How Do You Build a Long-Term Relationship with a Casino VIP?

Building a long-term relationship with anyone doesn’t sound too complicated in theory, right? It’s much harder to put into practice!

What’s important for me comes back to the basics — and for me this should relate to ANY relationship. Firstly: get to know the person. Listen attentively; pay attention to the little things as they all matter ultimately. Remember, you can make use of things you’ve remembered much later down the line and that will make a difference. Make absolutely sure you are consistent and you follow through on doing things you’ve said you’d do. Make sure you’re relevant — don’t come up with wishy-washy BS for the sake of having something to say. Be honest to yourself and in anything you do. If you don’t, eventually it’s going to catch up to you and catch you out! Make sure you’re accountable for everything you’ve said you’d do — avoid running away from things when times get tough. If you do, you’ve broken TRUST!

Some of the things I’ve mentioned above sound obvious and shouldn’t be new to anyone reading this. Yes, you know you need to listen, to remember and do what you say you’re going to do. You try and treat people fairly and you try to communicate honestly. Basically, these are all things that you’d expect from other people and how you’d expect people to treat you. I’ve always said treat others the way you’d expect to be treated yourself!

After more than 20 years working with online VIP players, I’ve seen how easily people get these basics completely wrong! And it’s not always their fault. The constant pressure to deliver results, grow deposits and turnover, and reactivate lapsed players takes over — and what happens then is the player relationship takes a back seat. What happens then is the trust is broken or damaged and you lose brand loyalty because there’s no longer any compelling reason to want to stay.

To build long-term relationships in the online casino landscape requires a very similar process to that of building any strong human relationship. This takes TIME.

It’s not going to happen overnight or with the offer of massive bonuses or a clever CRM campaign, or a fancy gift or invite to an amazing event. These are all important factors, but it requires timing. Do lots of smaller things, building up over time — this is where TRUST starts. Without trust you’ve got no relationship at all.

First things first — get to know your player

Sound obvious, right! I’m not referring to knowing their deposits, turnover and all those metrics. All very important — but that’s only knowing their account. The next step is to get to know the player well enough to know and understand how they want to be treated. Some players love to chat — some players want to be left alone. Some players enjoy banter and to personally get to know their Host whilst others want to get straight to the point. At the end of the day — not every player is alike and you simply cannot treat them as such.

This is where I’ve seen things go wrong. Operators will categorise players based largely on value and then expect everyone within that category to receive roughly the same experience. Diamond, Platinum, Gold or VVVIP, VVIP and VIP — whatever — these levels are commercial indicators but tell you absolutely nothing about the person behind the category and certainly don’t tell you how to build a relationship with them. This requires a human touch.

Don’t rush the relationship

Avoid rushing the relationship as soon as you’ve been allocated a new VIP player to your portfolio. You can’t expect to dive straight in and start behaving as though you’ve known the player for years. Avoid familiarity (remember the phrase “familiarity breeds contempt”)! Relationship takes time and can’t be forced. Use this time to learn about the player — and most important, to remember what you’ve learned so you can use it in the future. What you’re doing is effectively building up a history with the player, and that history matters because the player is no longer dealing with some random person from the casino — they’re now dealing with their Host: someone who they can trust and rely on.

Consistency is key

To me this is probably one of the most important things to remember. You can’t be brilliant with a player one week and then go all quiet and reserved the next! You can’t be all over your player who’s depositing massively and then turn all of that off when the player goes quiet and loses interest. Avoid making wonderful promises when things are going well and then suddenly having to go back on those promises when there’s a problem. This is inconsistency and players will notice it — and this in turn creates uncertainty, and with uncertainty creates a breakdown in trust. A player will expect their Host to treat them consistently in the way they communicate, respond and behave.

