Operational Optimization has become one of those hot topics in the past years that everyone talks about, a few operations even decide to get some kind of a program going, but most casinos on the old continent simply give it a miss.
The most common barriers for such programs are reluctance to change and self-preservation.
As a consultant most of my work is indeed helping casinos optimize their operations and thus increase their bottom lines. When offering my services to friends, ex-colleagues running casino companies in Europe they very often turn me down saying that contracting me would suggest to their owners, boards, that they are not doing their jobs properly.
The good old notion of “why fix it if it’s not broken” is cemented into most organizations with long standing management teams. Strong unions can further complicate starting an optimization program and hinder any effort introducing new technologies or threatening work places.
All this despite well documented success stories showing healthier organizations, greener numbers and happier employees and most importantly customers that return and do so more frequently.
Operational optimization is all about relevance. The areas you want to look at are the following;
- The Product (Gaming, Hotel, F&B, Entertainment, Facilities)
- Service and Colleagues (selection, training, company culture, service)
- Procedures and Processes (efficiency, control, secure operations)
- Marketing and Promotions (customer segmentation, data analysis, relevant offers)
Simply put, in an ideal world you should be able to motivate each one of your customers to visit your property with offers that are meaningful for them. When they do visit, they should be able to find the right product at the right price in the right place on the floor. They should be attended to by colleagues whom they find pleasant and professional in a safe and comfortable environment.
The biggest advantage of casino companies in today’s competitive world is the amount and quality of data they generate on their patrons. A decade ago any optimization effort would rely on the professional knowledge, insight and experience of the management teams in question. Today these same managers have an enormous amount of data at their fingertips, telling them almost everything they need to know about their business.
The data needs to be analysed and properly interpreted though to turn those ones and zeros into meaningful decisions that could seriously improves operations. There are plenty of software solutions out there helping our executives make sense of the data. There are more and more companies that after realising the importance of data analytics to their profitability shift the traditional balance of power from operations to analytics. Many of these data analysts come from sectors like banking, retail and the like, without any experience in casinos.
They could still make a huge difference for the company, but in most cases there is little or no cooperation between the different departments that would be responsible for improving operations. The simple reason for this is conflict of interest.
The solution would be integrating analytics into the gaming, marketing and finance departments instead of positioning them either under or above them.
With data, casino companies have an incredible opportunity to hugely improve their profitability. Weather they achieve this or not will mainly depend on how they organise their workflow and motivate their managers and not on how much they spend on data tools.
