|
Press Releases & Articles
Success is in the
doing, not the knowing
Guest Column by Martin R. Baird
(Print,
PDF /
Online)
I've been writing recently about the
importance of casinos turning their guests into advocates. But
there's more to it than simply understanding that advocates can
generate new growth. Casinos will not move down this path to success
if they don't take action to make it happen.
First let's review what advocates are and why they are important.
Advocates are guests who would be willing to risk their reputation
and act as advocates for a property by spreading positive
word-of-mouth advertising of their own free will. Guest advocates
are highly likely to return to play again and generate new business
through the positive word they spread about the casino. I want to
make it clear this is not a "satisfied" guest because guests are
fickle and change with the wind. Measuring and trying to create
satisfied guests is a waste of time, energy and money.
That knowledge should get any casino interested in creating as many
advocates as possible. But in order to do that, they must have a
turnkey system in place to gather data on guest advocates, put the
data into action, make people accountable for leveraging it and keep
the process rolling forward smoothly. The heart of this system
should be a set of best business practices that not only makes
things happen but also gets everyone in the casino out of their old
habits.
I read a quote in a new book recently and it was the same thing I
have said so many times after speaking at conferences. The presenter
left the stage and could see the excited faces of the executives.
But he was disappointed. When asked why, he said, "Because people
are leaving happy and motivated but they do not have the people or
processes in place to do what we have just shared with them. Once
they get back to the office, they will do it the same way they have
done it in the past."
Casino employees all too often do things the same way they did when
they were at another property across town, across the state or on
the other side of the world. But best practices will change all that
and generate the action needed to create future success.
Here are my suggested best practices: leadership, program
management, goals and metrics, incentives, action planning,
improvement, and guest and employee closure. If you introduce a new
system and want it to succeed, these are the areas where you must
focus your attention.
I only want to make one point about leadership. For improvement to
happen, the casino's leadership must do more than just support the
changes. It must truly lead. I work in the area of guest service
improvement and I laugh when I hear casino executives say service is
their No. 1 priority. Later when we walk through the halls in the
back of the casino, they don't smile, make eye contact or say hello
to the employees. If you want change to happen, management must lead
through example.
Program management is critical but challenging. Why? If improvement
is going to happen and it affects multiple departments, centralized
management of the change is difficult to achieve. Slots never likes
to hear people from table games telling them how to run their
business. This makes it challenging to manage the change or to apply
the new system.
Another challenge of program management is that the people who are
expected to "manage" already have full-time jobs. Asking a person
who works 50 to 60 hours a week to manage a new program is not easy.
It can help sometimes to use outside resources that are focused on
implementation of the new system and designing it so the casino can
take over when the time is right.
I get frustrated when I talk with casino leaders about goals and
metrics. The idea of having measurable goals and metrics for
departments is hot right now. Casinos understand that the
performance of all departments should be measured. The part I don't
understand is what people are thinking when they create the
measurements.
For example, if my bonus is determined by turnover in my department,
I may hesitate to fire an employee who provides less than great
guest service. That will bump up my turnover and there goes my
bonus. As the casino rolls out its new system for creating
advocates, the goals and metrics for all departments must be tied to
a common goal. That common goal is what creates incremental
improvements.
Employee incentives are the next step in the process. You have this
new system and a clearly defined common goal. Now dangle a carrot
out there so people work to achieve it. If people know they will be
rewarded for doing what's expected of them, they will bend over
backward. The incentives need to be the same for all departments.
This creates synergy that delivers a clear message to all employees.
The next two best practices, action planning and improvement, are
the cornerstones of progress. This is where the talk turns to action
in the form of an actual plan. To me, this is the weakest link for
most casinos because this is where change happens and that creates
fear. It's said that water follows the path of least resistance and
so do people. The word "improvement" is just another way of saying
"change" and most people don't like to change. Expect a variety of
resistance.
Now comes closure. What was started needs to come full circle.
ResponseTek did a study and found that 95 percent of companies
collect feedback but only 5 percent of them inform customers and
employees of the resulting changes. Your casino's employees will
want to know how things are progressing, so keep them informed. As
part of the system, guests should be asked how the casino can be a
better place to play. Let them know how their input was used.
The path to success is not in the knowing, it's in the doing.
Understanding that guest advocates are important to a casino's
success is not nearly enough by a long shot. Success will only come
when that knowledge is put into action with a turnkey system that
has everybody on board and excited.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Martin R. Baird is chief executive officer of Robinson & Associates
Inc., a customer service consulting firm that works with casinos
around the world. He is creator of the company's Advocate
Development System, author of Advocate Index: An Operational Tool
and may be reached via his Web sites at
www.advocateindex.com and
www.casinocustomerservice.com.
|
