Table of Contents

Forward 2

Introduction 3

Genesis 6

Failure, the Gateway to Success 9

Player Development is the Key 12

Superior Guest Experience Results 17

There is strange mathematical urban legend called the six degrees of separation. This law simply states that all people on Earth are separated by at the most six other individuals. Whether or not this is true is left for debate but it clearly shows the interconnectedness of people on a planet that seems not so large anymore. On a much smaller scale this theory can be used as well. I’ve seen it performed for sports players and coaches, i.e. the Bill Walsh coaching tree, Dean Smith coaching disciples and even the six degrees of Ricky Henderson. For me and my industry which happens to be gaming the six degrees of separation would make me somewhat of a legacy. In only four steps, my gaming lineage can be traced all the way back to Arnold Rothstein, one of worlds’ most prolific gamblers, a man many say was directly responsible for the ‘fixing’ of the infamous 1919 World Series. Does this obscure relation mean absolutely anything other than some mathematical anomaly or does it set a tone for something to be expected? I would humbly submit the former more than the later. Knowing that I was nurtured in this industry by Jack Binion whose father, Benny nurtured him as well as the likes of Steve Wynn when he first arrived in Vegas, to Meyer Lansky all the way down to Rothstein does create and set a tone for me. Not a tone of arrogance and entitlement but a tone of duty and purpose. This lineage guides me to always strive for excellence and to always remember that it is a privilege and an honor to step on the casino carpet and try to make magic. This is what the following will attempt to dissect and explain what exactly creates that magic from a customer service and player development perspective.

Somehow we lost our way. We have strayed off course and the landmarks that once guided us no longer seem true. There is something about legitimacy that rounds corners and smoothes edges, corners and edges that once served as symbols of what one was to expect from us. It was perhaps bound to happen though and we could blame it on a myriad of reasons. We could attribute it to our new found sense of style and taste found in our architecture, buildings so complex and yet so simple that they induce awe and wonder in the most discerning of palates. We could perhaps blame it on the Michelin- starred chefs who wow our guests with their culinary creations. We could blame it on technological advances that allowed us to predict and measure every dollar played based on time, customer, weather and any other factor that could be quantified. We could even blame it on our unimaginable success that lead to an expansion of the industry in places we would never before imagined; from the cotton fields of Mississippi, to the corn fields of Iowa and to riverbanks across the American South. But no matter the culprit, the fact remains that we have become adrift, adrift in desperate times nonetheless, our compasses unsure. I am unsure as to which of the two is more dangerous, realizing misdirection and continuing on the same path or walking cocksure down a knowingly mislaid path and refusing to ask for direction.
But there is something cathartic about being lost for it is from being lost and misdirected that we very often find our true selves and with our true selves we find our way. This is about being lost and ultimately finding oneself.
The most readily available and powerful tool a casino property has is its ability to service its guests. Guest service is the cornerstone to the success of any property. A property’s ability to connect with guests, anticipate and supply their needs and occasionally throw in a desire or two sans self-directed adulation of one that one has just scaled Everest to bring back a Diet Coke are to a large extent what creates loyalty, a pure loyalty or at least as pure as one could hope for, a loyalty that can be measured quantitatively and a loyalty that competitors will be hard pressed to match let alone exceed. I am certainly not trying to dismiss or reduce the significance of other factors that make up a successful property; I am only stating that for an immediate, low cost, long term advantage, superior guest service is a viable route that has for sometime been taken for granted at best or completely ignored at worst.
Casinos for the most part are homogenous products like grocery stores, all offering the same wares. With these overwhelming similarities the need for product differentiation becomes paramount and the way to do this is through service. Service is magic, not the over the top Copperfield-type magic where a jet disappears on the runway but a simple piece of slight of hand where the movements are at once simple and intricate, inviting the guests to ponder why other places cannot or will not perform this same simplistic trick of ‘Give me what I want before I know I want it.’ The transparent service we see today in so many of our service endeavors tend only to alienate and exclude guests. Points for comps systems where guests can figure out exactly how much of their hard earned cash truly equals a $20 buffet, or a host offering dinner to a guest and surreptitiously using the guests’ own points to comp that meal only create at best a quid pro quo relationship between property and guest or at worst a relationship based on deceit and mistrust, a relationship that can be easily broken.
Service is the ultimate luxury. It is the universal language of guest retention and satisfaction. Service that begins in the call centers and reservations areas and extends all the way through the length of a guests stay, a service model that is carved in stone but still fluid enough to absorb and morph itself based on individual situations and circumstances. A service standard that factors in the miscues and hiccups inherent in our daily operations and finds timely and satisfactory solutions for those missteps, a service model that includes each and every employee who has the potential to encounter a guest and holds them accountable for their actions and more often than not their inactions and ultimately a service model that becomes a definitive and instantly recognizable competitive advantage.
A recommitment to stellar service does not require huge capital outlays or a complete change in the overall direction of a property. It is the benchmark by which all casinos are measured. For in an industry based so very much on chance, superior guest service should be the only sure bet.

