Let’s talk Customer Service!

Last year Casumo received no less than three shortlistings for Best Customer Services Operator - from the EGR Global Operator Awards, EGR Nordics Awards and the International Gaming Awards. In light of these exciting events, we got together for a good ‘ol chinwag with two of our CS champs, Department Manager Beatrice Pace and Ambassador Team Lead John C Burns .?

I love kicking off an interview with some fun bits and bobs about you - who’d like to start??

Beatrice: “I have a dog named Goose.”?

Great start, do tell!

Beatrice: “He’s a stray. I saw him on Facebook and brought him over from Sicily. We think he’s a Golden Retriever mixed with a Corgi, because he's long with teenie tiny legs - it's really cute.”

John: “He’s a real poser too! I have a dog as well, a black Lab named Layla, she’s totally nuts. By the way did you know that Beatrice and I go way back? We went to the same school, we both have a background in hospitality and we both came to work as Ambassadors for Casumo right before the pandemic hit.”?

Talk about impeccable timing!

Beatrice: “Yes, we really had a guardian angel on our shoulders. I was running a restaurant together with my husband and John rolled in on his skateboard one day, speaking so highly of Casumo. Then a few weeks later when we sold the place, John referred me and I ended up getting hired as an Ambassador. Then I moved into shift coordination, then became a Team Lead and now Department Manager.”

John: “Well deserved! Working together with Beatrice is awesome, we have a great level of trust and open communication which is key to keep improving and growing.”

Is that the secret behind the famed Casumo CS department??

“Good communication? Yes, always. But I also think it’s because there’s a strong sense of brand connection and awareness in everything we do. Of course the Ambassadors use their aliases, but when they refer to the product it’s always ‘we or us’.”

Beatrice: “The team is very close, we have an incredibly strong culture - in Malta as well as in Macedonia where our other team is located. They want to work hard because they don’t like to let their teammates down. The atmosphere at work is relaxed and fun, we’ll have music playing, people having a laugh. We put a lot of time and effort into recruitment, because everyone who comes in could be a future manager. And we’re not necessarily looking for someone with a world of iGaming knowledge or customer service experience. What’s most important is the right mindset and attitude.”

John: “Yes, someone needs to be motivated and want to excel in their career. Speaking of, this year alone we’ve had 15 internal promotions into different departments from CS and an additional 7 have been promoted into management.”?

WOW, that’s really amazing! Are there any other ways in which you measure the success of your department??

Beatrice: “We hand out awards during our monthly meetings. We put it up on the screen, present the stats, put their pictures up on the wall, award nice bonuses, everything - people love it! John and I select one person each per month and then the shift coordinators as well, because they know exactly what goes on during the night shifts and on the weekends.”

How cool! Don’t the same people keep showing the best results though??

John: “Not everyone learns at the same rate. But it’s not just about KPIs, it’s also about someone’s attitude and the effort they put in. Of course we do everything we can to help. We’ll go over their performances, review their chats, turn it into a roleplay and reverse the roles so that they get to understand the players’ perspective regarding the tone they’re using, how to approach issues and their overall interaction with the players.”?

What makes your approach to CS better than any other??

Beatrice: “We prevent our people from getting desensitised and we make sure that they treat every single player with respect and as genuine as possible. We like for our players to know that we’re not robots - unless it really is the bot answering of course, haha!”

John: “The iGaming business is a high emotion industry so you have to learn how to take the highs as well as the lows. Players will interact either because they’re really happy or quite frustrated and upset, it’s very rare that someone would jump on the chat just to share that the product is great. People tend to reach out because something’s wrong, but we see every issue as an opportunity for a resolution. The trick is to always remain positive and empathetic and to turn that chat around. If someone enters the chat upset and leaves happy, that’s a win, that’s what good customer service is all about.”

Amen! Now this might seem obvious to you, but could you please explain the importance of a well functioning CS team from the company’s perspective?

John: “It helps build retention and the representation of the brand overall.?

Casumo is fun-filled and we really represent that, we’re the personality of the brand. We give a lot of importance to our human approach.”

Beatrice: “Also from an internal perspective customer service is super important, because our team represents the voice of the player, which is hugely valuable. We internally communicate to the relevant departments what players want, instead of giving them what we think they might want. We help fix bugs and cater the product to what players desire. In fact, we straight up ask players every month how they feel, what they want, what they think of this and that. And we share all this valuable data with the rest of the company. There’s so many layers to our product that it’s almost impossible to notice all the little issues. But we can always count on players to identify the small things for us to improve.”

I’m now going to present you with two statements: ‘All feedback is good feedback.’ and ‘The customer is always right.’ - which one resonates with you more and why??

John: “All feedback is definitely good feedback. I resonate with that one most, because if you’re not vocal, you just stay stagnant. About the other one, a customer definitely said that, haha. Naturally the customer isn’t always right, that’s a given. But it’s definitely up to the business to educate, to understand where they’re coming from and put themselves in their shoes. Especially now, in a more demanding environment, people know exactly what they want. Sometimes things are unreasonable or unrealistic to ask for, it’s as simple as that.”?

Beatrice: “Exactly, but we try not to use negative words or words like ‘unfortunately’. Don’t tell the person what you can’t do or tell them they’re wrong, instead tell them what is possible and what we can do. Present them with options to choose from instead of telling them what they’re incorrect about.”

Some quick fire questions, because we’re running out of time!

The 24/7 live chat - how 24/7 are we talking??

Beatrice: “We are available 24/7 for all English speaking markets, but we are available via email 24/7 regardless of the language.”

If you must choose between a phone call, face-to-face, email or live chat, which would it be??

John: “I would say live chat. You can easily have a conversation with multiple people at the same time and get so much done, it’s infinitely more efficient than the other options.”

Beatrice: “Plus you can take a moment to roll your chair back and look away from the screen. The worst we get on chat is people writing in Capslock, but still, sometimes you need to take that breather.”

Now to conclude the interview: John, could you share an example of really good customer service you personally received?

“That was the second time I stayed at this hotel in London. They had left a beautiful welcome note in my room leaning against a bottle of wine. It was the only wine I had been drinking at their restaurant the previous time I was there. Now that’s good customer service. Catered especially to me, so it made me feel as if I was the only person staying at the hotel - brilliant.”

And Beatrice, your worst??

“That was quite recently actually! My husband and I have been looking to buy a car and after having gone to a showroom I emailed to thank them and with some questions I wanted to clarify. I received a single-word email back, ‘NO’.?

I don’t think I need to explain how wrong that is.”

YIKES.?

Beatrice and John: Yup.

Thanks guys, this was great. Now let’s join the team for a wee bit of music, shall we!