Harrah's Reflection

Harrah's Return on Investment: 62% =====Others: 23%

I think that might be enough said.

The only thing I want to discuss here is some things that I think Harrah's should do in moving forward.  There methods have obviously proven to be successful and they should continue to do what they are doing.  They have differentiated themselves as great properties for customers to visit because of their generous rewards programs.  I am a good example of a loyal customer, I pretty much only go to Harrah's properties because they seemingly offer the best rewards.  Kudos to them.

So the big topic of interest in the consultants suggestions for me was the argument over Quality or Quantity.  Here's my take.  I want both!  It seems that Harrah's does keep their quality customers content with their rewards programs as proven by the consultants, so I am not going to discuss much of that.  But my problem with the presentation was the fact that their rewards program does not seem to bring in the casual gambler.  The choice few that maybe gamble $20.  My goal with the rewards program would to get those people that gamble $20 to gamble $30.  If Harrah's can increase the amount of time that people are actually gambling, then it is a winning scenario just in the design of the slots and tables in general.  So next time someone orders a Long Island Iced Tea, give them the opportunity to sign up for the reward program and give them a $5 table voucher to get them sitting at a table.  Of course I would rather have 50 people gambling $1000 over 1000 people gambling $50, but let's be realistic and say that it is the same net effect.  Harrah's wins. 

Collecting data is what has given Harrah's an advantage, and if they get more customers to sign up and enter their information in the system, the advantage will improve and Harrah's wins again.  Even if they are only gambling $20, they are still a customer and still a data point to help Harrah's differentiate their data modeling system.

62% ROI!!! When can I start?