POOF - just like magic, you suddenly found more money in the market than you knew existed.
Customer surveys are an essential element to help measure guest satisfaction. If properly designed, surveys are a valuable method of obtaining customer feedback and conducting market research. How about using guest surveys to gauge how much of their wallet you are sharing with your competition. Are you asking your players about their gaming habits? Is your property their favorite place to play? Do you know how far they are willing to drive to gamble? Ask them about it; they have no shame in telling you! Even better, reward them for responding, and attach their player account number to the response for follow up.
Lance A. Bettencourt, Associate Professor of Professional Practice in Marketing at the Neeley School of Business at Texas Christian University, found that a financial incentives may actually backfire so you should always be careful when incentivizing survey completion. As casino operators, we know that a high-end guest would gawk at a small token of appreciation for completing a survey and could very well stare at you like you have three heads. Be mindful of what type of guest you are surveying and reward them appropriately. The knowledge gleaned through surveying holds tremendous possibilities for your property.
For example, if a guest responds to your survey that they visit a casino in the area with the intent to gamble at least four times per month but only makes a visit your property two times a month - you can deduce that you only own half of their wallet. Wouldn't it be great to be able to change how you market to them with that information? Think about how powerful that information could be on a larger scale. What if you had more guests just like them and were able to generate an additional trip?
POOF - just like magic, you suddenly found more money in the market than you knew existed.
Make a point to close the feedback loop as often as possible. Take the time to talk to your guests, even those you see as the most loyal with high frequency. You will be surprised at what you could learn!