May 2011

Tell Me Something Good - When Casinos Get It Right by John Grochowski

Ask just about any casino executive these days, and he or she will tell you the business is all about customer service. Make players feel good about their day and regardless of whether they win or lose, they’ll be back. Make them feel the least bit unwelcome, and they’ll find other places to spend their money.

A couple of years ago, Midwest Gaming & Travel gave players the chance to vent about customer service gone awry, things that made them vow never to return to the casino that had upset them. A woman who had an allergy attack, with face puffing up and sneezes coming fast and furious, was angry that she’d been charged a buck for water to take her pills. A blackjack player really didn’t need to play with a dealer who, when asked for advice, said, “I don’t care what you do. I just want to get to my break.” A man who waited 45 minutes for a cocktail waitress to deliver a beer vowed he’d never return when he waited 20 minutes to be seated at the coffee shop even though there was no one else in line.

You get the picture. Little irritations go a long way in turning off customers. But what about when casinos get it right? What customer service touches keep the people coming back? It turns out it doesn’t take much. A little tip from the dealer or slot attendant, an effort to make things right when glitches happen, an unexpected courtesy — any of those can make a player feel special. Check out some of our readers’ stories.

Mae: I was in a casino that was practically empty. That seems to happen a lot lately. Crowds seem smaller than they used to be. Anyway, I practically had my choice of slot machines. There were probably a few hundred people scattered around the casino, but in any one area there were only a few, and I could play what I wanted. I started looking for a machine, and a slot attendant caught my eye.

“You should start with that one over there,” she said. “It still has money on it.” I smiled and thanked her, and went to check it out. It was an older quarter three-reel game, and I usually don’t play those very much. But sure enough, there were 31 credits on the game. I guess the player must have left, because there was no club card in the machine and the attendant wouldn’t have told me to play if there was still someone there. So I played the 31 credits. To be honest, I felt a little funny about it, and I put in $10 of my own, too, so I started with 71 credits. I wish I could tell you I won a big jackpot or something, but nothing like that happened. I hit the single bars a few times, and a few cherries, and played for a while, but in the end I lost the 71 credits. Then I went and played the video slots I usually play. Still, it was really a nice, unexpected bonus to start with “their” money. I’d never had that happen before, and I’ve never had it happen since. I always figured the casino just kept the money when someone left credits.

Margie: This was pretty cool. My husband and I drove a couple of hours to a casino I’d never played in before. He’d been there a few times, but I hadn’t. When we got there, I spotted a sign that said they were giving a free case of soda to new club members after some minimum amount of play. It was a kind I liked, so I asked my husband about how much I’d have to play. It would be a nice bonus, since I buy it anyway. He said I probably wasn’t eligible, that he thought I already was a member of the club.

There’s another casino we go to that’s owned by the same company, and he said they have the same club. I didn’t think to bring my card from the other club. He did. He had his card in his wallet. So I went to the booth to get a new card, and I asked them about the soda. They said yes, I was already a member, but that I’d never redeemed a new member bonus, so if I played, I could get the soda. It only took me about a half an hour, and I was playing penny slots. We played a couple of hours more than that, had a nice time, went to the steak house for a nice dinner. Then on the way out I picked up my soda. I teased my husband that he should have left his card at home. Maybe we could have gotten two cases. They were so nice about it.

Ralph: I usually play quarter video poker, but this casino had some pretty good dollar games. I decided to splurge. I had a pretty good run, and drew four of a kind a few times, so I was ahead a couple hundred dollars. Hooray! I kept playing, figuring that if I dropped to $100 to the good, I’d cash out and take my profit, but I’d give myself a chance at a big win. I’d been playing for about an hour, and a guy in a suit with a casino name badge came up and introduced himself. He said he was an executive host, and he just wanted to get to know me, and if there was anything he could do for me to let him know.

I said my wife and I were planning to break for lunch in about an hour, and he wrote me a comp for two on the spot. He didn’t deduct points from my account or anything. It was just a buffet comp, but still. It made me feel special. I’d never been “handled,” or anything like it in a casino before. I talked to friends who are bigger players, and they said the host must have felt like I was worth developing as a regular customer, sitting there playing dollars. They also said that doesn’t happen much anymore, that the casinos don’t go outside their club formulas for extra comps as much as they used to. Whatever. It made me feel good. I won a little money, and we had a free lunch. Who can complain?

Alec: This started off as one of your horror stories, but the casino did an about-face and everything turned out great. My wife and I checked into the hotel for a three-night stay. We opened the door, and the room was a disaster area. The beds were unmade. The trash cans were full. There were cigarette butts and ashes on a desk with empty beer cans. In the bathroom, there was toilet paper on the floor, and I’d like to think it was water on the seat. The people who stayed there before us were big-time slobs, and apparently housekeeping hadn’t been in to shovel it out before the front desk sent new, unsuspecting customers to the line. Obviously, we were not going to stay in that room.

I phoned the front desk and told them that the room was a mess, that we couldn’t stay there. They said they’d send housekeeping in right away, and I said that was fine, but I wanted a different room. They said they’d send someone up. A manager or assistant manager arrived within a few minutes. We were standing in the hall with our bags; we couldn’t bear to be in that mess.

