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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.
Originally posted by bb1webs
I’ll check you out M. thanks.Thanks!
BTW, my name is Dave.
