CAN WE ACTUALLY HELP OUR MEMBERS “GET LUCKY”?

After years of customer research, casino marketers in the US believe that there are three initial factors considered by players when choosing a casino to visit on any particular day. In order of importance, they are: Location, Luck and Service.

Those same three factors come up time and again in focus group findings with club members here in Australia.

So we ask:

• Can you control the location of your club or casino? Answer: No.
• Can you control your member or guests’ luck? Answer: No.
• Can you control the service experience that your members and guests receive? Answer: Yes.

As a result, we focus on customer service and delivery, and then to some extent, hope for the best.

However, an article by Toby O’Brien from Raving Consulting, a Nevada based casino marketing company, offers some thoughts on how you can actually make your gamers feel lucky. He also referenced a magazine article from a Southwest Airlines in-flight magazine, entitled, “Best of Luck” for inspiration. You can read it by clicking this link >>

In the article, the author Brad Herzog, explores the idea that we can be responsible for our own good luck; he speculates that there are four qualities constituting the differ­ence between “lucky” and “unlucky” people.

They are OPPORTUNISM, OPTIMISM, INTUITION and RESILIENCE.

Opportunistic (and therefore, luckier) people “recognise chances, and maximise them.”

Opti­mism means “believing you’re lucky.”

Of intuition, he says, “Lucky people make lucky decisions by being open to hunches and following their instincts.”

Resilience may lead to luck if you “relax, stay alert…be grateful, and always look on the bright side of life.”

As part of the gaming industry, club managers are aware (although I’m not sure that we always keep it top of mind) that we deal with the concept of luck every day.

Our most loyal members are the ones who feel lucky when they visit our properties, whether it’s because they actually win the games they’re playing, or we give them oppor­tunities to feel lucky with special promotions, gifts and other benefits, or because we treat them like royalty.

So how much attention do you pay to create this feeling in your customers? What effort do you make in your business to cause your players to feel lucky? What messages and activities do our members experience that maximise their opportunism, optimism, intuition and resilience?

Here are some examples of marketing tactics that you might employ to help your members get that lucky feeling:

1. Opportunism – letting our members maximise their chances of winning.

In promotions involving the accumulation of membership points to earn entry tickets for a prize draw, whether offering a few big prizes monthly or many smaller prizes more often (daily/weekly) or both, let your members see how many entries they’ve earned.

What if frequency of visit added a multiplier to those entries? For every day (or hour) that they visit or continue to play, their entries could multiply. So, if they earn 1x entries on the first day they participate, what if they earned 2x entries on the second day they participate, 3x entries on the third day, etc.? That would reward guests for play AND fre­quency, and in their perception, give them some control over their luck.

2. Optimism – believing they’re lucky.

This is one of the advantages of daily kiosk promotions, where players can swipe and win something every time they visit. Most clubs will understandably stack the deck of prizes in favour of their high end players, leaving their lower value  players with nothing or at the best unimpressive rewards. Your high level players are taken care of by your rewards program and ideally hosting service, (or if they aren’t they certainly should be!); so why not let your low to mid-worth players benefit from a daily loyalty promotions?

After all, besides earning points when they have their cards in a machine during play, it’s really all they have to motivate them to continue sharing their patronage, and money with you. How lucky would one of your regulars feel if they won dinner at your restaurant, tickets to a show, or an invitation to a VIP function?

Also think about introducing a fun element into the mix by offering every player a 4-leaf clover, a rabbit’s tail, or a chance to rub Buddha’s belly as they walk into your gaming floor.  Would your members respond to that? It could even be trialed as part of a promotion.

 

3. Intuition – follow hunches, follow instincts.

The most fun and successful promotions are interactive for the players, rather than just giving out points or prizes from a draw. Selecting winners and letting them pick their own envelope or box or balloon high­lights THEIR intuition. Letting them play a game where they influence the results or enabling them to trade up for a chance at a larger prize allows players to exercise their intuition.  And what if we rewarded them with an extra pick if they get really lucky with a significant prize?

 

4. Resilience – always look on the positive side.

Didn’t win a jackpot? Didn’t win a prize? This is a good reason to leverage threshold (earn and get) promo­tions. An example of a threshold promotion would be “earn xxxx points this month and receive this gift.” This doesn’t have to be every week – but could be great for a seasonal offering or special occasion.  Setting reasonable earning levels for your members means that anyone who wants something can go home with a gift. Nothing feels luckier than taking something home after losing at gaming; and guests carrying around promotional items make your entire club feel lucky.

So think about what marketing tactics you can utilise to create the feeling of “Getting Lucky” at your club. If you could make our players feel luckier, you are more likely to also make them more loyal.

Adapted from an article by Toby O’Brien from Raving Consulting

https://www.ravingconsulting.com/