It is the classic situation that arises when you are walking through the property and happen to stumble onto an employee and inquire on the day’s business. The employee immediately relates a story with more twists and subplots than a Christopher McQuarry screenplay. You politely cut the employee off, giving him the tried and true, and “Just take care of the guest.” Those six words are perhaps the most dangerous combination of words that can be spoken inside of a casino. Dangerous in the sense that the interpretation of this sentence varies with each and every employee it is spoken to. For the conservative employee it means playing the situation exactly by the book, for the self-motivated it is interpreted as an invitation to improvisation and for the wannabee future casino mogul it means the opportunity to run the joint as he/she deems fit. So if you say this line enough times, you will have germinated the entire property with very mixed interpretations of what seems to be a fairly simple directive.
Superior guest service is the cornerstone of having a superior property, the je ne sais quo that makes a good property better and a better property the best. But if service is indeed the cornerstone, why then create a service message that is nebulous and scattered, if there exists any message at all. Just as a mega-story hotel tower begins with a strong and true foundation so should your service message. Unlike the hotel tower though, an effective service statement is constructed from the top down. It begins with the company’s or property’s leadership, a statement of their non-financial expectations of what it plans to always give guests and what it expects from its employees. A superior service statement takes into account the history and culture of the organization and verbalizes it into a concise sentence or two that explains what service means in the grand scheme of the organization’s success. The statement must be easily understood by employees, as firm as a declaration of war yet pliable enough to maneuver through the minefields of everyday skirmishes.
Once a distinct message is created, it should then be distributed through-out the organization. Not as a mere memo but as a mantra to the sort of service the organization aspires to and expects. The distribution of the message should also come with explanation as to the importance of the statement and what the statement means to the success of the organization. The teaching of this service statement should be the first thing new hires should be exposed to in training. Everything else, regardless of occupation or duties is simply an extension of this service statement. If executed correctly this statement will become ingrained in the culture of the property, providing a roadmap for those times when a front line employee or even manager has become lost in the details of a seemingly hopeless guest situation. Your service statement is the collective thread that connects all facets of the property to a clear and succinct mission.
Once your service statement has become a part of the everyday culture of your property, you will gradually notice a change in the way employees conduct themselves and conduct the property’s business. This change will be noticeable not only by upper and executive level management but by your guests as well and this is perhaps where it matters most. In a world where the overall service standard has dropped dramatically where familiarity has replaced friendliness and coolness has replaced consideration. Your renewed commitment to superior service will remind your guests of a time sadly so long ago, a much better time.
Nothing keeps a customer away like a bad service experience. An experience they relive all the way home from their visit, share the horrid details with family, friends and work colleagues and forces them to take a blood oath never to return to your property. But who is really to blame, who really drove them away? Is it the busy slot attendant on a Saturday night who handled the situation using her best devices as to what was important and what was not, is it the new valet employee who felt the need to go back and forth with the guest over whether or not the car seat had been readjusted or not or the café supervisor who feels that guests are too impatient and spoiled for her liking? More often than not the culprit lies higher up the chain of command. The absence of a clearly defined and understood guest service message is an open invitation to confusion, inconsistent service levels and teeth grinding guest letters and phone calls. The truly sad part is that it does not have to be this way. The cost of implementing a well-defined service message and standard are minimal in comparison to the cost and energy expended in guest recovery. So that the next time when you are listening to that employee detail a situation and you tell him, “Just take care of the guest.” he will smile back, knowing exactly what is meant and expected.

