosity, what kind of software does Winward run?
Winward uses Parlay Entertainment, which is by DCEG, best known for their bingo software.
We changed to that sofware last year after being a “no download” casino for many years.
We now offer a full range of 80 casino games in download as well as online Flash, Java and Wireless formats.
Sorry for the spam, but he asked!
I’ll check you out M. thanks.
