Many years ago in my marketing class, I was covering the topic of pricing and customer satisfaction.
This subject of dynamic pricing and customer satisfaction was of great interest at the time because it was just being introduced into the hospitality industry – with finance departments in charge of pricing issues and the marketing department in charge of loyalty and customer satisfaction. Marketing and finance have always been at odds in the industry and even more so today. Marketing does all it can to accommodate the customer, while finance does everything it can to leverage profits using dynamic pricing. Research has revealed that the more the firm takes advantage of the customer through dynamic pricing, the less satisfied the customer becomes. The topic of discussion was how to balance this battle and ensure both high revenue and high satisfaction.
One of my students worked as a host (player development) in the casino industry (let’s call her Sarah). She explained that her job was to extract large amounts of revenue from her customers in short periods of time, while at the same time maintaining customer satisfaction.
I talked with Sarah after class, and she shared several important points about her business philosophy. She explained that when customers enter her establishment, they have very clear choices (multiple gaming options) to think about before spending any money. Sarah further explained that when she talked to clients, she tried to get two questions answered very quickly. First, what kind of free amenities would they like to receive (free rooms, F&B, airfare, etc.)? She would then tell them how much they needed to wager. The second question she wanted answered was how much they wanted to wager. She then would tell them what they would get in return.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE BY DR. STOWE SHOEMAKER IN THE 2023 SUMMER EDITION OF GAMING & LEISURE MAGAZINE.