Boost your Customer Service Skills
We are going to go over three steps about how to give yourself a raise by boosting your customer service skills.
Patience
The very first one is patience. Now as a casino dealer it is totally normal to have angry people at you. I mean you are taking their money right! It’s like I said, easy for them to be angry, to be frustrated. You as a dealer can be very overwhelmed in these types of situations. The dealers ability to handle this is very important. That is why patience is one of the topics that we talk about in our video. What do you do if you are not a naturally patient person? As soon as you realize things are getting heated, as soon as you feel that emotion that you are getting pissed, as soon as you recognize that, stop, take a few deep breaths and focus. Count to 10. This will give you enough time for your brain to work. See right now when you are getting pissed off, you are experiencing the fight or flight response. It takes some time for your rational brain to kick in. That is why when you start noticing yourself getting mad, stop, take a deep breath, and count to 10. Again this will allow the rational portion of your brain to kick in.
You do not want to lose your temper. You want to remain calm, and composed. Keep in mind, that people naturally tend to mirror one another. If you are level headed, if your patient, if you listen to the player, if you show some empathy and some concern for what they are going through, then the player will calm down. They will be much easier to handle. They will start mirroring whatever behavior you are displaying. So it’s really important to keep yourself in check during these situations. Sincerely listen to what the player is saying. Try to take the time to figure out what they want. This makes it a lot easier to understand what their problem is. If you try to see it from their perspective and offer them a degree of sympathy, then most of the time this will help, just doing that. Usually disgruntled players just want someone to listen to them and have their attention and their empathy. You wouldl be really surprised how quickly irate customers will settle down once they have your attention, and that you actually listened to them.
Now how does this give you more tokes? How do you get a raise? Well problems are opportunities in disguise. Opportunities means tokes. We know in this business, no matter what happens there will be times where the customer gets angry. It’s going to happen. But if you handle the situation with a degree of patience and dignity and some calmness, then you can turn this opportunity to make tokes. If that customer is satisfied and they leave the table felt feeling like they were heard, they are more likely to tip you. If you have an angry, irate customer that angry irate customer isn’t going to tip you. There is no point in getting angry too. Because if you get angry too, then you have automatically lost those tokes. You automatically lost that opportunity to be tipped. If you are in that situation and you recognize it, again, patience. Take a few deep breaths, count to 10 and realize that if you listen, if you offer a degree of sympathy, this gives you the opportunity to sooth the player and have that player toke you or give you a tip for your effort. So that is one way to give yourself a raise. In those types of situations.
Another thing we can talk about real quick, is if you approach the table and you are already in a bad mood, then you are going to -- again the mirroring thing happens and you are going to cause the other players to be in a bad mood. So before you go into the property, it is good to check yourself. Try to calm down and try to appear like you are in a better mood. Because if you smile, and you act like you are in a better mood, then your emotions will follow and you will be in a better mood later on.
If the player is in a bad mood -- let’s say if the player sits down and they are already in a bad mood and they are already ranting and disgruntled. Then what do you do? The best way to handle that situation instead of waiting for a fight to happen, is to distract the player. Distract the player by talking about something that they enjoy. Or by talking bout an upbeat and positive subject. So for example, if the player comes to your table in a foul mood and they are wearing a Longhorns jersey or some kind of sports jersey, then if you are into sport maybe you could start talking about sports teams that both of you like. That would get the customer out of their foul mood and give you the opportunity to turn that bad situation into potential tokes. If you get that player out of the bad mood, they would be more likely to thank you by toking you. And that is one way to give yourself a raise by using patience.
Ability to Read the Player
The ability to read the player is basically looking for the subtle clues about their current mood, personality, patience level and wants and needs. Everybody is different and we have to treat everybody as such. If we are able to read the customers it makes it a lot easier for us in our job. Especially when we are trying to give the customer what they want. So again, every customer is different. As the dealer, it is good to be able to read the table per say, and know what they want, know what they need, know what their current mood is, and know what their patience level is. Now, you’re going to use this information to determine how to interact with them. That way when they leave the casino, they do it with a positive impression.
If they get what they want, they are happy. Right? So we want to give them what they want. What does this mean? It means respecting the players wishes. Now there are some players who -- they come to Las -- if you are in Las Vegas, if you are in any casino, it could be any other situation but it’s something similar. They come to the casino, they want to have a good time, they want to just play and have fun and laugh. They don’t care if they lose any money. That is one type of player. So with that type of player, you would talk with them, have fun with them, tell jokes, tell stories, that type of a thing. Then you will have another player where they will come to the table and they want silence. They want to concentrate. They don’t like listening to someone talk a mile a minute. Or they are old school, they want silence. Well, respect the players wishes and give them silence. If they are wanting to interact with their family, for example. If their family is in town and they just have seen them for the first time in 20 years and they want to go to the tables and play and talk about what’s going on, don’t interject. Don’t sit there and tell them your life story when they are trying to catch up with each other. So it’s all about reading the table. It’s all about reading your customer, your player, what their want’s are, what they are trying to get out of this experience. As the dealer, being able to give them what they want. Again remember, every player is different so try to respect their wishes.
Ability to Handle Surprises
Now because we are casino dealers, because of our profession we see a lot of crap. We see a lot of really crazy, insane surprises. That is the nicest way to put it. Now it’s not so much the surprise but how the dealer reacts to that surprise that matters. When a surprise happens we typically do or say the very first thing that comes to mind. Without thinking about the ramifications, or the undesirable consequences of our actions. For example, please don’t laugh hysterically at the high roller when the high roller does something embarrassing. Not good! High Roller will not be happy.
