Last Word

from Casino Life Issue 138 Volume 16

Crisis Management in Casinos

Use ASMR To Engage + Extend Your Brands’ + Customers’ Wellness

o help pay my way through my second Masters degree, I worked tech support for Microsoft’s Internet service. This was EARLY Internet — we had people phone up asking what the foot pedal was for (they were referring to their computer’s mouse). Consumers had dial-up modems at home that were a maximum 56kbps. You couldn’t stream anything complex.

One of the most popular consumer videos to watch on the Internet during those early days was a fireplace with logs burning. Another was a mountain pasture with bird and wildlife noises. Another was a stream burbling over rocks.

These weren’t created by the Internet, or even TV. Humans have always been drawn to such relaxing ‘content’. So there we sat in our Microsoft office during the early days of the Internet watching videos of logs burning, mountain pastures and burbling streams while solving customer queries worldwide. How quaint, you might be thinking. What’s this got to do with your operations today? T

Keep Calm …and help your customers keep calm. In doing this, you can maintain and extend brand engagement with your customers and help them through these challenging times.

What’s the exit strategy for government’s with this novel coronavirus pandemic? What’s the desired endgame? Find a vaccine. Gain herd immunity. Change human behaviour. I’m not a medical specialist, so I will only discuss changing human behaviour as I’ve successfully done this in multiple industries during my career.

Changing human behaviour is the tactic we have seen used by governments with their quarantines, border closures, travel bans, business shut-downs, etc. While these ‘lockdown actions’ are not sustainable, your business’ SWOT analysis should have as your #1 Threat government-specified behavioural changes. While not sustainable, these ‘lockdown actions’ are causing very serious issues for your operations. Other than the short-term challenges — which will hopefully be offset

by speedy government support — the biggest challenge facing your operations, I think, is the potential for long-term behavioural changes by your customers. If these government-specified behavioural changes create psychological de-conditioning in (some of) your customers, you’ll have to win them back or find replacement customers.

What will ‘normal’ mean for your operations once this pandemic is over? Will all of your customers return? Will you be able to attract new customers? Will behaviour have changed so much that people avoid your operations in the future (de-conditioning)? Resort casinos are, after all, full of people in close proximity to each other.

Play With ASMR A lot of your (future) customers are currently facing constraints they’ve never faced before. In particular, they have to maintain physical distance and isolate themselves — no work, no sports, no church, no eating out, no traveling, no live entertainment, etc. Maintaining physical distance and isolation will create loneliness and anxiety, adding to the stress and uncertainty they’re facing because this coronavirus is such an unknown for everyone. Can you in some way reach out to your customers and help them get through these anxious, uncertain times?

I’m a marketing/commercial specialist who tries to use their external viewpoint to see what changes and innovations could benefit the casino gaming industry. I think now is the time to introduce you to something I’ve had my eye on for a few years. It’s a tactic that is omnichannel = it can be used in your digital and physical assets.

It’s called ASMR = Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response. Check it out. It’s what those early Internet videos showing logs burning were all about — but we didn’t have a cool name for such videos back then. If you need my help, let me know.

June 8 - 9, 2020, SMX Convention Center, Manila