It was said time and again that the slot floor is similar to a retail space, with innumerable elements of consumer appeal and prime locations, but what does that truly mean in practice, and what insights may also be gained if we actually explore the meaning of the casino as a shopping experience?
That was the gist of a very good presentation on casino floor optimization by industry veteran Bruce Rowe finally month’s Global Gaming Expo (G2E) in Las Vegas. Rowe, now president of Renaissance Casino Solutions after greater than 30 years as an executive at Harrah’s and a number of other slot manufacturers, was educated as a theater major and commenced out as an entertainment buyer before holding top jobs in IT and slots. It’s a novel background and well-suited to the theme of creating sense of the large and regularly chaotic space that casinos occupy, both physically and within the minds of the players.
“Webster’sdefines a casino as a building or room that has games for gambling; that is the definition of a store, a building or room where things are sold,” said Rowe. “Like a store, you may have a diversified product portfolio; you don’t sell something. To buy is to go to a spot where things are sold to take a look at or buy something. This concept of shopping and attempting to find the most productive buy is native to us. Price is an important differentiator in retail but other factors matter, including convenient location, selection and display of the merchandise, attractiveness of the establishment and reputation. Does that sound like things your customers consider after they come to a casino?”
STARTING ON THE ENTRANCE
People have a large number of different experiences getting into a casino. When Rowe asked the audience what number of entrances their casino properties had, answers ranged from one to 6; which means that consumers experience one to 6 different entrance experiences once they visit a gaming property.
Rowe stressed that operators should perform a knowledge audit for every entrance. How to start this process could also be to invite yourself what you remember from the last time you walked through a selected casino entrance: What was the predominate color? The smell? The sound? What was under your feet and what did it feel like? Carpet that had padding, soft padding, or worn-out padding? What was the emotion you had walking into this casino taking within the smell and sound of the casino? What's the the very first thing you saw, slots or tables? Slots that folks play? Tables, however the first one with players at it's three tables down? A restaurant?
What is the protection guard wearing? What color is it? Does it seem like a host’s uniform or a policeman’s? If it’s a policeman’s, does that make you're feeling safer or like you’re in a spot that’s dangerous?
“I was recently in Macau and the primary casino I went to had security guards who seemed like they were from the French Foreign Legion with formal uniforms down to epaulets,” said Rowe. “Another casino had guards with pink sport coats they usually smiled at you and said hello; every body of them. They may have eight-degree, black-belt ex-Navy Seals, with Uzis under the pink coats, and that i still would have felt more well-off. The surroundings by which we offer these products is critical.”
The list of questions upon entering continues: Did you spot an indication for the toilet from where you’re standing? If not, ask your security guard what's the most commonly asked question they get on the entrance of the casino.
Do you're feeling comfortable which you could find your way out in line with how you came in? In the event you came in with someone else, is there a memorable landmark where the 2 of you'll meet an hour later to visit dinner?
When you walk in there’s a complete group of games with three colors. Do the squint test: “Next time you go right into a casino stand somewhere and shut your eyes slowly,” said Rowe. “The final thing you spot before you black out is the very first thing that your brain sees. That’s your first impression; that game that has yellow, green or bright red…red won’t last up to yellow; that’s why yield signs are yellow.”
How time and again do you visit the six entrances that you just may need and say, gee, this one doesn’t smell just like the opposite one; how come? One’s near a trash dumpster and one’s near a Cinnabon. What’s the adaptation for your brain once I say that and also you connect those two things to sniff? Where do you immediately need to be? Two of essentially the most powerful smells are cinnamon and popcorn.
“For those of you with multiple casino entrances, you must perform this test on every entrance and on every decision point,” said Rowe.
AGE AND GENDER ISSUES
We know that casino players skew older—one attendee from South Florida said the age range at his property is “55 to dead”—but the industry can and must do more to cause them to comfortable.
