Service and convenience is driving the growth of online shops and services and that is why industries such as sports betting has boomed over the last few years.
Most millennials would scoff at the idea of travelling to a high street betting office, filling out a paper betting slip and waiting in a queue to place a bet on their favorite sport with paper money.
Betting at land-based sportsbooks still exists, of course, but the convenience of online gambling has forced it to near extinction. More bets are placed on legal gambling websites and mobile apps than in even the busiest of betting offices anywhere in the world.
Keeping your online customers happy with the service they receive is quite a challenge. Here are a few tips to keep in mind when running an online sports betting business.
1. Instil Service at Every Level
Service begins at the top down, and every employee in your business must be involved in the process. When you receive feedback from customers, it should shared at every level of your company, and subsequent training needs to incorporate managers and employees alike. Excellent service should be modeled by top employees, in the way they deal with others inside and outside the company.
2. Communication is Key
If you want to keep you customers coming back for more, it is important to remain in communication with them regularly. Even if they do not visit your website daily you can keep in touch quickly and cheaply via email messages. Keep in mind that as you are communicating with your customers through email messages, it is not all about your business. Communication is a two-way street that requires listening to messages as much as you deliver them. Listen to your customer through email, and you just might discover ways to meet their needs more effectively.
3. Personalize Your Service
Online business has de-personalized the customer experience to a great degree, so companies must work that much harder to give their virtual customers the human touch. However, those businesses that find ways to personalize service in an impersonal world, through techniques like using the customer’s name in correspondence and tools like live chat, will stand head and shoulders above the rest of the online competition. adjust to ensure they remain relevant.
4. Offer Real-Time Odds
Ensure pre-match betting markets remain live throughout the play with odds updated to reflect the live score. Some markets adjust to ensure they remain relevant. For example, the first touchdown scorer would become the next touchdown scorer after the first has been registered. A bet is just as exciting in the final quarter as it was before kick-off.
5. Make Information Easy to Find
How well have you organized your website? Make sure all information about your company is easily available on it. You should have a knowledgebase and a help section which should be extremely detailed. Plus have a FAQ page as well for the most common queries. What if your customers still have a question? Have a contact form which they can easily fill out, and when they do, get back to them at the earliest.
6. Give VIP Treatment
While new customers deserve to be wooed, the ones that have stuck with you through thick and thin should be truly pampered. When you offer a special deal to entice new customers, make sure you are offering even better bargains to your regular, loyal customers. Loyalty programs and customer appreciation events are perfect examples of ways to enhance customer retention by making current customers feel like VIPs of your business.
7. Conduct Customer Feedback Surveys
One of the best ways to live up to the expectations of customers is to keep track of their ever changing mindset and demands. The easiest way to do so is to ask customers directly what they expect from you. Conduct surveys and encourage customers’ to take part in these surveys. Act on as many of the suggestions for improvement as possible.
If you put in place just some of the above ideas and tips your customers will thank you—and your online sports betting business will grow and prosper.