VICTORS: A New Framework for Managing Customer Experience in Gaming

With competition increasing all over the world, integrated casino resorts are finding it increasingly difficult to acquire new customers and retain existing customers. The days of “build it and they will come” are well and truly behind us. Offering a superior customer experience (CX) is the only way for operators to achieve sustainable competitive advantage. Based on an exhaustive literature review and validated by real world implementation, this presentation will introduce the audience to a new framework of customer experience management for gaming companies. Discussed under the acronym VICTORS, the author argues that a superior customer experience is comprised of six ingredients: Voice of Customer, Incentives, Culture, Touchpoints, Organization, Relationships, and Strategy. This paper (presentation) will first establish the salience of customer experience for casino companies. Each of the components of VICTORS and their interrelationships among them will also be discussed. The tone of the paper will be research-driven with strong practical applications

CRM In Gaming: It\u27s No Crapshoot!

CRM, or Customer Relationship Management, though slightly more than a decade old, has become the management craze of the 21st century. Yet, managerial understanding of what CRM is, what it does, how to implement it, and the grounds for success or failure in CRM implementation, seem far from crystallized. This paper looks at why so many CRM endeavors fail, and proceeds to discuss issues critical to CRM\u27s success. CRM projects in casinos will have a higher chance of success if CRM is viewed as a business philosophy and becomes a part of the corporate culture. Appropriate customer strategy, organizational transformation, and due attention to issues such as business processes, organizational collaboration, training, and data integration will enhance the success rates of CRM ventures

Internal Marketing: An Antidote for Macau\u27s Labor Shortage

Gaming scholars the world over are in consensus about Macau\u27s bright future as a gaming Mecca. The phenomenal growth in gaming facilities over the last three years has created an acute labor shortage in this Special Administrative Region of China. Moreover, around twenty additional gaming and hotel projects have been committed so far, all slated for completion in the next five years. Expansion on such massive scale will further intensify competition among employers to recruit and retain employees, particularly if the provincial government maintains its current restrictions on importing labor into the region. One, and arguably the only way to hire and retain manpower in the dynamic gaming market of Macau, is practicing internal marketing. This paper reviews the gaming business environment in Macau and proceeds to suggest ten internal marketing tools and techniques that casino establishments can use to recruit and retain service employees in a tight labor market

Designing Culturally Compatible Internet Gaming Sites

Rising e-commerce volumes the world over provide opportunities to global marketers to expand their markets using the Internet. While Internet casinos have had their share of failures, the industry still rakes in three times the revenues as web pornography. Converging web technology allows for Internet gaming operators to expand their markets all over the world. However, appealing to consumers in different countries and regions requires adaptation of websites to the cultural milieu of the various target markets. This paper reviews existing literature on culture and website design and goes on to discuss the impact of culture on designing Internet gaming sites. A series of propositions hypothesizing the impact of culture on consumer responses to online gaming sites have been formulated using Hofstede\u27s cultural dimensions. Theoretical and managerial implications of the proposed framework have also been discussed

Change Management: Antecedents and Consequences in Casino CRM

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) continues to attract increasing attention within the casino industry. While the vital role of change management in making CRM projects successful has been acknowledged for quite some time, there is little in extant literature to explain the nature and conduct of change management in the CRM context. This article posits that relevant change management is a prerequisite for successful implementation of a casino\u27s CRM. Change management involves five key initiatives: selling change internally, creating an appropriate infrastructure for change management, CRM-relevant training, a reconfiguration of the organization structure and performance assessment measures, and recasting existing incentive systems. The role of the HR department in facilitating change can never be overestimated

A Diagnosis of Inherent Problems in Enhancing Service Quality through Internal Marketing and Organizational Identification in Macau and Singapore Casinos

With spectacular growth in demand since opening the market to foreign competition, executives within the Macau casino industry have focused their attention on enhancing capacity and opening new casino properties. Meanwhile, the Singapore casino market, barely two years old, has already produced revenues comparable to the Las Vegas Strip. Despite stellar past successes, the long-term scenario for the casino industry in both Macau and Singapore could spell trouble. Specifically, service quality stands to suffer because operators have not devoted adequate thought to their service culture and internal marketing strategy. With overall capacity in Asia slated to increase significantly in the next couple of years, the labor shortage for casino companies in Macau and Singapore will get more acute. Current impressive revenues notwithstanding, increased capacity will also put pressure on marketing to attract and retain valued customers. In light of these developments, we review five key challenges to internal marketing practices for casinos in Macau and Singapore: culture, climate, recruitment, compensation, and training

A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Business Complaint Management Expectations

This paper is in closed access until 9th Dec 2016.Copyright © Taylor and Francis Group, LLC. This study explores the complaint management expectations of 72 British and 74 German organizational buyers using automated online means-end laddering and a Hierarchical Value Map presentation. It conceptualizes the links between expected complaint resolution attributes by the buyer (i.e., means) and the buyer's value perceptions (i.e., ends). Unlike previous research, we highlight similarities and differences in the drivers behind and attributes of complaint management expectations across two countries (Germany and the United Kingdom). Even in countries appearing to be similar economically and culturally, we find differences in the desired attributes. British buyers, for example, emphasize softer complaint resolution attributes compared to Germans. Our study is the first to present a model of complaint management expectations incorporating the role of culture, and it provides managerial directions on standardization and adaption of complaint resolution attributes. Furthermore, it evaluates justice dimensions (especially interactional justice) and their impact on perceptions of complaint management