Rowe asked the audience who picks the music at their property. One answer was the IT guy and the GM. “I was an IT guy for nine years; nowhere did it say what have you learnt about picking music for individuals 55 and older,” said Rowe. “Who sets the quantity and adjusts it? Volume is sometimes set in order that it aggravates the fewest people at quiet times within the casino, and lots of times that’s employees who drive it. I BEGAN out as an entertainment buyer and the primary rule I USED TO BE taught was don’t ever buy for yourself. Once you do that, you’re going to lose your job. If you’re not picking the music on your customers and you’re not adjusting the quantity in accordance with time of day and day of the week, you’re not doing the proper thing to set the atmosphere for those customers.”
Ensuring elder customer comfort goes beyond the amount of background music. Rowe suggested slot executives purchase a rolling tape measure and determine the precise distance it takes to get somewhere. Rowe, who started his career in Atlantic City, desired to see how far it was for his customers, whose average age was 60, to get from their car to the machine and the entire stops they'd to make in between. “It turned out that we put the parking garage about so far as we possibly could from the game,” he said. “It was a few quarter mile to get to the doorway of the casino, so I timed it, and that i thought that was flawed data because I USED TO BE not walking behind one in all our customers. After I did that it was double the quantity of time to get to that destination. At no time did I pass a bathroom, a coat check, or a loyalty center. I needed to go past the sport I NEEDED to play to get to the loyalty center. After I went to the ATM, I needed to visit a bill-breaking device that wasn’t next to the ATM in order that I MAY convert the $100 in to $20s in order that I MAY go play the sport that I came to play. After which they put all of the restaurants so far as they might at the other end. That gave me almost a 880 yards to get from my car to the buffet.”
In addition to the distances between vital services, Rowe talked about that the true physical layout of a slot space generally is a turn-off to potential gamblers of every age. By the use of an example, Rowe cited a case study from Why We Buy, a book by Paco Underhill that used video surveillance to qualify consumer purchasing decisions. The book describes a shop that featured a long, circular tie display that stretched to the back of the retail space. The issue: tie sales from this display were lackluster. The rationale: video studies showed people couldn’t buy ties at that display without running the chance of physical contact with passing shoppers. Management subsequently changed the display and tie sales went up, just because customers weren’t forced to the touch another individual in an effort to buy something.
“Do you might have choke points within the casino where people may well be forced to the touch people and never want to?” asked Rowe. “Who is your casino for many? casinos are designed to be equally inoffensive to people [of every age.] They job my memory of shops that I went into as a tender man—when there have been still department stores—that were presupposed to meet the wishes of everybody within the family of each age. It's important to understand who your customers are, what they like, what their affinities are, what motivates them and what matters to them. You must understand what products they consume.”
LAYING OUT PRINCIPALS
One of the early battles Rowe fought as a slot manager was over the optimal selection of machines at an Atlantic City property. “The GM at this casino desired to add 350 slots and that i desired to take 750 off the floor,” remembered Rowe. “We were a casino apart in our thinking process. We needed to take 750 games off the ground and the rationale was it wasn’t comfortable for the client. We were arguing what the aisle width must be and the ranges were six to 8 feet. I said, ‘I don’t know, let’s get in a wheelchair.’ I got into one and went everywhere in the floor to determine what it'd be love to navigate it in a wheelchair. When you haven’t done that, do it. It creates an entire different perspective.”
From this experience, Rowe determined the design of the casino floor can’t be done strictly by one person, whether or not they are an architect or slot manager. “One of the most efficient locations on this planet for a slot machine is a column,” said Rowe.” You'll be able to put a 12-foot game up there, it’s easy to hold a sign… there are a wide variety of advantages. I’ve been in situations where we were told we couldn’t use the columns because we had, say, crystal chandeliers hanging from them that also had five years of depreciation on them. I said I'LL make $200 more per day on a machine in the event you let me put it on a column but I couldn’t do it. After I was at Harrah’s it took a few years for the architects to know that, at our company, the gaming people own the columns.”
