5 Needed Skills for a Player Development Team
Player development is a necessary amenity for all casinos. Amenity? Did she say player development is an amenity? Yes, your player development team is an amenity available for players whom the casino has deemed as a prospect and/or loyal player. The player development team is an amenity that is required to bring in a financial return.
A host is a casino concierge for the guest that creates a trip that allows a player to free their mind to enjoy their next gaming adventure. In order for your player development team to be successful, you must ensure you have the right hosts who can deliver exceptional guests service and make business decisions that will return a profit for the casino.
When searching for the right candidate to join your player development team there are five skills that are needed:
- Goal Setting
- Decision Making
- Money Management
- People Skills
- Business Ethics
Finding all of these skills in one person is like finding a gem in a mine and the attractiveness of the gem comes from its shine. Some host’s skills may shine bright right away, while others you may have to polish and clean in order to find that brilliant shine you’ve been looking for. Do you have these gems in your casino now? I believe you do and I will help you understand why these skills are necessary to have in your casino hosts to move your player development team from being casino concierges to a sales driven team that shows results.
Goal Setting
There are two sides to goal setting, a host must be diligent in setting goals for themselves and determined enough to attain their own goals along with the goals set by their manager. The right candidate will need to have a clear understanding of goals and how to use the tools available to reach them. Setting daily goals helps keep a host on target and supports relationship building between the host and his or her players. These attributes are hard to find but can be easily trained to be a part of everyday success.
A sales-driven player development team should focus on the following areas with goals in mind:
- Theoretical and visit growth
- Telemarketing efforts such as email, a text message, or a personal phone call
- Hotel room reservations for VIP guests
- Promotional invites
- Personal events
If a host’s goals are not set with the prime target of achieving daily growth in all of these areas, his efforts will be wasted and fellow hosts will find it hard to progress as a team in growing business for the casino.
Decision Making
There is more to developing a player then building a relationship. The decision making process a host takes to develop a player starts with understanding who he is prospecting, what leverage he will use to entice that player, and how much time does the host spend developing a player. This is very critical when you are dealing with a locals’ market. Why?
Hosts may sometimes mistake loyalty with VIP and focus on players they see every day instead of making a decision to find new players to develop. This is why decision-making in a host is very important. You want to ensure that the host understands that casino marketing focuses on loyalty using player rewards cards and direct mail. Player development’s job is to provide a higher level of guest service for VIP’s who the casino wants to retain, return for another visit, or extend their playing time.
A host also makes decisions on who will receive added complimentary based on play and value of the player. Hosts can use complimentary as leverage for the guest’s current visit or future visit. As the host builds a relationship and evaluates play vs. complimentary, a decision should be made to keep developing the player or allow casino marketing efforts to manage players who are no longer developmental. A host needs to understand when and where his efforts need to be focused in order to grow their player list. If he focuses on the same players, he will get the same results. Decision-making is the key to the host’s success and the doorway to casino revenues.
Money Management
Player Development thrives on money management. Hosts are asked to manage players’ complimentary along with strategically planning events that will build revenue for the casino. When evaluating a candidate for your player development team, test his skills in reinvestment. A host will need to understand the value of the player vs. the complimentary being offered. Not all VIP’s are the same nor should they be treated the same.
To build this needed valued in your team, ask the host to create his own personal event with these details in mind:
- What type of player will they be targeting and why?
- What amount of revenue do they expect to gain?
- Will there be gifts and how much is budgeted for their event?
These questions will allow you to understand your host’s business skills and educate your team on how these events can grow revenue and build relationships by targeting the right players.
People Skills
You may not find all these skills in one person but if you can find a majority of these characteristics in your hosts you’ve got it made. Your hosts must first be able to listen to the guests’ needs to understand how to retain their play. Learning why players come to the casino helps build a following to get others to join in on the fun by introducing them to players who have similar interests.
A bright smile wins players over every time. It makes guests feel warm and welcomed. When speaking to your guests, look directly in their eyes and make them feel like they are the only one in the room. Once you can do that, you’ve made them your friend not just a guest. When players feel like friends, they feel more obligated to visit because they’ve formed a relationship with someone who cares about where they go. Everyone likes to feel at home with a friend.
Business Ethics
Since relationship building is the key to a host’s success, it’s very important that he has strong business ethics. Players feel a need to give back to those who give to them. This brings up the question: How close should your hosts get with players? I’ve seen this happen over and over again and there is not any other way to say it then this: hosts need to stay professional and not mix business with personal relationships. If you keep the relationship in a business manner, players respect the host and maintain a longer relationship with the casino.
Some players like to bring gifts and in some cultures, you may offend guests by not accepting their gift. Gifts can be accepted as long as there are guidelines agreed upon with management. Players can sometimes confuse “a gift for a gift” putting the host in a situation where the casino may lose that revenue.
Take these skills and see if you have any diamonds in your casino. Strong hosts who carry all of these skills are a very rare gem. If you have them, show them how to mentor others and grow your team to greatness.
Jatonia ZieglerJatonia Ziegler started her career in 2000 with 12 years experience in Player Development. She has worked Riverboat and Indian Gaming with Hotel and Asian Marketing as her specialty. Jatonia Ziegler has worked for casinos such as Ameristar Casino, Agua Caliente Casino Resort & Spa and Morongo Casino Resort & Spa. Jatonia Ziegler offers consulting and welcomes your questions and comments, please contact her at Jatonia.Ziegler@aol.com.