For around 5 months during my time at GSN Casino, I became the “Premier Agent”, where I would work with the app’s whales, which we called “Premiers.” At that point, anyone who had spent over a certain amount playing on our Facebook app was considered a “Premier” and I had the pleasure of managing their concerns.
The program we had in place was pretty unorganized, but it gave our Premiers had a single point of contact, who would help them with whatever issues they experienced. 90% of the time it was “I need more Tokens to play.” I soon moved on to working with an up and coming title (which quickly became a “down and gone” title), but I did get a taste of what our Premier Program could have been, with some thought and parameters.
There were a number of simple things we could have implemented that would have helped our elite players feel like they were in a special club, without it making it appear about money. Other brands offer exclusive Facebook Groups, Private Forums, phone numbers, email offerings, in-game offers, and a slew of other ways to gently remind their most-engaged players that they are part of an elite group of game players.
A good program should not only enhance the player’s experience, it should also make the player feel a much deeper connection to the game, like the particular game is “their” game.
For example, for a huge number of players, one of the games I worked on, we’ll call it “Chauncey”, is their only game. It is the ONE game that they play, and the game was brilliantly designed to make them feel like it’s the only game they need.
Unfortunately, through my interviews with Chauncey’s Club members, reading the weekly Customer Support reports, and reading the many, many comments left by players on Facebook and Instagram, it became very apparent that many players felt as though the game’s creators had switched their focus to generating more revenue above everything else. They complained that every new feature released was “just another money pit” and that the game that they have loved for so long has changed so much that it’s not nearly as fun anymore.
The sad thing is that they were not far off from the truth. During the pandemic, the game did really well and players really appreciated having the distraction. As such, they were spending their entertainment dollars on the game. This led to the studio hiring more people to enhance the game. When the pandemic was over, our numbers began to decline.
The time to implement a whale management program is when the game is doing well. Provide players with a service that they’ve, in effect, worked for, and that will adhere them to the game even more.
Tahd Frentzel Portfolio 