Customer service failings threat to egaming brands
Survey shows operators brand loyalty at risk with firms unlikely to go 'extra mile' as 32Red rates best for customer support
A number of egaming operators are jeopardising their brand loyalty by failing to provide friendly and personalised customer support, according to recent customer service surveys carried out by iXP Consulting.
According to the audits, which focused on the casino and poker verticals, many operators considered friendliness as “nice to have” rather than a basic requirement, in many cases due to an over reliance on technology and automated support services.
The poker audit found many representatives to be “coldly professional” rather than friendly, which in turn created an opportunity for “operators who are consistently friendly to drive loyalty and word of mouth acquisitions”.
Loyalty was also likely to be impacted by slow response times with some operators having taken more than more than two days to respond to written queries while a number requests received no response at all.
In addition, operators were found to be unlikely to go the ‘extra mile’, however, those that were able to exceed customer expectations through excellent service “increased the likelihood of them [customers] being loyal to the brand”.
32Red was deemed to have the best customer support team having top scored in both the casino and poker surveys – the second consecutive occasion it had achieved the number one casino ranking.
“Building and maintaining strong customer relationships is the bedrock of our business philosophy and the result of the iXP audit underpins the effectiveness of this strategy,” Pat Harrison, operations manager at 32Red, told eGaming Review.
“We focus all our attention on ensuring that we deliver a ‘second to none’ player experience and these results are testament to the hard work and dedication of our staff in Gibraltar.
“Whilst we are pleased with the scores, they do highlight the fact that even the best has room for improvement and we will be using the results of the audit to further enhance our service to our players,” he added.
Operators were rated in a number of support areas including response time, product knowledge, personalisation and friendliness.
Bet365 and InterCasino positioned second and third respectively in the casino rankings while Poker770 and WinCake filled the corresponding positions in the poker standings.
Overall, the audit found levels of customer support were negatively affected by the operators’ struggle to find the correct balance between reducing the cost of customer support and providing a service that drives brand loyalty.