Customer support is the “first line of defence” for any product that offers a service. While many online casino customers won’t interact with a customer service channel, for those that do, it can often be the main deciding factor about the brand.
Today, we will look at how high-quality customer service can be the integral factor that helps a great casino stand out from a range of decent ones, and how damaging it can be for those brands that don’t get it right.
Expert Understanding
This has limitations, but as a general rule of thumb, you want to deal with a customer service desk with a broad range of understanding. For instance, if you want to speak to somebody about the technicalities of a live dealer game, this is likely to go above the head of someone who works on the customer service desk. You’d either need to speak to a technical team, raise a complaint, or speak to somebody who deals with the software on the site.
However, if you are looking for general information about the online casino, such as the specifics of the terms and conditions agreement, you want the customer service agent to have a firm grasp of what the specifics mean and to be able to explain them succinctly and clearly.
If you play casino online games often, you will know just how crucial expert understanding can be, whether it comes in the form of resources attached to a game, via customer service, or bloggers who give an insight into elements of a casino game.
A Variety Of Options
In years past, the only realistic option for customer service teams was to contact them via telephone or a telephone number. However, as online casinos broke down many international barriers within the market, they had to look for new, varied ways to expedite their customer support options.
In the modern market, high-quality customer service also means convenience. Can you send the brand a quick message on social media and get a response within a minute or two? Do they have a 24/7 live chat option manned by a human being, not an AI chatbot?
Artificial Intelligence plays a significant role, but recent research on customer service automation has shown that there are teething issues. If somebody feels like they are being palmed off by a cheaper, automated customer service option, this can indicate the wider brand and how they actually value their employees.
It Helps To Solidify A Strong Reputation
If you take a few moments to scroll through the most negative reviews about an online casino, I can guarantee that they will almost all refer to either the withdrawal speed or the poor customer service. Some will be aggrieved due to other factors, but if a brand has consistently poor customer service ratings, it will become the definitive factor of their overall brand.
Poor customer service doesn’t just refer to a lousy operator who doesn’t have the answer to your questions; it also refers to our last section – a lack of variety in options and excessive wait times. Brand reputation can take over a decade to build, especially in such a competitive global market, and customer service plays a big part in this.
However, if we flip this on its head, quality customer service, whether personal to the customer, easy to access, or promptly sorting the issue out, all help construct a highly positive image for an online casino.
Social media is a fantastic way to connect with customers, not just from a customer service perspective. As you can see in the post below, casinos generate debate by asking customers a whole range of questions that will get them talking, such as whether they believe slot gaming is strategy or luck. If these ideas are to generate engagement, they can bring customers to the brand’s social media pages, and then this becomes a viable avenue for customer service, too.
Final Thoughts
Ultimately, the quality of customer service speaks directly to two things: how the online casino values its staff, and the importance it gives to its broader package. Although it is a balancing act, several brands in the gambling industry have been able to channel their business ethos through their bespoke customer service options.
There are many ways to do this, and it’s not a simple A to B approach. For instance, to add a personal approach, some brands have turned their social media channels into almost comedy-like, informal ways of dealing with customers. Obviously, this is a tightrope in the service industry and can backfire if you are dealing with a particularly cranky customer.
Other customers prefer to speak to a robot if it can do the job better than a human. Likewise, if you speak to somebody on the phone, other customers prefer professionalism rather than a conversation about their day.
Whatever the nuances, though, as long as the service resolves the issue quickly, a mid-range brand can become an elite one, especially if it develops a reputation for the quality of its customer service.