During my time at the Horseshoe in Bossier City, Louisiana there was never a time after our first six months of opening where we were not first in the market. We did not have the luxury of being the first river boat in that market as a matter of fact we were third in what would eventually become a five riverboat market. We did not have the pick of the litter in terms of employees; most of us were either brand new to the business, or transplants from Las Vegas or Atlantic City, newbie’s in that particular market. There was always speculation on how we did it and how we maintained our position month after month and year after year. You would see executive level management from other properties walking through on a busy Saturday night hoping to catch a glimpse of someone brewing the secret formula so that they could see what we were putting in the ice to make the customers so loyal. Was it the covered parking, the hotel or maybe it was the larger than life but Will Rodgersness of Binion himself this was the most common of the speculations. The answer though defied logic. Our success in those early days was due in large part to our failures. Failure was our gateway to success.
I remember sitting in a meeting with a group of employees and Binion himself. The meeting was in regards to the overall running of the property and included employees from all of the various departments. The meeting quickly became a forum for finger pointing and blame-storming. Binion allowed everyone to vent stood up and gave this directive, “If I pay you over $9.00 an hour, I expect you to make a decision.” and with that room fell silent as the group calculated their annual salary into an hourly wage. He expanded by saying that if one of us encountered a problem we were owners of that problem and that he expected us to solve it. This is the sort of statement you hear all the time in meetings but coming from the owner of the property gave it more weight than usual. The meeting dispersed and small groups gathered trying to decipher exactly what Binion meant and what the ramifications would be if his edict was not followed. But then a funny thing happened. In the weeks following the meetings you would see various customers with varying levels of complaints engaged with employees from the meeting, the employees did not scurry off to get another person or someone from the department where the dispute occurred. Instead they stood there, listened, found the root of the problem and fixed it, all in front of the shocked eyes of the customer. Slot managers helping customers with beverage complaints, cage supervisors assisting with slot complaints, buffet managers calling hosts about issues relayed to them by customers about something on the casino floor and on and on until you were hard pressed not to find a customer in the casino who had not witnessed the employees service skills firsthand. This was the core secret of our success, that we understood that mis-steps were part of the process but that by taking ownership of the problem and resolving the issue ultimately provided us an opportunity to shine professionally in a difficult situation and showed the customer that we really cared and that they truly mattered. It also set a standard for service in the market that other properties would be hard pressed to match and on the rare occasion when they would come close to matching the service level, they would be reminded by the guests on how now they were running the casino like it was supposed to be run, like the Horseshoe. The guests who witnessed our service mastery would go on to become our most loyal and ardent supporters even though their initial encounter with us involved a service miscue. The ability to recognize that mistakes will happen, the willingness and courage to empower your staff with the tools to resolve these issues efficiently and the understanding that through very often failure is the gateway to success are tantamount to building legendary service.

In industry as in life, the challenges of evolution and maturity are inevitable parts of the life cycle. As the weight of evolution and maturity becomes greater companies must turn to adaptability and innovation as remedies to alleviate some of the burdens of the market and to broaden opportunities in the market. An example which is of some relevance today can be found during the oil crunch of the 1970’s. As gas prices spiked to nearly panic level, US automakers continued to manufacture automobiles that were energy inefficient to consumers. These automakers felt that since the industry was virtually a closed market in terms of other companies affect on competition that consumers had no other choice but to purchase the type of vehicles they had always purchased. If some consumers did stray and purchase autos from alternative manufactures it would not be enough to matter to the whole of the market. But a funny thing happened; the German automaker Volkswagen introduced a bubble-shaped car to the US market, the Beetle. The car was eye-catching, representing something aesthetically new and different to US consumers. The price was competitive with similar US cars if not lower than some and finally, the nail that flattened the run of US automakers was the fact that the Beetle was the most fuel efficient auto of its era. With this, American consumers fled in droves to companies like Volkswagen, Datsun, Toyota and a host of other foreign automakers. It wasn’t enough that US automakers lost consumers, what made matters worse was that worse than losing current consumers, US automakers lost the support and trust of the consumers. Consumers realized US automakers could have harnessed the same innovation and forward thinking as the foreign automakers, that they could have passed those innovations on to consumers but instead they felt US automakers purposely held back innovation for the sake of keeping down expenses and driving profits. This loss in confidence and suspicion of the domestic automakers stayed with the industry for over almost 25 more years. It wasn’t until US automakers could prove their product was as good as or better than their foreign counterparts that Americans started to reconsider but not forgive US automakers for what they perceived they had done. The fact was that since Henry Ford rolled out the first Model T, fuel costs had never been an issue to automakers. But as the world evolved and more energy was consumed, the United States had to look abroad for its oil supplies, fuel costs and availability became a real issue. The maturity of the US automakers did not necessarily bring with it wisdom, instead it brought an arrogance that they were ‘the only game in town’ and that all roads lead through them. Companies like Volkswagen had long designed and produced cars in scale with the landscape in which they lived. Cities were tight and compact so therefore the auto designs reflected this. When the oil crunch did hit these foreign auto-makers were ahead of the curve in adapting because they had long left the notion of ‘bigger is always better’, a fact that US automakers didn’t find out until it was almost too late. This is an illustration of what happens in many different industries, virtually no industry is exempt. And while the evolution and maturity components operate outside the control of the company, the innovation and adaptability concepts are wholly within a company’s control.