Do the small things properly

I mentioned this earlier. Do lots of smaller things, building up over time — but do them properly. VIP doesn’t always mean having to do everything on a grand scale. Yes, of course you’ll get some players who expect the biggest bonus, the biggest gift or best event, and all these things definitely have their place. But some of the strongest relationship moments are actually quite small! This could be remembering something your player mentioned weeks ago; checking in on whether an issue was resolved; getting back to your player when you said you would; respecting their communication preferences; acknowledging something that matters to them. What all of this tells a player is that you were paying attention — and that to me is a form of RECOGNITION. To me genuine recognition is one of the foundations of a long-term relationship.

Don’t blindly follow what the CRM suggests

Yes, CRM is important as it alerts you to certain things — such as a player who hasn’t deposited. This doesn’t necessarily mean you need to immediately reach out to the player. A player hasn’t been active for seven days — that doesn’t mean you should immediately contact them and try to reactivate them. What you should be asking yourself before you commit to these actions is: “Why am I contacting this player?” and “Is there something worthwhile in this contact for them?”

Not every contact needs an offer. Every contact DOES need a reason.

I’ve said this before and I’ll repeat it again. It becomes obvious to players when they feel they are just a part of a campaign, but they will remember a contact when they feel they were genuinely remembered for something that was relevant. Those are two very different experiences.

Be straight — avoid the BS

To me it’s critical that you avoid BS and rather be straight with your players. They will respect and appreciate you as being genuine. Don’t promise something you don’t or can’t control. Don’t avoid difficult questions or situations. Don’t suddenly change the story because the answer has become difficult or inconvenient. There are times when you’ll have to say no and the decision may not be yours. There will be occasions where the player will be unhappy — but that doesn’t automatically damage the relationship. The difference is in how you handle and communicate the message. I’ve always felt that a player can deal with a truthful answer far better than they can deal with being messed around.

A long-term relationship doesn’t mean the player is happy with absolutely everything you tell them. What it does mean is that you are being straight with them. There’s a big difference!

Ownership

Make sure you own what you can and what’s in your control. You can’t control everything — there’ll be times when someone or something else lets you down. What is vitally important is that you stay involved. Keep communication going, make sure you follow up with the responsible party, and provide the player with relevant feedback. I’ve seen far too often where a Host will say they’ve escalated something and then go quiet. They feel they’ve done enough by saying they’ll escalate. Escalating is different from owning the relationship around it. A player shouldn’t have to chase their Host repeatedly just to find out whether anyone remembered them.

Avoid making every conversation about money

This is a big one that I see cropping up time and time again and is probably where operators and VIP teams need to be particularly careful! We all understand that VIP activity is commercial, and the business expects to see results. We also understand that Hosts have KPIs and targets to achieve — but if every conversation revolves around a commercial result, then the player will eventually work out exactly what the relationship is worth. A great Host understands the commercial side without allowing it to dominate every interaction. A great Host will recognise when there’s an opportunity and they’ll also know when to leave it alone. It’s about creating a balance between a commercial conversation and a genuine human conversation. It’s about good judgement and allowing space when needed.

Don’t disappear when your player stops depositing

This is another area that I see happening far too often. VIP players are great when they’re active and depositing — everyone loves them! The Host responds with bonuses, gifts, events, offers and so on — but when their activity drops, Hosts will typically try one or two attempts at reactivating (without fully understanding the reason why) and eventually the Host will give up and stop everything. We need to understand the reasons — and there may be occasions where a player’s situation changes and it’s important to respect that and to manage that transition with respect.

Respect the boundaries

This is also a very important area to be aware of. Trying to create a long-term relationship doesn’t mean trying to become your player’s best friend! It’s possible to be warm, genuine, and very close to a player while remaining professional. Make sure you respect the privacy boundaries as well as the responsible gambling and commercial boundaries. A strong relationship should never be used as a tool to pressure somebody into gambling!

Where REAL comes in

This is where the four parts of the REAL Framework come into play.

• Recognition — Does the player feel known or simply fall into a category?
• Engagement — Are the interactions actually worth having?
• Authentic Relationships — Is there honesty, consistency, and trust?
• Lasting Loyalty — Over time, does the player have a genuine relationship to remain connected to the brand, beyond the next offer?

These four areas will give you a very good indication of the health of the relationship.