Rowe remains a disciple of Bill Friedman’s casino design principles, composed a few years ago but a significant portion of which might be timeless and include advice such as:
• Short lines of sight beat extensive physical depth:“People wish to be capable of see something in little bits, move on and notice more,” said Rowe. The Palazzo casino resort in Las Vegas, so as to settle a settle a disagreement, put half the ground with fewer games and higher layout against another half with more games. The side with fewer games won decisively on every revenue metric. It was dramatic enough to convince senior management to redo all the floor.
• The maze layout beats long, wide, straight passageways and aisles:“When I USED TO BE on the Rio, we made it as easy as possible for individuals to never play our games,” said Rowe. “They could are available in from self-parking and there has been a large aisle with the department stores and they'd just keep right on going past the games. Until we did the Show within the Sky and re-did the trail to make it smaller, they’d go all through the games. Should you don’t have the money for games, put a wall up and make the casino smaller and more exciting. There are many casinos in downtown Las Vegas that are meant to do this.”
• A layout with a focus beats a layout that lacks a way of organization: That is all about creating loci of energy and likewise to create landmarks. Meeting people on the Michael Jackson game or Wheel of Fortune, so that you can find your way if you would like to and not using a GPS.
• Low ceilings beat high ceilings:“Ceiling height must be appropriate to the game,” Rowe said. “If you have got an indication that may be literally jammed up against the ceiling, you recognize that it wasn’t meant to head there. You wish to have about two to 3 feet above your highest sign or the tallest game you’re going to have so as to create the right kind aspect ratio in order that games will look good within the area where they're presented.”
• The gambling equipment is the focal point:“We’ve taken out murals, foliage, etc., as it wasn’t designed to showcase the games” Rowe said. “If a game isn’t exactly within the right spot and it’s not precisely the right color, it’s going to seem find it irresistible never belonged there.”
• Themes go out and in of fashion and also you either get it really right or really wrong: “Treasure Chest in Tunica: it was a boat, everyone was dressed as pirates in black and also you feared rape and pillage,” Rowe explained. “They weren’t wearing gold and jewels and handing you chocolate ponies. It was scary.”
• Long banks vs. short banks:Short banks always do better; they make it easier for individuals to search out the games. And the tip games on banks always make greater than within the middle. Just as in retail, end caps and end aisle displays are where stores take advantage of money. “I am shocked what number of casinos continue to not utilize end caps correctly,” said Rowe. “In many cases it’s an impulse buy. You'll put a high-hold game right in front of the buffet. If persons are standing there long enough, they're going to put a $20 in that game.”
“If I were bidding for space in casinos, it'd be end caps and column wraps, because they provide you probably the most private space and peripheral vision,” Rowe added. “Human beings have an actual issue with being approached from the back. They get really nervous; their heart rate and blood pressure go up. Almost 90 percent of the service interactions in a casino start from behind the player. People, particularly women, need to know who’s around. Diamonds and triangles are different ways you'll create extra space and vision for players.”
• Be careful with curved banks: Games at the outside will make more cash because they invent more private space. When you’re wedged in you’re being forced alongside people you don’t know or wish to know, especially in a smoking casino.
• Multiple gambling experiences and settings beat a single atmosphere throughout: Regarding this last point, an attendee who said his casino had 1,700 slot machines was asked what number of casinos he runs. When he said, one, Rowe said he would argue that he runs five. “You’ve got neighborhoods with different personalities,” he said. “The high-limit area, the poker room, the penny section; most of these neighborhoods has sights, sounds, touches, smells, tastes and different service levels. What is going to be in these neighborhoods and why? What's going to not be there? What sort of levels do you are expecting at Nordstrom? A white grand piano? At Wal-Mart?”
“The point is every neighborhood has an excessively different value proposition,” Rowe added. “The Nordstrom customers might come five times a year and gamble greater than $1,000 per trip, The Wal-Mart customers might need a regular bet of 35 cents. Understand where Nordstrom is for your floor and where Wal-Mart is.”
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