Inside Asian Gaming

JULY 2018 INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 31 True CX stalwarts like Tony Hsieh of Zappos or Herb Kelleher, former Southwest Airlines CEO, never take the CX quality they deliver as a given. They always have a finger on the pulse of customer and employee sentiment. COLUMNISTS distribution of power, while individuals in cultures demonstrating small power distance readily question authority and expect to participate in decisions that affect them. Companies that display large power distance between management and frontline employees generally operate in a climate where tasks get accomplished by exercise of authority and control. Frontline staff tend to be fearful of top management and open communication between workers and management is not encouraged. Superiors regard their lower-level employees as a “different kind of people,” often forgetting where they started in this industry. It is difficult to provide a great customer experience in an organizational culture depicting large power distance. Fear of superiors among employees stifles creativity and innovation and breeds an “us versus them” mentality that thwarts open communication and creates latent hostility between workers and management. IMPERMEABLE SILOS A great customer experience results from the active contribution of several departments at all levels. Ideally, every single person within the organization should be able to articulate how they contribute to the total CX. Furthermore, top and middle management needs to understand and appreciate the role that different functional areas play at every single touchpoint along the customer journey. For most touchpoints, HR, Marketing and IT invariably have a role to play, either by way of frontstage employee behaviors or by way of support systems and services required at each touchpoint. Despite this interdependency, it is hard to find gaming companies where there exists synergy and harmony between departments such as Marketing and Operations. With the passage of time, many organizations evolve into a conglomerate of impenetrable silos where each department becomes inward looking and self-absorbed.