So watching how you react. Keeping yourself in check. Making sure that you don’t react in a way that you hurt someone's feelings. Especially a player's freeling. It’s very, very important. Especially in an industry where we have a lot really crazy surprises happening at really weird times. I mean stuff I have seen it’s just nuts. Customer Service can throw you a curveball. Sometimes the problem isn’t covenant in the company guidelines. Or the guess isn’t reacting the way you thought they would. Whatever that may be, just remember to keep your cool, filter your words, act like a professional in that situation and if it is too much to handle, please call over your floor supervisor and let them handle it. Either they will help you out, or you guys are going to have a really funny to share later on in the future.
Q: How do you break-in during this crisis?
A: From what I am hearing, you don’t. Just to be straight forward. In Las Vegas. Now I don’t know the situation in other places at the moment. I am talking specifically about for Las Vegas specifically. In Las Vegas, the casinos basically layed off all the employees or furlough all of their employees. So when the casinos open back, they only open back at half capacity. They only rehired half of their staff. So they still have half of their staff to rehire before they probably start thinking about hiring new people. It is just a really crazy situation that is going on at the moment. We are not sure what’s going to happen. We don’t know if they are going to stay open. We don’t know if the governor is going to close it. He just closed the bars. So we don’t know what’s going to happen and there is a lot of uncertainty. Getting a job in this environment is extremely difficult to say the least.
Q: What might you do if there’s a grump at the table and someone who’s jovial and talkative?
A: Good question! One of them is probably eventually going to leave, and it’s probably going to be the grump. I am just talking from personal experience. What do you do if that happens. No problem. If the grump wants to be silent and he doesn’t want to talk, don’t talk to him. If the person that is happy and excited and they want to talk, cool talk to them. Listen to them. Have fun with them. Again, every person is different so treat each person differently. If one person wants to talk and have fun, then talk and have fun with that person. If someone wants to be silent don’t talk to that person. If the grumpy silent guy gets mad that someone else is having fun, he can move to a different table where there are no other players and he doesn’t have to worry about it. There’s no reason to make the fun, happy person leave the table because they don’t have a problem. If the grump has a problem he can go to another table where there’s no players and he’s the only one playing. It really just depends on the player and what they want. You will have people sometimes where they are grumpy and they want to have a problem. It doesn't matter what you suggest, or what you try to do, or how you try to react, some people are just miserable. If that is the case, just do the best you can to make them happy and don’t let them ruin your day. That’s probably the best advice I could give you on that one. Let me know if you have any more questions on that.
Q: How does a dealer move up to management?
A: If you are a dealer and you want to move up to a management position, the first step to take is to become a dual-rate. A dual-rate is a floorman/dealer. It’s a dealer that’s trying to be a floorman. So some days they are a dealer. And some days they might be a floorman in training. Once you get comfortable enough and you want to move to a full-time floor position, that’s when the dealer would go from dual-rate to a floor supervisor. If the person wants to move up any more than that, you would of course have to move up the ladder. It would be the pit manager, assistant shift manager, and then eventually casino manager. Then possibly a GM, General Manager. So they can keep moving up into that position. I’ve known people who have started off as a dealer and now they are like the vice president of well known companies. You could totally do that. Okay so I hope I answered your question. Let’s see what else you guys are saying.
Q: I finally just watched the last livestream. I have one question...you said that dealers aren’t allowed to take things directly from the players. True story: I had a player try to give me their phone number across the table. Is there a way to accomplish this without breaking casino rules?
A: Unfortunately you are not supposed to patronize with the customer. You are not supposed to have a relationship with the customers, technically. So if you were to exchange any information between yourself and the customer you sorta have to do it on the down low. Don’t be really obvious about it. Don’t do it while you are at the table. Try not to do it while you are on the clock. It’s just not good for dealers to patronize with the customers or get into a relationship with them. So again, it depends on the casino, every casino is different. Every casino has different rules. So definitely check and see what your casino says about patronizing with the customers. Other than that, technically you are not supposed to give anything to the dealers. But if you do get phone numbers sometimes, I’ve gotten chocolates before. I’ve gotten candy before. I’ve gotten little gifts and everything. I got a rose from a player one time. They will give you little gifts if they don’t give you tips. They will give you little gifts. That’s ok. That’s acceptable. Just have them put it on the table. You can’t hand anyone anything. So yeah! I hope that answers your question. Let me know if you have any more questions that I didn’t answer.
Q: Is your family allowed to play at your table if you are a dealer?
A: Technically, no. If you have your family play on your table because sometimes they are just excited and they want to play. If you do have that happen, you have to notify management. So be like, “My family is in town, they are really excited to have me deal to them, I know that’s an iffy thing. These are the people, they are my family. Since you know, is it okay if I just have them sit at my table and play a little bit?” If management knows and they are okay with it, then you could do it. If management says no, I’m sorry, even if they are your family you can’t do it. Then don’t do it. If you try to get away with it. Like if you try to say, Hey we are not going to say anything and we are going to pretend that we don’t know each other and have them on the table. That works too, it’s just if anyone finds out and it is against the rules you are putting yourself and your job at jeopardy. Is it really worth that? So just think about the consequences before you take that risk. I hope I answered that question.
Q: Have you dealt Texas Hold’em? If so, where and what stakes?
A: Poker. Yes I dealt Texas Hold’em Poker at the Sahara for three months and it was long enough to realize that I am not a poker dealer. I don’t like dealing poker. I don’t like the -- the players are a different type of people than blackjack players. Blackjack players are more fun and want to have a good time. Poker players, it's like you can’t talk, it’s very serious, if you make any mistakes they are going to hate you. It just wasn’t a fun environment, so I didn’t stay in poker for very long. But I did deal poker at the Sarah for a short amount of time.