If this example could be applied to us we would all agree that our market as a whole has evolved and has and is continuing to mature. All companies in the market have made a niche and have burrowed down in order to preserve what market share they have. The adaptability and innovation components will ultimately decides who will thrive and who will simply live. From a player development/ casino marketing aspect, it is important to keep and maintain the current database of players but at the same time it is important to continuously reach out and seek new players. There are many ways to accomplish this: player parties, referrals, capitalizing on guest dissatisfaction elsewhere, the chance meeting, etc .But a seldom used but very effective way to draw interest is through alliances with people and groups where the principal interest may not be gaming related but the customer base of both share the same demographics. This sort of cross marketing allows entry into market segments that might have been very difficult on the strength of simply gaming but aligned with other interests creates a cross marketing that is mutually beneficial. Examples include: 1. The morning and afternoon drive shows on various radio stations. The informal setting coupled with the intended messages we want to put across to the listener makes for an innovative marketing tool. Introducing us for the first time to those unfamiliar with who we are and what we do and reinforcing and adjusting the message to those familiar with our product. This approach can be done in areas where our presence is strong as reinforcement of our message and to humanize our product, as well as in areas where our product is not as strong and visible as a positive introduction.

2. The attendance of various social and community events in our markets of interest. This would be a way to show a presence not only as a casino but also as an active presence and force within the markets of interest. Although our attendance would not be gaming related, it would put in a positive position as a productive force of the community as well as build alliances within these communities that could be later used.

3. The addition of a calendar of player parties in outer markets as a way to drive interest and revenue. Locations where our charter efforts reach would be targeted through this. This could be coordinated with National Casino Marketing to target locations a six weeks or a month before a charter flight to the said location.

5. The attendance to various sporting events with VIP players as a marketing tool to attract other players to the perks of being a customer.

This is a basic plan using innovation and adaptability in regards to player development. The message is simple, by making the brand more visible and human results can be gained and measured. Results measured in revenue as well as brand recognition and brand power. My final example is perhaps my favorite business model example. Before Michael Jordan helped make Nike the brand that it is today, the company was simply known as a small company that specialized in running shoes with the strange waffle soles. The company was located in Oregon which was far away from the urban areas of the US where basketball sneakers could be marketed and even further from Europe where companies like Puma and Adidas were the shoes of the masses. Nike CEO Phil Knight knew that he would have to position himself as something other than just a sneaker company in order to thrive in the market. He tried offering his shoes to various high profile athletes but all demanded more money than the company felt it could afford. In a stroke of luck, a young Stanford freshman tennis player from New York City made it to the semis of both Wimbledon and the US Open. His style was a far cry from the stoicism that the game had come to know all to well from its then king, Bjorn Borg. The young man was brash, tough and edgy like the streets of New York where he grew up. His attitude made him larger than tennis, it made him different. Knight jumped on the opportunity and simply supplied the young man with sneakers. Because of McEnroe’s then amateur status he could not accept cash for his endorsement. McEnroe left Stanford after his freshman year and he and Knight built the brand together. One of the first things Knight did was place a billboard size poster of McEnroe on the side of a building in Times Square. McEnroe wore jeans, a t-shirt, a leather bomber jacket and a tennis racket. His attitude was edgy, hip and fresh. The crowds loved it! Not the tennis, not McEnroe but the attitude, the edginess. From this Nike boomed! Signing Michael Jordan two years later and becoming what it is today. If you ever go to the Nike campus in Beaverton you can see Knights’ gratitude to McEnroe in the building named after McEnroe. The point is that Knight knew that for a brand to be successful it had to transcend the boundaries of its product. It had to go to the masses and stake its claim, be authenticated by the people and that authentication can be translated into revenue and brand loyalty. The gaming industry is no different, what ultimately defines a casino property is its authenticity, not the waterfalls or tigers shows just the gambling and the service that accompanies simple games of chance. In the truest sense, it is what it is.

