For far too long, the industry’s approach to CRM systems has been reactive rather than proactive. There are far more significant gains to be made by embracing a real-time marketing solution, writes Yoel Zuckerberg, vice president of product at Aspire Global.
The igaming industry’s CRM strategy until now has been to chase the player after they have left the site, rather than optimise the experience for them while they are active and depositing funds. This has becoming outdated, with many now realising that an automated real-time solution is the key to retaining customers.
Any business operating in a regulated jurisdiction already needs to collect a certain amount of customer data to comply with anti-money laundering and KYC directives. Operators can maximise the use of that data to power an effective real-time marketing strategy.
Real-time as a word is dangerously close to becoming generic to the point of being misunderstood, similar to other industry buzzwords such as gamification, big data and AI. But as with these other concepts, real-time marketing is fast becoming a must if operators are to enhance their retention rates and reduce churn.
Personalised marketing that makes a difference
Simply put, everything the customer does should inform their experience. If they search ‘slots’, the site should collate the casino’s slots offering, personalising that customer’s experience. This is the way forward in entertainment and those able to offer it will be at a huge competitive advantage.
Time and again we see systems that retroactively spam customers once they have left the site, rather than actively working with the offering to make their experience more enjoyable. This has proven to be a far superior approach to player retention.
Of course, it’s important to engage with the player when they have left the site through a variety of message types, such as SMS, push notification, WhatsApp, email, overlay and popups. But allowing operators to alter their frontend in real-time to suit the individual customer is the next step in CRM.
This is what Aspire Global sought to deliver with our CRM solution AspireEngage. We have taken data, experience and real-time and optimised the relationship between them. It allows players to be aware of changing odds during sporting events in real-time and offer pops up and reminders to customers that are more relevant to them.
Cashouts can be automatically offered along with further betting opportunities during a match, continuously engaging the player, massively reducing churn. With Aspire Engage, each player segment will experience a different betting experience as we can move the relevant events and bonuses positioning for each player based on their preferences.
AspireEngage is equally as effective in the online casino environment. For fans of live dealer, if a player shows a particular preference for a table, the tool can send them a message when that preferred live dealer comes online again.
If a blackjack player loses three hands in a row the system can immediately send them a bonus in real-time. At the same time, the frontend experience is different for this specific player, as with Aspire Engage the operator can also modify the frontend experience with ease.
Leaning on cost-effective third-party support
Naturally, integration time and the high-cost factor can lead operators to question whether they should opt for an advanced CRM system. Especially with the amount of time and resources that the igaming industry now needs to invest in staying up to date with changing regulation and trends, deploying a new CRM system is often pushed down the pecking order of product upgrades.
Others will look to deliver a similar service built in-house, but the most likely outcome from this approach is the slowing down of their organisation, reducing flexibility and failing to respond to their customers’ needs. Ultimately, this will restrict growth.
For Aspire Global customers, AspireEngage is already integrated into our API, minimising the time it takes to make it a part of an operator’s offering. Operators can connect their own campaign management into its centralised system, providing an easy-to-use self-management interface.
By investing in the right solution, operators do not have to put so many resources into building up their own data teams and creating their own data infrastructure. The upshot is that operators find they have more time to concentrate on what they are good at – delivering exciting entertainment to their customer base.
There is an unbelievable amount of potential in real-time marketing, with our ability to adjust the frontend for each customer set to grow exponentially in the next couple of years. Operators seeking to boost retention and remain competitive would do well to invest in such a solution sooner rather than later.