How my trip to the dry cleaner explained what’s happening with your Casino’s customers.

If we made a list of the ten things we most want as casino professionals, my guess is “share of wallet” would be near the top. If we can increase our share and get that one more visit, think of the revenues. In a local market that three visits a month becomes four. Simple math says that’s a 25% increase. In reality, it’s 33.3%. Wouldn’t we all like 33.3% more business?

Well, here’s how we’re driving it away.

Recently I went to the dry cleaner, the same one I gave 100% of my business to for years. Instead of the usual pleasant lady working the counter, the owner was there. In my hand was a shirt that I was going to put on that morning and it was covered in grease splotches with the dry cleaners tag still attached. I paid money to have my shirt cleaned and it was returned to me with grease splotches.

So what did I expect?

A simple “I’m not sure how that happened,” would have sufficed with an offer to clean it again for free. No apology was expected.

What did happen?

I received a terse reply that implied I had put the grease stains on the shirt myself, and a long dissertation on how their equipment could not have done this. The conversation ended with a “Hrumpf” sound and that they would clean it, but instead of the usual one day service I could come back in two.

So let’s do the math.

I average one shirt and one pair of pants per day that I wear that are dry cleanable. This is not to mention the other family members clothes or my one off jacket, suit, tie etc. With 261 working days in 2016, that equates to 261 pairs of pants and 261 shirts at $6.85 per day or $1,787.85 per year. That likely nearly covers one employee for nearly a month.

So I just walked out your door.

I tried three other drycleaners. Rather than bore you with the details, I can say I found one I really, really like, and as a bonus I save 85 cents per shirt. I will go back to the other one when I have a quick need, but more like four or five times a year, not 261.

Was it one really horrible interaction that drove me away? No, that was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. Every few trips I would get a shirt without a button back or some other minor annoyance. All of those minor annoyances added up to be capped off by the one bad interaction that sent me out the door.

Think about your casino.

How well are your people trained? Did you just hire them and let them loose? Did they just go through the mandatory new hire training without any focus on customer interaction? Think customer interaction, not customer service. Think about your last customer interaction, an apology isn’t always necessary, but a polite measured response is. Think about your Shift Managers and your Directors. How do they respond?

Think about Social Media.

I’m not one to tell the world, but I did tell my family as I was made to feel like a criminal. Think about what could be happening to you on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and more right now…

At Touchpoints Marketing & Advertising we spend a lot of time creating memorable casino brands, but all that time and work can be undone by a single interaction. Part of our business is managing Facebook pages and a “share” on Facebook has almost limitless life.

To learn how Touchpoints Marketing & Advertising can help your casino, reach out to me, Ben Gravolet, personally at bgravolet@touchpointsmail.net