The iGaming industry has boomed in the past year, and the landscape is full of opportunities for businesses who can put their customers first.
Online gambling and betting, known commonly as iGaming. Consists of playing games such as casino or sports over the internet. Some of the market’s familiar games include poker, bingo, lotteries, roulette, or slots. Online gambling and betting have grown consistently over the past 8-10 years. The availability of these games and the temptation of excellent returns are the leading factors fueling the overall online gambling and betting market growth.
According to European Gaming – “The global online gambling market reached a value of nearly $58,960 million in 2019, having increased at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.9% since 2015. The market is set to grow from $58,960 million in 2019 to $92,860 million in 2023 at a rate of 12.0%.”
Europe has dominated online gambling & betting, accounting for a 52% share of online gambling & betting globally in 2019. The EU expected to report record-breaking revenue in the global online gambling & betting market, mainly due to the enormous demand originating from the Western European countries.
The COVID-19 pandemic has also contributed to the Online Gambling Industry’s explosive growth in the 2020/21 periods, respectively. Many online casino sites found a tsunami of new registrants, while regular players also began to play online, completely changing the way the traditional gambling industry used to operate.
Since changes were felt within the past 24 months, one of the main challenges is scalability. What do you do with so many new customers?
When things fail due to a glitch, a computer problem, or a less than smooth interaction with other players — it is easy for your customers to lose patience and go running towards the competition. Gamers no longer fit into a single category: literally everyone can be a gamer now, which means fielding requests from customers who may not even know the basics of gaming.
Here are some of the lessons for companies that wish to provide their loyal customers with the best customer experience:
- Proactive Support: Don’t expect users to reach out when they have an issue. Some players do not complain; they stop playing. Build plenty of options for them to interact with you. Ideally, this should happen within the game, through the product itself, a shortcut away. In-game tools are a great option, so are Help Centers and FAQs.
- Fast Support: The faster, the better. No one likes to wait for help, especially in the middle of a game. Customers expect short response times: if a game crashes, it completely ruins the person’s experience playing it. Gamers hope the problem to be solved as soon as possible so that they can resume their game.
- Multilingual Support: Speak your customers’ native language whenever you can. It increases trust, empathy, and loyalty. Localize your help center and games, provide live multilingual support in websites, forums and communities. Multilingual customer support is an increasingly important part of customer service for companies looking at international markets. Speak to customers in their own language, and you gain their trust.
- High Availability: Gamers can and will play your game at any time of the day, so expect them to reach out at any time. Support should be available 24/7, especially for massive online gaming operations. Also, real-time chat is always a great option.
- Omnichannel: Be there for your customers, no matter where they are. Of course, phone and email are essential, relevant, and must-have supporting channels. But don’t ignore other channels, like chat or social media.
The growth of the market is not all fun and games. It is increasingly difficult for companies to stand out. In a world where the next gaming option is just a click or a download away, I believe exceptional customer service is key in retaining customers and ensuring their loyalty.
But what are your players looking for? And how can you engage and support them? In the end, it is all about keeping your players happy. Happy players stick around.
For more tips on how to engage your customers, join us for a live webinar on April 28th at 11:00 a.m. GMT. We will be exploring the change in Customer Experience trends and the challenges that customer support departments in the iGaming industry are facing. Click here to register.
