The online casinos have one holy grail: To make the player experience as realistic, easy and enjoyable as possible. After all, the more the player enjoys the experience the more often they will play. The more often they play, the more chance of engendering some loyalty and - to be completely blunt ? the more likelihood that the casino will make more money. ?But the industry is failing to deliver this?, says Jon Hingston, of independent review site Casino Genie, ?losing them thousands of customers everyday.?. It has only been in the last 2 years, with the huge advance of gaming graphics and sound cards that players are starting to feeling differently about the gaming experience. However, online casino review site Casino Genie released some figures recently suggesting that online casinos are failing in too many areas of their player relations process which is negating the advances in graphics. So now once formerly loyal customers are disengaging and looking elsewhere for fun. And those that do engage are creating a portfolio of sites where they will play dependent on bonuses and size of the prize. Casino Genie asked 1000 online gamblers to review eight online casinos using 14 different ranked criteria. The results are startling.
Hingston says, ?The choice of online casinos available to gamblers is seemingly immense. There are hundreds of new entrants with multiple sites and numerous new games. We thought that this might make the larger players more focused and up their game. In fact, what our survey revealed was that the larger players are starting to lose their way in a number of areas. The message is loud and clear from players about what they expect from their online casino. ?Listen to my requirements. Always make me feel special. And entertain me or I will leave you forever as there are many other places I can spend my money.?
Customer service was, across the board, scored low for the larger players, with the exception of two UK online casinos. Simple things like human contact is ranked highly, with 78% of players rating it highest in the customer service problem handling section. Most online casinos find this too expensive to facilitate so don?t promote it.
More worryingly players felt that casinos did not offer enough advice on what types of games would suit them best; instead they felt casinos were only interested in driving losses, much in the same way credit card companies used to be accused of loaning debt to those who could not afford it. Now credit card companies have been reined in by regulations. Of those surveyed 84% want online casinos to be held more accountable and to be more transparent about statistical chances of each game.
Beginners were turned off by overly complicated terminology and overly complicated gaming rules. Free games areas written in a more each manner encouraged 51% of beginners to sign up within 3 visits to a site.
Player endorsements or reviews were seen by 63% of all beginners and intermediate players as a very positive component of a casino site. And increased ?trust? levels ?significantly?.
UK online casinos fared little better than their international casino cousins.
Whilst seen by 82% as less pushy, even the best UK online casinos ranked little more than 62% for over all player gaming experience, compared to 54% for international casinos.
So in summary, service is a key differentiator in what is becoming a fragmented marketplace. If the big boys like 888 and InterCasino focus on the customer rather than the product it will be game over for new entrants. But like many other sectors big equals bland experience and players will vote with their fingers and search for a better experience.
BIO (TXT VERSION)
Jon Hingston is the Customer Satisfaction Manager for Casino Genie ( http://www.casinogenie.co.uk ), an independent online casino review site. Genie has reviewed over 600 online casinos. In addition, over 5,000 online gamblers have reviewed and ranked those casinos by 7 criteria to provide the world?s largest independent online casino review service.
BIO (HTML VERSION)
Jon Hingston is the Customer Satisfaction Manager for Casino Genie ( http://www.casinogenie.co.uk ), an independent http://www.casinogenie.co.uk>online casino review site. Genie has reviewed over 600 online casinos. In addition, over 5,000 online gamblers have reviewed and ranked those casinos by 7 criteria to provide the world?s largest independent online casino review service.
