Inside Asian Gaming

inside asian gaming October 2016 20 Features “The inevitable conclusion from this math is that, despite lots of time and money and the best of intentions, property-created mobile apps will simply not be used by a significant subset of their patrons.” “Our chatbot can also learn from its interactions with customers and, through a complex machine learning process, we can teach our chatbot to provide individualized responses – meaning that the chatbot may respond differently to our customer Mary than it does to our customer Bob based on how Mary and Bob like to be treated.” can interact. Interactive e-mail and messaging can deliver everything that a mobile app can and is a cost-effective replacement for developing a branded app. This approach also lowers the barrier to entry as virtually all smartphone users are accustomed to using e-mail and messaging to communicate. Casinos can change the flow of communication with interactive e-mail and messaging and can promote engaging interactions that solidify relationships and enhance the player experience. Let’s imagine what is possible with this chatbot technology. Perhaps the casino creates a mascot to represent the chatbot and this mascot becomes the bridge between the casino and the customer – one that replaces the commercial app. In our example, let’s say the casino has created Bob the Cat as their mascot. There are multiple options for introducing Bob to their customers, from traditional marketing channels to on-floor signage. But to really understand what is possible we must go back to the data. As a casino and through the use of loyalty cards, we know much more about the buying habits of our customers than traditional businesses, including when they walk onto the property and start to gamble. Now let’s say Mary, a casino customer, enters the casino and puts her card into her favorite slot machine. The casino system recognizes this and chatbot Bob springs into action! Bob sends Mary an e-mail (or possibly text message) welcoming her to the casino and explaining that Bob is available to assist her with a wide variety of services. Mary can then respond to Bob and ask for a number of helpful pieces of information. She can ask where she played last time she was here, which slot machine performs best for her, which slot machine is red hot today or, on the other end of the spectrum, which game is very cold and is “due to hit.” She can also ask about her marketing offers – does she have a food offer available today? Does she have enough points to get a free sandwich at the deli? What time is the car drawing? The possibilities are immense – Mary can even ask where the nearest restroom is. SMART SET We’ve written many articles discussing the migration casinos are experiencing from traditional casinos to smart casinos and no doubt this chatbot technology would provide significant benefit to any smart casino. In addition to the interactions described above, with a smart casino the interactions between casino and customer can go much deeper. Going back to Mary, in a smart casino environment our chatbot will know the minute Mary pulls into the casino valet and can direct her to participate in the daily promotions, give her access to all the information she needs to pick which slot machine to play today and, when it is time to leave, Mary can tell the chatbot she is ready to go. By the time she gets to the valet her car is there waiting for her. The entire experience for Mary will make it feel like she owns the casino.