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A new
book on customer loyalty that is about to be published has
confirmed what one manager at a global corporation already
knows. Companies will be left struggling because they
don’t have the willingness and the systems and manpower in place
to leverage valuable customer information they’ve gathered.
In the gaming industry, that information should relate to guest
advocates and a system should be in place to put the data into
action.
Harvard
Business School Press is about to publish a new book by Fred
Reichheld titled “The Ultimate Question: Driving Good
Profits and True Growth.” The book explores the importance
of turning loyal customers into advocates to generate future
growth and profitability. While at a European conference
on loyalty, one of Reichheld’s colleagues made comments that
found their way into the book. In an advance excerpt from
the book, Reichheld wrote about his colleague as follows:
“Watching the executives file out of the room after a
presentation, seemingly pumped up about loyalty as never before,
he shook his head. ‘You know, it’s sad,’ he said.
‘Right now, they all understand that their businesses can’t
prosper without improving customer loyalty. But they’ll
get back to their offices and soon recognize that there is no
one in their organization to whom they can delegate the task.
There is no system to help them measure loyalty in a way that
makes individuals accountable for results.’”
Martin
R. Baird, chief executive officer of Robinson & Associates,
Inc., a customer service consulting firm for the gaming industry
worldwide, recently had a telephone conversation with a division
manager of a multibillion-dollar global company who said much
the same thing. This manager said his company is tracking
customer advocates and even has an index number reflecting the
degree to which the corporation has advocates but that there is
no impetus within the company to use the index and no system for
making that happen.
“Reichheld’s colleague and the manager I talked to hit on the
head and there is a great deal casino executives can learn from
this,” Baird says. “Having valuable customer data is
wonderful but it’s not likely the casino knows how to use that
data to generate future growth. The casino must have a
system in place to gather the data, put the data into action,
make people accountable for leveraging it and keep the process
rolling forward smoothly.”
Robinson
& Associates is introducing to the gaming industry its Advocate
Index™, a number that tells a casino the degree to which it has
guests who would be willing to risk their reputation and act as
advocates for that property by spreading positive word-of-mouth
advertising of their own free will. To leverage the index,
Robinson & Associates also has Advocate Development System,
which uses the methodology of Advocate Index with best business
practices to provide a turnkey solution for future growth.
“In
other words, Advocate Index is the valuable customer data and
with Advocate Development System, our company can help the
casino create the driving force to leverage the index, hold
people accountable for making the most of it and make sure the
process keeps moving forward,” Baird says. “We do that with
best practices – support of casino leadership; program
management; establishment of goals and metrics; creation of
employee incentives; action planning; improvement through
coaching, consulting and training; and guest and employee
closure.”
Robinson
& Associates works as a partner with the casino to align the
property’s culture, mission, goals, policies and procedures to
achieve higher Advocate Index scores.
Guest
advocates are important to a casino’s future success, Baird
says. The higher the Advocate Index score, the more
successful the casino will be because advocates are highly
likely to return to play again and generate new business through
the positive word they spread about the casino.
“Reichheld’s colleague and the corporate division manager I
talked to understand the importance of having a system in place
to make the most of important customer information,” Baird says.
“Our Advocate Development System is the answer for the gaming
industry.”
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