{"id":207,"date":"2018-06-14T19:04:51","date_gmt":"2018-06-14T19:04:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/bus3060\/chapter\/ch11-8\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T15:52:04","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T15:52:04","slug":"ch11-8","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/bus3060\/chapter\/ch11-8\/","title":{"raw":"11.8 Data Asset in Action: Harrah\u2019s Solid Gold CRM for the Service Sector","rendered":"11.8 Data Asset in Action: Harrah\u2019s Solid Gold CRM for the Service Sector"},"content":{"raw":"
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Learning Objectives<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

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After studying this section you should be able to do the following:<\/p>\r\n\r\n

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  1. Understand how Harrah\u2019s has used IT to move from an also-ran chain of casinos to become the largest gaming company based on revenue.<\/li>\r\n \t
  2. Name some of the technology innovations that Harrah\u2019s is using to help it gather more data, and help push service quality and marketing program success.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n \r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

    Harrah\u2019s Entertainment provides an example of exceptional data asset leverage in the service sector, focusing on how this technology enables world-class service through customer relationship management.<\/p>\r\n

    Gary Loveman is a sort of management major trifecta. The CEO of Harrah\u2019s Entertainment is a former operations<\/em> professor who has leveraged information technology<\/em> to create what may be the most effective marketing<\/em> organization in the service industry. If you ever needed an incentive to motivate you for cross-disciplinary thinking, Loveman provides it.<\/p>\r\n

    Harrah\u2019s has leveraged its data-powered prowess to move from an also-ran chain of casinos to become the largest gaming company by revenue. The firm operates some fifty-three casinos, employing more than eighty-five thousand workers on five continents. Brands include Harrah\u2019s, Caesars Palace, Bally\u2019s, Horseshoe, and Paris Las Vegas. Under Loveman, Harrah\u2019s has aggressively swallowed competitors, the firm\u2019s $9.4 billion buyout of Caesars Entertainment being its largest deal to date.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

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    Collecting Data<\/h2>\r\n

    Data drives the firm. Harrah\u2019s collects customer data on just about everything you might do at their properties\u2014gamble, eat, grab a drink, attend a show, stay in a room. The data\u2019s then used to track your preferences and to size up whether you\u2019re the kind of customer that\u2019s worth pursuing. Prove your worth, and the firm will surround you with top-tier service and develop a targeted marketing campaign to keep wooing you back (Magnini, et. al., 2003).<\/p>\r\n

    The ace in the firm\u2019s data collection hole is its Total Rewards loyalty card system. Launched over a decade ago, the system is constantly being enhanced by an IT staff of seven hundred, with an annual budget in excess of $100 million (Swabey, 2007). Total Rewards is an opt-in<\/a><\/span> loyalty program, but customers consider the incentives to be so good that the card is used by some 80 percent of Harrah\u2019s patrons, collecting data on over forty-four million customers (Wagner, 2008; Haugsted, 2007).<\/p>\r\n

    Customers signing up for the card provide Harrah\u2019s with demographic information such as gender, age, and address. Visitors then present the card for various transactions. Slide it into a slot machine, show it to the restaurant hostess, present it to the parking valet, share your account number with a telephone reservation specialist\u2014every contact point is an opportunity to collect data. Between three hundred thousand and one million customers come through Harrah\u2019s doors daily, adding to the firm\u2019s data stash and keeping that asset fresh (Hoover, 2007).<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

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    Who Are the Most Valuable Customers?<\/h2>\r\n

    All that data is heavily and relentlessly mined. Customer relationship management should include an assessment to determine which customers are worth having a relationship with. And because Harrah\u2019s has so much detailed historical data, the firm can make fairly accurate projections of customer lifetime value (CLV)<\/a><\/span>. CLV represents the present value of the likely future income stream generated by an individual purchaser1<\/sup>. Once you know this, you can get a sense of how much you should spend to keep that customer coming back. You can size them up next to their peer group and if they fall below expectations you can develop strategies to improve their spending.<\/p>\r\n

    The firm tracks over ninety demographic segments, and each responds differently to different marketing approaches. Identifying segments and figuring out how to deal with each involves an iterative model of mining the data to identify patterns, creating a hypothesis (customers in group X will respond to a free steak dinner; group Y will want ten dollars in casino chips), then testing that hypothesis against a control group, turning again to analytics to statistically verify the outcome.<\/p>\r\n

