SEARCH NEWS:

 

Gillian Hatton on the Importance of Customer Service

"Customer service is any contact with the customer, anticipating what he or she wants, the actual transaction itself --- all ending with the customer feeling much more positive than when it began," says Gillian Hatton, president of IP Marketing and a speaker at the Fourth International Symposium on Internet Gambling and Management, held in Antigua in November.

According to Hatton, good customer service keeps customers coming back. "It's about attitude, communication, and building customer relationships," she says.

What do customers want? "You've got to be reliable, to live up to their expectations and manage those expectations," she notes. Being responsive and credible are very important in today's e-commerce world.

"Customers are your business, and the profits from those relationships are the lifeblood of any business. Achieving full profit potential from each of those customers has to be a fundamental goal," she says.

Hatton believes there are three options when it comes to customers. "You can get new customers but that's costly; you can expand existing customer relationships; or you can retain customers for life," she explains. Obviously, retaining customers for life is the best alternative. "In hardcore bottom-line terms, superior customer retention, loyalty and satisfaction bring, in the long term, sustainable profitability and the highest growth," she says. Good customer service is a key determinant of customer loyalty.

Because the Internet gaming business is growing so rapidly with many new entrants all the time, "you can't take customers for granted," she observes.

Several industry studies have shown that key issues for online gamblers are trust, credibility, site reputation, length of time in business, Internet security, and game fairness.

How do you address these concerns? "Customer service actually begins at the website. Customers are very comfortable actually helping themselves. They like the control and convenience of self-service provided it is simple and efficient, you give them the information they want on their terms, and the site is easy to use," she says.

Site architecture is important and should include comprehensive and concise help pages, and FAQs (frequently asked questions). It's also vital that clear instructions are provided on how to download and use the software.

Providing odds on each game can go a long way toward alleviating players' concerns that games are fixed.

Payment issues are another critical concern of players. Hatton advises, "tell them how they can pay, which cards are accepted, the actual time taken to credit deposits and winnings….Use of a third party E-cash processor can lend credibility."

Accreditation, security and privacy are other vital elements that need to be addressed. "Provide policies and standards on the use of personal information," she counsels.

Physical location is a major item that players want to know. "It's very important they know you actually exist as an entity --- this gives a lot of comfort. Also contributing (to credibility) is licensing, and membership in an industry association," she notes.

"Contact information is absolutely key. Give multiple contact options --- phone, fax, e-mail. Specify support areas whether it's technology or payment or playing the games. Send them to the right places and people that can help," Hatton says.

Giving this kind of information on the website can actually lessen the demands on in-person customer service staff. This allows a higher standard of service to be furnished, because customer service representatives can concentrate on higher level tasks such as fraud control.

"By implication," Hatton says, "it's very important that you choose the right staff, that they're obviously motivated, enthusiastic, flexible, and knowledgeable. It's vital to educate the customer service staff – for example, let them know about marketing promotions. They need to know this information in order to be able to answer questions intelligently."

Hatton also believes that customer service staff need to be empowered to make decisions and "make things happen for the customer."

Another important component of good customer service is compensating mistakes. "This really is an opportunity to actually build goodwill with the customer by making them feel better than when the transaction began. You want them to say 'Oh, yes, I had a problem but they solved it to my satisfaction and they were really good about it, they compensated me," she says.

Personalization is another good customer service technique. "Technology provides the ability to recognize players by name when they come to the site, providing their own specific information so that there's real opportunity to channel customer service into a one-on-one marketing basis," she says.

The Web offers unprecedented opportunities for learning about the customers. Hatton advises, "engaging them in continuous dialogue, finding out what they want, analyzing the feedback you get from customers and talking to your customer service staff."

"The back-end systems on the market today provide very comprehensive data mining opportunities to actually learn about your customers in the sense of what games they play, how much they spend and what their expectations are. This knowledge can be the basis of customer service strategies," she concludes.

< Gaming News