Igor Rus, Director of Systems, talking about how Comtrade Gaming is implementing CRM system into the company’s portfolio with Gambling Insider.
Read about it in Gambling Insider magazine, September/October issue.
As competition between operators continues to increase, the capability of their CRM systems will be the differentiating factor in how they improve their revenue. Managing customer acquisition and retention is simplified with CRM systems since they integrate all player spending and behavioural data across multiple touchpoints and channels. Industry-leading systems are designed to track events as they happen (ex. hotel room reservation, casino activity) and store new information for customer profiling and award opportunities.
According to the UNLX Gaming Research and Review Journal, only the most competitive CRM systems contain the following product functionalities:
Provide customer service through customisation
Segmentation players based on a value scale
Targeting players with appropriate offers and promotions
Sharing player information across the enterprise
Improving cost management
Increasing profitability
In online gaming operations, we get detailed information about players activities while he or she is playing the game of choice. That being said, there is to mention that competition is much more extensive in this world, nevertheless of the location. Acquisition strategies that are fed by CRM systems are therefore much more developed in internet gaming. Having all the information on a play instant, real-time bonusing and dynamic segment strategies developed a much higher extent than in land-based environment. However with some newer technologies as two-way communication and media window facilitated by G2S standards for slot machines in land-based casinos allows the industry to bridge that gap.
On the other hand, the quality and availability of external data as food, hotel and lifestyle habits are strong valuable information in land-based operations data collection. If used in the right way in a combination of detailed data of a play, it can give us better insight on players behaviour and allow operators to influence time spent on the gaming floor, repeat visits and sequentially on quality of revenues.
CRM BENEFITS
Unified 360° customer view to show all property activity in one central profile
Dynamic customer segmentation on their activities for personalized offers
Centralized marketing automation with rules-driven bonusing and loyalty
Award customers in real-time while they are engaged at your property
Cross-selling between hotel/resort, slot/table games and food & beverage
Combination of what we learned from both worlds (online and land-based) allows operators to design state of the art CRM system and a top off the shelf product. Operators in that way are not just given the generic tool available to everybody, but customized gaming solution for their best needs.
1. What are the key features of today’s most competitive gaming CRM systems?
In my opinion, the operators need to react to player actions immediately and use cross connection points between operator and customer (mobile app, slot machine, etc.) for real-time bonusing and instant reaction to players needs. With a 360° player view, the operator can automatically run the promotions for individual players and segments.
2. Comtrade Gaming expands its product portfolio with a CRM system. What are the solutions you come up with?
One of the newer systems leading the CRM pack is Comtrade Gaming’s iCore: Engagement Edition – a growth opportunity for casino operators. The product addition upgrades slot machines into a promotional channel that communicates personalized incentives, venue promotions and player account information on the game screen. Additionally, it enriches the player experience on G2S standardized gaming machines using an award engine with predictive modelling to evaluate and communicate bonus eligibility in real-time. Casino operators need to target a particular and growing market segment within the land-based and CRM systems provides a straightforward and elegant way for operators to engage and reactivate all player segments.
Casino CRM as an omnichannel solution (as is Comtrade Gaming’s iCore extension) displays all activity information via pre-defined customer pages on the web or mobile app to monitor their recent offers, messages, bonus and loyalty updates or search through their promotional history. Event-based messages such as e-mails, SMS or push messages are also handled by iCore, providing quick feedback to the customer and ensuring new rewards are offered as soon as the customer is eligible for them, even during gameplay. Most importantly for the operator, the data collection portion of the CRM system grows at the same rate as the gaming operation.
3. Comtrade Gaming products are known to be customised around their partner’s business requests. How does it’s CRM for Casino Operators continue with this philosophy?
We focus personalisation capabilities on two separate fronts: client needs and player demands. Operators and regulators look to invest in products that can be shaped to their individual standards and business priorities. The added value of gaming operations is first and foremost a unique and personalized gaming experience that builds on the relationship with a player. Operators have much more insight into the player than we do so combining the industry knowledge and Comtrade Gaming state of the art technology we design a solution for our clients.
4. The popularity of Integrated Casino Resorts and millennial outreach each focus on two different player groups. How does Comtrade Gaming »CRM for Casino Operators« target each of these business priorities?
In a highly competitive environment, Integrated Casino Resort needs to attract its target segments and turn them into loyal clients. Player groups are not necessarily so different because millennials could be attractive by gaming facilities offered by Integrated Casino Resorts with a lot of igaming activities. The key is to convert those players and visitor into loyal customers bearing in mind a responsible approach. The operators gaming promotional products could be an important driver for the millennials to visit Integrated Casino Resorts. To enhance the visits these promotional products could be more peer to peer gaming based like. The players and visitors coming into the Integrated Casino Resorts are designed into dynamic segments that our system enables.