    The firm runs hundreds of these small, controlled experiments each year. Loveman says that when marketers suggest new initiatives, \u201cI ask, did we test it first? And if I find out that we just whole-hogged, went after something without testing it, I\u2019ll kill \u2019em. No matter how clever they think it is, we test it\u201d (Nickell, 2002). The former ops professor is known to often quote quality guru W. Edwards Deming, saying, \u201cIn God we trust; all others must bring data.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

    When Harrah\u2019s began diving into the data, they uncovered patterns that defied the conventional wisdom in the gaming industry. Big money didn\u2019t come from European princes, Hong Kong shipping heirs, or the Ocean\u2019s 11<\/em> crowd\u2014it came from locals. The less than 30 percent of customers who spent between one hundred and five hundred dollars per visit accounted for over 80 percent of revenues and nearly 100 percent of profits (Swabey, 2007).<\/p>\r\n

    The data also showed that the firm\u2019s most important customers weren\u2019t the families that many Vegas competitors were trying to woo with Disneyland-style theme casinos\u2014it was Grandma! Harrah\u2019s focuses on customers forty-five years and older: twenty-somethings have no money, while thirty-somethings have kids and are too busy. To the premiddle-aged crowd, Loveman says, \u201cGod bless you, but we don\u2019t need you\u201d (Haugsted, 2007).<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

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    Data-Driven Service: Get Close (but Not Too Close) to Your Customers<\/h2>\r\n

    The names for reward levels on the Total Rewards card convey increasing customer value\u2014Gold, Diamond, and Platinum. Spend more money at Harrah\u2019s and you\u2019ll enjoy shorter lines, discounts, free items, and more. And if Harrah\u2019s systems determine you\u2019re a high-value customer, expect white-glove treatment. The firm will lavish you with attention, using technology to try to anticipate your every need. Customers notice the extra treatment that top-tier Total Rewards members receive and actively work to improve their status.<\/p>\r\n

    To illustrate this, Loveman points to the obituary of an Ashville, North Carolina, woman who frequented a casino Harrah\u2019s operates on a nearby Cherokee reservation. \u201cHer obituary was published in the Asheville paper and indicated that at the time of her death, she had several grandchildren, she sang in the Baptist choir and she was a holder of the Harrah\u2019s Diamond Total Rewards card<\/em>.\u201d Quipped Loveman, \u201cWhen your loyalty card is listed in someone\u2019s obituary, I would maintain you have traction<\/em>\u201d (Loveman, 2005).<\/p>\r\n

    The degree of customer service pushed through the system is astonishing. Upon check in, a Harrah\u2019s customer who enjoys fine dining may find his or her table is reserved, along with tickets for a show afterward. Others may get suggestions or special offers throughout their stay, pushed via text message to their mobile device (Wagner, 2008). The firm even tracks gamblers to see if they\u2019re suffering unusual losses, and Harrah\u2019s will dispatch service people to intervene with a feel-good offer: \u201cHaving a bad day? Here\u2019s a free buffet coupon\u201d (Davenport & Harris, 2007).<\/p>\r\n

    The firm\u2019s CRM effort monitors any customer behavior changes. If a customer who usually spends a few hundred a month hasn\u2019t shown up in a while, the firm\u2019s systems trigger follow-up contact methods such as sending a letter with a promotion offer, or having a rep make a phone call inviting them back (Loveman, 2005).<\/p>\r\n

    Customers come back to Harrah\u2019s because they feel that those casinos treat them better than the competition. And Harrah\u2019s laser-like focus on service quality and customer satisfaction are embedded into its information systems and operational procedures. Employees are measured on metrics that include speed and friendliness and are compensated based on guest satisfaction ratings. Hourly workers are notoriously difficult to motivate: they tend to be high-turnover, low-wage earners. But at Harrah\u2019s, incentive bonuses depend on an entire location\u2019s ratings. That encourages strong performers to share tips to bring the new guy up to speed. The process effectively changed the corporate culture at Harrah\u2019s from an every-property-for-itself mentality to a collaborative, customer-focused enterprise (Magnini & Honeycutt, 2003).<\/p>\r\n

    While Harrah\u2019s is committed to learning how to make your customer experience better, the firm is also keenly sensitive to respecting consumer data. The firm has never sold or given away any of its bits to third parties. And the firm admits that some of its efforts to track customers have misfired, requiring special attention to find the sometimes subtitle line between helpful and \u201ctoo helpful.\u201d For example, the firm\u2019s CIO has mentioned that customers found it \u201ccreepy and Big Brother-ish\u201d when employees tried to greet them by name and talk with them about their past business history at Harrah\u2019s, so the firm backed off (Wagner, 2008).<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

