Survey | Gaming and hospitality staff show improvements

Frontline employees in the gaming and hospitality sectors delivered the highest quality service to their guests in the second quarter of the year than they have since the beginning of 2014, according to gaming service index (GSI) research jointly conducted by the Macau Gaming Research Association and SGS Hong Kong.
Despite the economic woes that Macau has faced since early last year, the survey — which dispatched mystery shoppers to 11 major casino resorts owned by six companies — suggested that the assessed staff appeared very smiley, proactive and patient when dealing with patrons, at least far more than they were one year ago.
The indices of smiling, pro-activeness and tolerance, according to the two researchers, were identified as the most significant factors to determine one’s service performance. These findings came after their efforts in 2013 to seek consensus from the industry representatives, academics and tourists to lay down a benchmark.
Nonetheless, the groups’ findings drew concerns from the authorities of the assessed resorts during yesterday’s finding debriefing. Their representatives argued that the 2013 standards were most likely still referential to all of the gaming operators, who each have their own variety of standards and rules when it comes to gauging staff performance.
“We do have concrete standards to measure [performance.] Since different brands or operators have their own standards, we can only count on one rule to fit all,” said SGS research manager Lee Kim Cheung, who presented the outcomes of the report to the representatives.
Sands China was the only casino absent from the discussion, which was attended by representatives from the other five gaming operators.
Wynn representatives went on to challenge whether the deployed customers carried out their assessment based on quantifiable factors, instead of simply resorting to their personal perception, which they deemed as subjective.
“In the future, I think it’s possible to provide training to the mystery shoppers to see if they can provide some quantifiable figures regarding how long they wait for services,” said Dr. LC Koo, assistant director of the association.
About 80 percent of the anonymous personnel hired to assist with the research last year have remained to contribute to this year’s research. All of them, including the new recruits, were under strict supervision and received professional training in advance, stressed the researchers.
The body of such a research project would likely be tweaked if it were to run again in the near future, as the gaming operators executives suggested amendments to the sample sizes. It has also been said that the gaming company authorities could “improve their customer service using GSI as their benchmark.”
The research shows that all of the variable determinants over the previous year have displayed an upward trend, suggesting a tendency for the overall service to continue improving.
Compared to the base index of 100 in 2013, the pro-activeness index revealed the most noteworthy transition, as its value slid to a record low of 82 in this year’s first quarter before soaring to 144 in the following quarter.
Specifically, the staff responsible for security outperformed the rest of their fellow colleagues while the performance of croupiers, who dominated the sample size, remained much below the general par despite a quarter-on-quarter growth in performance.
Comments from the mystery guests on the air quality inside the properties suggested that it was a “generous good” in the first half of the year. More than 60 percent of the bathrooms were rated as having a “satisfactory environment” since the second half of 2014. Their comments also included the length of wait for a shuttle bus. Guests generally spent 4.7 minutes waiting for one to arrive in the first quarter of the year, while the following quarter saw the duration bounce back to 9.2 minutes, similar to the data from last year.