In the ongoing battle to retain and expand coveted gaming market share, properties often resort to well-intended but misguided means to secure positive results. The usual remedies are offered by casino marketing in terms of increasing players club numbers by offering incentives to sign up for the property’s players card and/or extravagant giveaways to increase property traffic. These solutions are good and to some extent work but more often than not increase casino traffic at the expense of win per player. The ultimate solution would be to have a constant and fluid procedure in place that would differentiate your gaming approach and property from others, assist in the retention and acquisition of market share and be able to accomplish these tasks at minimum expense. The solution is Superior Guest Experience Results or SGER. SGER is developed not in a laboratory or by software engineers, it was developed by me, whose only claim to fame or measure of notoriety would be over 14 years in the area of casino player development. Fourteen years of experience in all relevant areas of the development of positive guest experiences in virtually every area of a casino property: table games, slots, hotel, and all other touch points of a property. Fourteen years, many of which spent under the tutelage of Jack Binion, learning how to provide guests the service that would make them continue to frequent your property and create a loyalty unsurpassed in the industry. Fourteen years where the basic logic of the Binion approach was learned and honed into a discipline. Now that basic approach has been taken and expanded upon to make it practical and relevant to what casinos are faced with today; homogenous gaming products, more discerning customers, the expansion of gaming in non-traditional areas and flat and/or gaming markets. We are seeing now more than ever that there truly is a finite customer base and with that a finite amount of discretionary monies those customers are willing to spend. We also know that large capital improvements and additions do not provide the type of immediate impact needed to provide the necessary push needed to quell the tide of competition and hold current market share numbers, let alone provide for the push required to acquire a larger market share. What SGER does is provide a continuous improvement on the entirety of the guest services experience by focusing on all patron contact points, collecting data in terms in contact point specific customer surveys, investigating said data, improving upon the contact point in terms of guests’ information, provide “gut solutions” for the most common issues and situations involving specific contact points to employees in order to expeditiously solve those issues, provide quick response resources in place to resolve issues of a more intricate nature and finally allow guests to see a real commitment to providing a superior service experience and challenge other properties to match our standard. The underlying principles of SGRE are that in today’s technology driven world, good customer service is becoming rarer and in some cases nearly extinct. Consumers have become overwhelmed by technology in what were once human interaction areas and are starting to demand greater and more personalized service. Superior customer service affords companies a distinct competitive advantage over other competitors and this advantage can be seen on the bottom line.
We have identified the major contact points, places on a property where employees and guests interact. We have also identified a customer experience hierarchy of these contact points as well as identified the usual weaknesses of these points and recommendations to fortify and make these points strongholds of superior guest service. The objective to this is to create a symbiotic relationship between all contact points, correct any deficiencies in those points and create a superior guest service experience from start to finish.
Valet Services
Valet service is one of the first contact points customers experience when visiting a property. A typical scenario would have customers coming in from an outer market on a weekend night. Customers are usually tired and worn-out from the drive and would appreciate nothing more than to be able to valet their vehicles, check into their rooms and proceed to the casino floor. This scenario seems very typical but what are the potential pitfalls from such a simple endeavor? The potential for error is two-fold. The first being that although valet is one of the initial points of contact, it is geographically the furthest from the casino, the distance between the two often leads to miscommunication at its best or a complete lack of communication at its worst between the valet and the other contact points. Often valet is not completely engaged as to events happening within the casino, hours of operation of outlets and standard for procedures required for players club, etc. To correct this valet services as well as environmental services should have daily postings of the events for the day as well as requirements for players’ cards and the hours of operation for outlets and anything else a guest might have questions regarding. The principle of this would be that once players are beneath the porte-cochere of the casino that signage no longer represents the property; it now becomes the job of the employees to represent the property through their actions or inactions.
Hotel Operations