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    Innovation<\/h2>\r\n

    Harrah\u2019s is constantly tinkering with new innovations that help it gather more data and help push service quality and marketing program success. When the introduction of gaming in Pennsylvania threatened to divert lucrative New York City gamblers from Harrah\u2019s Atlantic City properties, the firm launched an interactive billboard in New York\u2019s Times Square, allowing passers-by to operate a virtual slot machine using text messages from their cell phones. Players dialing into the video billboard not only control the display, they receive text message offers promoting Harrah\u2019s sites in Atlantic City2<\/sup>.<\/p>\r\n

    At Harrah\u2019s, tech experiments abound. RFID-enabled poker chips and under-table RFID readers allow pit bosses to track and rate game play far better than they could before. The firm is experimenting with using RFID-embedded bracelets for poolside purchases and Total Rewards tracking for when customers aren\u2019t carrying their wallets. The firm has also incorporated drink ordering into gaming machines\u2014why make customers get up to quench their thirst? A break in gambling is a halt in revenue.<\/p>\r\n

    The firm was also one of the first to sign on to use Microsoft\u2019s Surface technology\u2014a sort of touch-screen and sensor-equipped tabletop. Customers at these tables can play bowling and group pinball games and even pay for drinks using cards that the tables will automatically identify. Tech even helps Harrah\u2019s fight card counters and crooks, with facial recognition software scanning casino patrons to spot the bad guys (Lohr, 2007).<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

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    Strategy<\/h2>\r\n

    A walk around Vegas during Harrah\u2019s ascendency would find rivals with bigger, fancier casinos. Says Loveman, \u201cWe had to compete with the kind of place that God would build if he had the money.\u2026The only thing we had was data\u201d (Swabey, 2007).<\/p>\r\n

    That data advantage creates intelligence for a high-quality and highly personal customer experience. Data gives the firm a service differentiation edge. The loyalty program also represents a switching cost. And these assets combined to be leveraged across a firm that has gained so much scale that it\u2019s now the largest player in its industry, gaining the ability to cross-sell customers on a variety of properties\u2014Vegas vacations, riverboat gambling, locally focused reservation properties, and more.<\/p>\r\n

    Harrah\u2019s chief marketing officer, David Norton, points out that when Total Rewards started, Harrah\u2019s was earning about thirty-six cents on every dollar customers spent gaming\u2014the rest went to competitors. A climb to forty cents would be considered monstrous. By 2005 that number had climbed to forty-five cents, making Harrah\u2019s the biggest monster in the industry (Lundquist, 2005). Some of the firm\u2019s technology investments have paid back tenfold in just two years\u2014bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars (Swabey, 2007).<\/p>\r\n

    The firm\u2019s technology has been pretty tough for others to match, too. Harrah\u2019s holds several patents covering key business methods and technologies used in its systems. After being acquired by Harrah\u2019s, employees of Caesars lamented that they had, for years, unsuccessfully attempted to replicate Harrah\u2019s systems without violating the firm\u2019s intellectual property (Hoover, 2007).<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

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    Challenges<\/h2>\r\n

    Harrah\u2019s efforts to gather data, extract information, and turn this into real profits is unparalleled, but it\u2019s not a cure-all. Broader events can often derail even the best strategy. Gaming is a discretionary spending item, and when the economy tanks, gambling is one of the first things consumers will cut. Harrah\u2019s has not been immune to the world financial crisis and experienced a loss in 2008.<\/p>\r\n

    Also note that if you look up Harrah\u2019s stock symbol you won\u2019t find it. The firm was taken private<\/a><\/span> in January 2008, when buyout firms Apollo Management and TPG Capital paid $30.7 billion for all of the firm\u2019s shares. At that time Loveman signed a five-year deal to remain on as CEO, and he\u2019s spoken positively about the benefits of being private\u2014primarily that with the distraction of quarterly earnings off the table, he\u2019s been able to focus on the long-term viability and health of the business (Knightly, 2009).<\/p>\r\n

    But the firm also holds $24 billion in debt from expansion projects and the buyout, all at a time when economic conditions have not been favorable to leveraged firms (Lattman, 2009). A brilliantly successful firm that developed best-in-class customer relationship management in now in a position many consider risky due to debt assumed as part of an overly optimistic buyout occurring at precisely the time when the economy went into a terrible funk. Harrah\u2019s awesome risk-reducing, profit-pushing analytics failed to offer any insight on the wisdom (or risk) in the debt and private equity deals.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

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    Key Takeaways<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

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