The online casino industry is hyper-competitive. There is a limit to how much a casino can give away in promotions to acquire a new customer, and there are only so many games that publishers are distributing.
One way, though, to differentiate is through customer service – particularly for low deposit casinos. It’s common for customers to flitter between companies, rinsing them for their sign-up bonuses, and so customer service is a major to try and retain them.
Before looking into how to create a good customer support team, it’s important to put yourself in the shoes of the customer. Trust is very important when dealing with money and deposits, and customers need to feel as though they’re being looked after. This not only helps retain customers for a longer period of time, but might actually increase their deposits and wagers.
Building a highly skilled customer support team
While some amount of customer support can be automated and such, their must always be a competent and attentive team of people at its core. Hiring becomes a big part of this, as you want workers with experience in helping people – this can be through hospitality, retail, and many other customer-facing roles.
Continuous training programs are equally important, though, particularly because the industry is evolving so quickly. New games and features are frequently released, but many jurisdictions are yet to fully mature their gambling policies too. Your team needs to be on top of the latest changes, and ongoing training is the way to achieve this.
Affording the team with bureaucratic powers can also motivate them and allow them to be more efficient, as they will have autonomy to resolve complex issues by themselves.
Multi-channel support systems
Players will always have different preferences when it comes to communication channels, and there’s a particular generational divide. Offering live chat and email is great, but don’t neglect phone support too.
One great trick is to utilize social media support. This way, you can also control the narrative about what’s being said about the casino on socials, giving you a chance to jump in quickly and publicly offer to resolve any issues.
24/7 availability
Online casinos have a global reach, and this demands 24/7 customer service in order to cater to different time zones. Though, even without a global customer base, playing casino games is an activity that is played at all hours, with some players enjoying playing into the early hours.
Quick response times are important. The initial response can be automated in order to understand their query, potentially resolve it without personal interaction, and also to simply buy some time before a human gives it attention. However, even with the latest AI models, humans can see through it and not all problems will be solvable through automation. It’s a great first layer, but a quick human response is also necessary.
Multilingual customer support
Because of this global customer base, it’s also important to cater to their language preferences. This can also be done through AI to some extent, with LLMs being exceptional translators (the chatbot can be in English, while the LLM model translates the inputs and outputs into the desired language. This means you don’t need a chatbot, or a human for that matter, that can speak every language.
Though, over-the-phone support cannot be translated with technology, meaning that having at least one worker that can speak Spanish, French, Russian and German will exponentially increase this reach.
Clear communication of terms and conditions
Confusion over terms and conditions is one of the most common sources of player dissatisfaction in online casinos. And it’s understandable, because these are often designed to undermine the promotions that the customer based their signing up decision on.
So, being forthright about this is important. Agents should be well versed in the latest sign-up offers, because this is what most players are coming for – and it’s the most common reason for contacting customer service.
Support agents should be trained in how to explain the rules relating to bonuses and withdrawals in simple language.
Customer feedback
Customer feedback is invaluable. At each opportunity, such as after every chat, customers should be asked if they can fill in a feedback form. This is the main way to help improve the quality of service over time, allowing iterations in approach and training according to the feedback. If there is a lot of feedback, AI can help in summarizing the key messages, and flag issues that are recurring or staff that are not delivering good service.
For example, players may frequently mention delays in live chat responses. Therefore, it may be worthwhile investing in a better chatbot to help buy more time for a staff response during peak hours.
Final word on building lasting relationships
Exceptional customer service isn’t just about resolving issues—it’s an opportunity to impress them with your level of service and build lasting loyalty on the back of it. Technology can help, but cannot replace human service. Ultimately, superior customer service could be the difference in standing out from the crowd of casinos.