She said, “OHHHHH … this is not good.” Until she saw it, she hadn’t realized how bad it was. She said she had to make one phone call, but she would see that they made it right. They did. They not only put us in a clean room, but they upgraded us to a junior suite with a whirlpool. They comped the first night, and we paid the regular room rate for the other two nights. We both love the whirlpool, and with the money we saved from the first night being comped, we had a great meal in the steak house. From that awful, awful beginning, it turned out to be one of our best trips. We’ve been going back every few months ever since.

Jenna: You know how it is when you leave your club card at home, and I do it all the time. You have to wait in line to get a new card, and I’m picky. My friend sometimes will play without a card if the line is long, but I won’t. If I’m going to play, I want my comps, even if it’s only a free buffet once in a while. One day, I thought I had my card with me, but I looked in my wallet and dug through my purse, and there was no card. I went to the booth, and the line was MILES long.

It was going to take 15 minutes just to get a card. Then I saw a machine next to the booth, with a sign saying something about getting replacement cards there. All I had to do was put my driver’s license in, and it scanned it, and out popped a new card. I didn’t have to wait out that line after all. Sometimes I miss playing with coins and some of the talk with the change girls. I don’t think everything about the new machines and new way of playing is good. But that machine, I liked. If it saves me 15 minutes that I can be at the slots instead of standing in line, to me, that’s customer service.

Kim: I feel a little guilty about this, but the customer service touch I really like is those pop machines where you can get your own drinks. I feel bad that it means they hire fewer waitresses and some people are without jobs, but at the same time I like being able just to get a drink when I’m walking to the games, without a wait and without having to give a tip. I guess I’m a little cheap.

Roy: One of the nicest things a dealer ever did for me was point me to another customer. My friend Paul and I were playing blackjack, and just getting beat up. It was a $5 table, and I guess I was averaging about $15 a hand, Paul a little more. And we were both blowing our budgets. Every time I had a 20, Tom, the dealer, would have 21. That’s when I wasn’t busting, and that was really often. Same thing for Paul. How do I remember the dealer’s name? Oh, that’s easy. It was because of a little table talk when another player showed up. He was betting $25 a hand, and he was WINNING. He must have played for about an hour, and won a few hundred dollars.

I asked Paul if we should be jealous, and Paul said, “No, anyone who can beat Tom here is alright with me.” Then Tom threw in his two cents. “He’s just a good player. You should watch him. He knows how to play this game.” I guess he was playing some hands different than I was, but I couldn’t really spot the patterns. I guess I didn’t know enough about the game. When he left the table, Tom said, “I’m not really supposed to give a lot of advice, but you should ask him how he learned to play like that.” I don’t usually do things like this, but I asked Tom to mark my spot, and I chased after the guy. It wasn’t hard. He was just walking slowly toward the cage to cash in his chips. I told him the dealer suggested I ask him how he did it. He said I should learn basic strategy, that it doesn’t guarantee that you win, but it gives you a much better chance than playing a guessing game.

So I asked him how you learn that strategy, and he said lots of blackjack books have it, and he mentioned “Blackjack: Take the Money and Run” by Henry Tamburin, who I’ve since come to follow in Midwest Gaming & Travel. I bought the book, practiced the strategy and started doing a lot better. The dealer noticing and caring and giving good advice ranks high on my list of the best customer service I’ve ever had.

Gerry: I like when they have game demonstrations and learner tables. They don’t have them in Illinois where I live. I guess it has something to do with the gaming board and how many games are allowed, but I think if you’re going to ask people to play these games for money, they ought to at least show you how to play.

I play a lot of craps now, but I was always afraid to try until one day I was in a casino that was giving free lessons. They had a dealer walk us through how to make the bets, and let us do a little practice play with no money. They used chips that had no logos or values on them and couldn’t be cashed in. I had fun, and I decided to try the game at a $5 table. It wasn’t too crowded, and the dealers answered all my questions, and I had a lot of them. Isn’t this a customer service thing that makes sense both for the players and the casino? I think it is. I play more now because I know what I’m doing.

Eleanor: I once did a really dumb thing in a casino. I went to cash out, and pushed the button to print out a ticket. While it was printing, I changed glasses. I wear bifocals for normal wear, but looking at the screen for a long time gives me headaches. So I change to a pair of reading glasses while I play, then change back when it’s time to walk around. So I put my reading glasses into their case in my purse and put on my regular glasses, and started to walk away.

A slot attendant saw what was happening, and shouted after me, “Wait, honey! You’ve forgotten something,” and she stood by my machine. I’d forgotten something alright; a ticket with $283 on it. “It’s a good thing I caught you,” she said. “If we don’t notice, there’s always somebody ready to pick off those tickets.” I thanked her, and thanked her again, and slipped her a $10 tip. It was worth it.

 — John Grochowski is the author of The Casino Answer Book, The Slot Machine Answer Book, The Video Poker Answer Book and the Craps Answer Book, available online at: www.casinoanswerman.com.