Section Navigation
CASE STUDIES
Client Testimonial
Director of
Customer Service,
Sam's Town Tunica
The Client
Sam's Town Hotel & Gambling Hall is a full service casino, hotel,
resort and golf destination located in Tunica County, Mississippi, just
south of Memphis. The property consists of a 75,000 square foot casino,
800 guestrooms, three restaurants, a convention center and assorted
recreation and leisure activities. Sam's Town Tunica is a unit of Boyd
Gaming Corporation (NYSE:BYD), one of the most geographically diversified
companies in the gaming industry. Boyd owns and operates 13 gaming facilities
in six states, including The Borgata in Atlantic City and The Stardust
in Las Vegas.
The Situation
Legalized gambling was approved in Tunica County by the Mississippi
legislature in 1990, and Sam's Town was one of the first properties
to be developed shortly thereafter. For a number of years, the property
performed extremely well, generating outstanding financial returns.
In recent years, a number of other gaming companies entered the market,
building newer properties in arguably superior locations. Several of
these casinos are owned by experienced operators, and they offer an
exciting gaming environment in clean and crisp facilities. They presented
a compelling alternative to Sam's Town. These newer properties also
heavily recruit from the same employee base, and attract talent that
might otherwise have been employed at Sam's Town. Sam's Town leadership
position in this market was threatened.
The Solution
Using employee and management feedback, LRA drafted mission and vision
statements for Sam's Town Tunica. These statements set the theme and
goal of the new "PRIME" customer service-oriented culture.
The PRIME concept was derived from the Sam's Town Prime Rewards Frequent
Player Card, which was introduced at Sam's Town during 2003. LRA and
Sam's Town conducted a process mapping exercise to document the various
customer service encounters for each guest contact position. The mission
and vision statements were then incorporated into the standards. LRA
shopped competing casinos to identify their customer service attributes
and benchmark against Sam's Town. LRA designed and wrote the content
and curriculum for the new PRIME Training Program. PRIME Training consists
of four modules, with the first module focused on customer service culture,
positive guest behavior, and a certification program for the entire
staff. This was backed up by Module 2 that reinforced the PRIME concepts,
and taught the importance of teamwork, and introduced service recovery
techniques. Modules 3 and 4 are both scheduled to be implemented during
Q3 and Q4, 2004. LRA conducted train-the-trainer sessions with internal
training leaders, to position them to sustain this initiative. LRA also
designed a rigorous quality assurance and mystery-shopping program to
measure compliance with the standards and track continuous progress
in all departments.
The Results
As a result of the renewed concentration on improving the customer experience,
guest satisfaction scores as measured by an independent research company
have improved over 10 percent at the property, and customer complaint
rates have declined by 40 percent in direct customer contact areas.
The performance gaps identified in the quality assurance program are
being reduced and, in some cases, eliminated. A high-energy launch of
the PRIME training program has created a property-wide buzz. Employee
rallies and mentions in the employee newsletter have provided additional
attention. Job descriptions and responsibilities for the property's
managers now require them to model and enforce compliance with the PRIME
standards, thereby increasing consistency and compliance levels. Positive
employee behaviors are now being modeled, using humor, while undesirable
behavior incompatible with the PRIME Service Philosophy is highlighted
and discouraged.