Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort and Harrah’s Cherokee Valley River Casino & Hotel are two gaming and hospitality destinations that are wholly owned by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. Managed by Caesar’s Entertainment, Harrah’s continues to make some exciting advancements in customer loyalty and customer engagement.
Total Rewards has been an extremely successful program in Harrah’s quest for refined customer engagement. But even beyond that, Harrah’s Cherokee has also begun expanding its focus to attract a much wider range of hospitably guests. Sharon Montague, Regional Total Service Manager, recently spoke with Loyalty360 regarding these exiting developments.
Is the Harrah’s Cherokee Casino loyalty program run by Caesar’s as a satellite arm?
We absolutely are. The core loyalty program, which is the Total Rewards loyalty program, is an enterprise wide program that is carried out through all the properties. And all the benefits, account tracking, perks, and everything that goes along with it are transferable. For instance, rewards credits that are earned in Caesar’s Las Vegas can be redeemed for rewards and meals at Harrah’s Cherokee and vice versa.
So it really is a loyalty network. We have a lot of synergies within the brand in terms of being able to offer very aspirational, large ticket prizes. For example, the Millionaire Maker, that was a high profile event that each property could benefit from, and at the same time, we have the opportunity and the freedom to design and promote programs that are more locally relevant for our market.
Casinos have traditionally focused more on the gaming, so why is Harrah’s Cherokee transitioning into more of a resort? Was that from a corporate command, or were the customers demanding it?
Great question. Our customers absolutely were ready and excited for that transition. We have a very robust hotel program, and usually run at 99% occupancy. There is a very strong demand both internally as well as externally through our network of sister hotel properties. We included a number of additional retail and food outlets, and, finally, added a second pool and a spa. So we truly now have all of the resort offerings.
Is this in response to any changes in customer expectations that you have recently noticed?
Now, more than ever, we are focused on hospitality. Because, in addition to the gaming, we know our customers are coming here for the hotel, the spa, and the food.
Sure, gaming is as popular as it ever was, but we know that we are gaining an awful lot of guests that are coming not just for the gaming. They really are coming for that holistic resort customer experience. And a lot of them may be spouses that are traveling with a primary gamer who are coming for the dining, for the shopping, for the spa experience, for the relaxation. So they, by nature, are more of a hospitality type customer, rather than a gamer.
Therefore it is now important for us to be able to benchmark and compare ourselves to others in the hospitality industry – the Hilton’s, the Walt Disney’s, and even Starbucks. So now we can compare ourselves among the other hospitality companies and leaders in the industry, rather than just other casinos.
How is Harrah’s Cherokee able to gauge and determine what kinds of specific experiences customers want?
We really are, more than ever, able to profile our guests and market specifically to what their wants are. Marketing is certainly not a one-size-fits-all program. We are able to target our offerings and we know what guest will respond to. And we are able to know, for example, if we want to change behavior, what type of strategies or promotions or offers will do that.
Through our expansive network of guest surveys, we maintain an ongoing two-way dialogue with our customers. They tell us what they like, what they want, and what resonates with them. But also how we can be better and things that they we would like to see. We, in turn, respond to that. We say, “We heard you. Here’s what we are doing to address that.” And that helps us then to bring things that really resonate with the guests.
How do you measure customer loyalty and advocacy?
Our surveys are on a scale of one to 10, and we actually ask the guest, “How likely are you to return to Harrah’s Cherokee?” That gives us a measure of their loyalty. Equally important, we ask, “How likely are you to recommend us to others?” And that is a direct measurement of their advocacy. If they are not willing to recommend us to others, even if they are not detractors, then that means that they are not strongly engaged. They don’t care enough. This is important because most of our guests travel in similar socioeconomic circles, so advocacy here goes a very long way. And people that have a less than satisfactory experience actually do become detractors.
How are new and emerging technologies helping Harrah’s Cherokee Casino achieve these goals?
Much is being said and done in digital and social media. From a marketing standpoint we have to find the right balance, so that we can engage our customers in a real time scenario, but also make sure that we are bringing all of our customers along.
We have a very multi-faced demographic. Only about five years ago, our main customer was a 55-to-60-year-old female, and at that time there were not many in the digital sphere. So to market to them we almost exclusively engaged in hard mailing. But today we are much more able to engage with a wider audience. Digitally, electronically, through a two-way dialog on Facebook, pushing things out via social media that we would not have done just three years ago. The whole company is going more digital. But we have been very deliberate about doing that to make sure that we bring our customer base along.
About the Author: Mark Johnson
Mark is CEO & CMO of Loyalty360. He has significant experience in selling, designing and administering prepaid, loyalty/CRM programs, as well as data-driven marketing communication programs.