Acquisition vs. Retention

[Melanie_BBP]

Hi all,

I'm new here and this is my first thread. I was reading an article in EGR July’s edition which states “while claiming a free bet and trusting a company unsurprisingly topped the list of players’ basic motivations for opening an online gaming account is in the first place the extent to which online advertising has emerged as a powerful tool for operators to attract potential new customers”.

The article is by Stephen Carter, “Inside the mind of the remote gambler”.

It is a good article, though I’m missing what happens after a customer opens an online account. How about customer service? From my experience in the igaming industry, some players especially high-rollers become loyal when the service delivered, is to their satisfaction. Online advertising is a powerful tool to attract potential players, but to retain, there is much needed than just that.

In Affiliate Marketing, we try to have win-win situations, so the better we can retain and convert the players as an operator, the more an affiliate can benefit. Player acquisition costs these days are high and retention efforts are huge in this industry.

Is it something you take into consideration when promoting a poker room? If so, how do you measure players’ satisfaction? I can figure out that it won’t be easy to gauge the service level of each poker room you are promoting… how does it work for you? Share your thoughts and experiences.



Cheers,

Melanie

[Nandakishore]

online advertisement is definitely very useful to operators, but only if they have a satisfactory support for their players they will be able to retain those players they got through ads or affiliates. Sometimes I feel that many operators are not doing a good job of giving good help to their players. I have no other explanation for the fact that many players obviously ignore all those bright ads to land on affiliates' sites.

[Melanie_BBP]

online advertisement is definitely very useful to operators, but only if they have a satisfactory support for their players they will be able to retain those players they got through ads or affiliates.

That's true... the operators needs to add more efforts into retaining the player. Customer acquisition is more costly than retaining, service is very important. Once the customer is in the house, you need to do all you can to keep it in there.. because if he gets out.. most of the times considered it as a lost of business.

Good Customer Service to the player and service in the partnership with the affiliate. As together they can make the business a success... win-win situations..

Melanie

[Simmo!]

Hi Melanie,

Speaking as a (casino) player, when I started out, initially it was the bonus that got me interested because I knew little else. Once I had played a few and started to understand the games, software and service, that started to change.

After a few slow-pays, cashout times started to get more important and as time developed, it started to be about how I was treated in every department. I started reading forums to guage who was popular and why and followed that route, but 24 hr max cashout times (the faster they were the more likely thy were to get me to try them out) were a must for me.

Now, as a seasoned player, it boils down to how they treat me. Am I just another number, or would they do the little things I wanted. If I ask for a flush and they say no, I'm gone. If they drag their heels implementing a deposit limit, I'm gone, if a cashout isn't processed in 24hrs, I'm gone, etc etc. And in those cases I will rarely affiliate with them because my confidence in their retention ability is low. My tolerance levels are far less because there are casinos out there who do all those things, so why would I settle for second best?

There's very little in the way of promos that will tempt me to sign up these days. Maybe a new game that I really want to play would do it, or if I see a glowing player report on a forum. A big-prize slot tournament would probably do it to actually.

So basically, I guess it depends on the type of player you want to attract and keep. Newbies or experienced and even what level of experience. But the bottom line, that I think most casinos aren't geared up to cater for is: every player is an individual with individual needs, and if a casino can't meet - or even understand - those needs, then it's hit and miss.

One final note on that score: in all the time I've been a player, of all the many casinos I've played, I could count on one hand the number of emails I have had asking me how they could improve.

Hope this psycho-analytic post can be of some use anyway LOL
Cheers

Simmo!

[Nandakishore]

Hi Simmo,
A very good post indeed!
My feeling is that the operators don't spend much effort in differentiating themselves from their competitiors, apart from having a glitzering website with loud and ballyhooing dictum. That may impress the newbie for a while, but when they start going deeper into these loud shots and find plenty of distorted facts, they go to someone else , or they may come to some affiliate hoping to find some truth. And there lies the chance for tha affiliate. If he can supply the missing information or rectify the false information, then he may have won a 'life-long' customer.

How can, e.g. a Microgaming casino make itsself unique? Definitely not in the game section. From the moment you click 'Download' all actions are identical - registration, game, graphics, sounds, help - everything. The casino itself has no chance to individualize the process.

Support is the only field where a casino has its own face. Support in all its form - contacting and helping the player, making promotions special for him, paying out fast etc. etc.

This is what an experienced player learns and then he begins filtering out the garbage.

[Simmo!]

How can, e.g. a Microgaming casino make itsself unique? Definitely not in the game section. From the moment you click 'Download' all actions are identical - registration, game, graphics, sounds, help - everything. The casino itself has no chance to individualize the process.

One of the things that the online casino industry ought to do more with is RTP's, MG casinos don't publish them and I suspect all MG casinos are the same. If they could have some impact on that, and publish them, they would have another competitive edge option IMO.

[Melanie_BBP]

One final note on that score: in all the time I've been a player, of all the many casinos I've played, I could count on one hand the number of emails I have had asking me how they could improve.

Hope this psycho-analytic post can be of some use anyway LOL
Cheers

Simmo!

Hi Simmo,

Great post... What you said about the e-mails for improvement... I personally think that the operators need to invest time and money on surveys and not just surveys but have like a person in-charge for complaints... a special e-mail address to send your complaints or a person who the player can chat with, complaint and feel to being heard... and receive answers... but yeah.. sometimes players become demanding and in some point the operator cannot always comply with the requests made by the player...

Melanie