I remember scenes from my favourite TV series where placing a bet with pen and paper from the backstreets was a love affair for the sports bettor, writes Vermantia Commercial Director Spyros Stavropoulos. But can these fond memories actually cloud our judgement when it comes to new consumer expectations?
While this old school filling out of a bet slip is still possible, customer expectations are shifting in the same way that bookmaking went from wagers in the backstreets to pleasure palaces on the highstreet.
In many cases, we underestimate the players in terms of how tech savvy they are, but also how much they prefer interactive, action-packed betting experiences, regardless of the fond memories they might hold of the old way of doing things.
What else? We forget that the essential principles of customer service are timeless, but consumer expectations are not. In any industry, consumers have always wanted a friendly, efficient and reliable service, but technology has raised their expectations.
The pandemic also plays a major role here. Work is different, shopping is different, our everyday lives are different. And simply being a customer is different.
As they move through this new normal, customers are expecting choice around their actions, a complete seamless experience and companies to understand their needs and expectations.
I recently read Salesforce research indicating that 76% of customers expect companies to understand their needs and expectations. And while customers expect great seamless experiences, the reality falls short with only half of consumers – 51% in fact – feeling that companies meet this expectation.
The key takeaway from this is that it’s no longer just about product and price. Customers today examine how effectively you manage their expectations.
From personalisation to product quality, customer service to delivery, and from social responsibility to interactive experience, customers have grown to expect a first-class experience, wherever and whenever they interact with the business. If they receive anything less, customers will simply seek a competitor that does meet their expectations.
Advanced technologies and the digital age are also disrupting traditional customer service models, which means new customer touchpoints are appearing and new expectations rising at breakneck speed.
But tech advances in today’s digital era also play a key role in equipping businesses to sustain those changes. Digital transformation contributes significantly to meet the shifting demands, taking users on digital journeys and providing consistent and personalised experiences.
Do we know if these changes will stick? Not yet. Do we know if we still need to meet our customers’ expectations? Absolutely, yes! Businesses need to offer top-notch service now more than ever to attract and retain customers.
The benefits are apparent. By staying on the correct course to this massive shift with a spirit of responsibility towards customers’ wishes, companies will set the stage for rising revenues and enhanced customer engagement.
Now I know you need to take a wider look, outside of your sector too, to gain a full understanding of consumer expectations today. But, I couldn’t stop wondering if businesses in our sector are future-ready for what is coming next. What does this transformation mean for our industry? How will betting and gaming companies keep their fingers on the pulse?
I can confidently say that there is no magic silver bullet, but more a series of tech advancements and innovations to help get the job done! Considering the rapidly shifting marketplace and the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, the betting operators need to move fast and efficiently to adapt to always growing changes and demands.
At Vermantia, we do exactly that for our partners through a proprietary gaming platform. We provide complete betting solutions through our CONNECT platform, enabling operators to deliver bespoke services to their customers. Through advanced modules, we empower operators to quickly shape the ideal product mix for any market and operation, responding to rapid industry or non-industry changes.
This is the reason our bespoke betting channels give greater scope for choice than other options in the market, powered in a fully flexible manner by CONNECT. With bet markets, scheduling and their entire layout adapted to their own customers in any format required, we’ve got every base covered.
This is also the reason that we also offer a wide portfolio of content, covering from live action-packed sports and racing channels to virtual and next-gen games as well as the latest in content delivery, offering either satellite broadcasting or ultra-low latency streaming to deliver our top quality content to all online, mobile and retail audience.
After all, without the live price updates, graphic visualisations and iconic real-time streams – it just doesn’t have the same feel.
Our team has been leveraging sophisticated technologies and turning complex business problems into opportunities and options for a long time now.
The principal reason for giving operators such choice is not only the ever-changing expectations of the customers, but also our appreciation of local requirements. We make sure operators can access a specific picture content and data mix that suits their needs and market challenges.
We all enjoy a throwback from time to time, but don’t let it stop you from seeing the bigger picture. Some things in life are timeless, but consumer expectations – at least not from a betting and gaming standpoint – are certainly not.