Hotel Operations is another of the initial contact points guests’ encounter when arriving at the property. The previous scenario still exists, only this time the guest would like to check into his room as quickly as possible with as little hassle as possible. The weakness of hotel operations is again its proximity to the gaming floor, a distance that like valet lends itself to miscommunication. Nothing bothers guests as much as not receiving the requested room type or smoking preference. Inevitably though these situations will occur, the key to these sorts of situations is to correct them as quickly as possible, to put corrective measures in place so that when someone has a smoking room but really needs a non-smoking room the situation is handled quickly and cleanly without delays and extended wait times. Although the situation in and of itself is not a service issue per se, it becomes one when employees are called upon to correct the issue. Customers do not want verbal jousting with employees, nor do they deserve it. What guests want is their problem solved without the mention of some faceless name or some technological glitch. In situations like this it is best to have measures already in place that can be done to correct the problem. If there is a solution, offer it quickly and earnestly. If no real solution exists at that moment, offer to compensate them within reason for their inconvenience on the current trip or their next visit. Do not make a big deal out of your generosity, instead stress the property’s humble intention to correct this wrong. If the matter continues to escalate call a host, give them the gist of the situation and have them come down, not over a telephone but in person to speak to the guest. It has been my experience that adversity and miscues if properly corrected can do volumes to solidify relationships with guests and build loyalty. In terms of general needs for the hotel, suggestions would be the same as valet services; both of these contact points should be able to explain to guests the lay of the land, if you will.
Dining Outlets
From the fine dining outlet to the diner to the snack shop to the buffet, dining outlets are one of the most visited contact points a property has. These outlets very often are the only places hotel guests dine during their visit. It is because of the sheer volume of patrons these outlets see that miscues are more likely to happen. The volume also adds to the difficulty in giving each guests concerns their fair share of our time and effort in resolving these issues. In each outlet it is important to greet each guest amicably and not simply run them through like cattle. In outlets such as the buffet where the volume is perhaps the greatest, procedures need to already be in place to address the most common issues and concerns. With these procedures already in place, the nagging errors and miscues are quickly resolved, allowing personnel more time and energy to develop goodwill with guests. Again when issues are beyond the pale of F&B personnel a host should be called to personally attempt to rectify the situation.
Gaming Floor
The gaming floor itself is the most important of all contact points. It is the final destination for guests, the place where they have driven hours and hundreds of miles to be. The gaming floor is also where many different departments meet and work together for one common goal, to provide the best guest experience possible with the hope that the experience will encourage guests to return time and time again. But because so many different departments operate on the casino floor, it becomes difficult to establish a uniform standard of service throughout the floor. The cage, the pit, beverage service, housekeeping, security and slots all have individual operational objectives that are trying to be met along with the collective objective of the property. With such a diverse group of departments and individual objectives, it becomes difficult to find a common ground or base for these departments to operate from. This is a situation where a symbiotic relationship between these departments becomes most important and essential. The common denominator would of course be to provide the best customer experience while protecting the company’s assets. This means approaching every situation with the mindset of kindness and understanding toward guests and their situations, always, even in the most extreme of circumstances. This means that each department must work together with the understanding that achieving our ultimate goal requires all departments be engaged. The cage cannot do its job with out the correct information from the pit, the pit cannot do its best without the help of casino credit, and hosts cannot do their very best without the correct rating from the pit or correct information from the players’ club. So it becomes necessary to augment the cultures of these departments from singular to plural. It becomes necessary to look at the whole of the experience and not simply the slice.
Constant Improvement
Although we can attempt to fix service flaws, the ultimate judge of our improvement will be the guests and their comments on their experiences. This means being trusting and smart enough to accept criticism and improve upon our product based on the suggestions from our guests. Guests comment cards should be placed at all contact points. The surveys should be relevant to that contact point: valet, hotel, dining outlets, players club and the casino floor. It is from these comments that we get a sampling of how we do in the eyes of our main concern, our guests. We operate in a climate of chance with variables beyond our control as to whether or not our guests win or lose. With that in mind, it becomes imperative that the things we can control, we do effectively with the hope that by taking control of the things within our control we are able to offer an experience to our guests that becomes larger than games of chance.