Meeting Customer Needs for Clubs and Casinos

There are many challenges currently facing major registered clubs and casinos. However, there is an issue that is not necessarily unique to the industry but certainly is the major influencer of business success. That is, the ability to meet customer needs in an increasingly competitive market.

To address this issue, managers of clubs and casinos must recognise Total Customer Value (TCV) and harness the information associated with it to drive the business to success. Total Customer Value refers to the value of the customer across your organisation.

There are three problems which must be overcome:

1. Data is not centralised

The first problem is identifying, capturing and tracking information about customers across all the services that your casino or club provides. You have to be able to measure how much a customer spends across the gaming, bars & restaurants, and hotel areas of the business.

Without this information, it will be impossible to know the total value of your customer. You must connect all the data from your services to create a unified view of the customer. This leads to an identification of areas to focus more of your attention.

By centralising your customer data, you will be able to segment your customer base and find out who your low value and high value customers are across the whole organisation. You can then act on this by marketing to them accordingly. For example, you can offer low value incentives to low value customers, and offer something of higher value to the customers who represent high worth.

2. Data doesn't help you please your high value customers

Centralising customer data across the organisation will immediately show you which customers are of especially high value. Without this centralised view of their spending habits, it will be difficult for you to determine how to encourage these customers to use more of your facilities, and consolidate their use of the ones they are already using.

This is why tracking your customer activity is most important for your high value customer - you will be able to provide them with better service, by targeting them with deals or exclusive options that will further increase their loyalty and value.

3. Data is not easily interpreted and shared

The final concern for those in the industry is providing accurate reporting of the information you have gathered to your organisation. Without this the effect of the previous two steps is nullified.

It is important that the information and solutions are provided in an easily interpretable format that can then be transformed into an effective strategy. It is also important that this strategy is understood by all in the organisation.

By collating all data across the organisation and making it accessible to all, it encourages everyone to focus on the organisation as a whole. If things are not conducted like this it becomes likely that each element of the business will attempt to run their own strategy and seek only their own survival.

This can sometimes happen with unstable rivalry between elements of the business and will definitely lead to disjunction in any organisational goals.

Understand customer needs by looking at purchasing patterns

These above points lead us to the conclusion that understanding TCV to increase it is an essential goal of any business in this industry. Increasing Total Customer Value involves meeting the customer’s needs, preferences, values and behaviours.

The need for an understanding of customer buying behaviour and purchasing patterns identified by Ian is what drives many in the industry. Clubs and casinos must seek to understand Total Customer Value and how to use it in their business strategy.

A key part of accomplishing this involves amalgamating the available data and creating a central profile for your customers. This accumulation and formatting of data is the crucial step, with every transaction at your organisation being a piece of the puzzle.

By bringing these fragments together and displaying them in an easy-to-understand format, you will have a picture of your business as a whole. This will provide insight on your customers and what strategies you have to employ to better meet their needs and thus grow your business.