There are many online casinos out there, all clamoring for our attention, and sometimes it is difficult to sort out the wheat from the chaff – so how do we do that anyway?
One of the most important benchmarks however is the standard and quality of customer service which an online casino offers. Whereas a walk-in, bricks and mortar casino has quite apparent attributes which a customer can measure, such as dealers, waitresses, a pit team, welcome drinks, comps for frequent players etc., with the online equivalent this is much less apparent.
Good Customer Services a Must for Online Casinos
Nevertheless, as Unibet have proven multiple times, good customer service is essential to the reputable online casino, so read on and we’ll outline the most important things to look for.
Social media might spring to mind, and it’s true that online casinos are taking advantage of Facebook, Twitter and others more and more. We’d argue that perhaps they even should do that – it gives a ‘human’ face to the set-up, provides an extra way to interact with the customer base and let’s face it some of us practically live our lives through Facebook in particular. Are there any drawbacks to this approach?
Frankly, yes – you shouldn’t stake the success of your website on that of another site. And Facebook and Twitter, for example, are both often the subject of bad publicity with things like inappropriate posts or privacy issues. But social media is a useful and necessary sideline for an online casino in building up a good rapport with its public. Is that all?
Online Casinos Must At Least Have These Features
Not by a long shot – and this is something that all online casinos absolutely must have –a selection of immediate and simple methods for contacting the casino is a given. These would include:
- 24 hour phone line (either free or at a cheap rate),
- Live chat (a chat window where you can field your question, a response of no more than a minute or so is standard),
- email address,
- FAQs page (easy to navigate and comprehensive),
- snail mail address (and for those with a nostalgia for the ‘80s, a fax line too!).
In general the more communicative a casino is the better, and some online casinos are quite active in building up a ‘tribe’ of loyal customers whilst being instantly approachable to the newbie as well.
Naturally, having all these ways of getting in touch isn’t much use if the correspondents are not effective in answering your queries or concerns; be wary of a casino which doesn’t solve a problem within 12-24 hours of contact (contrast this with Unibet, whose standard lead time appears to be 2 weeks for dealing with customer payment queries, usually with an unhappy outcome for the customer).
Is Customer Services a One Way Street?
But is it a one way street, in other words do we as players have any part to play in maintaining good customer services?
Yes we do! One thing to avoid is being a bonus abuser. Online casinos always offer welcome and other bonuses, but simply using the minimum number of plays a bonus offers and then leaving is not going to endear you to an online casino (and due to wagering requirements won’t net you any money either).
So it’s your responsibility to game fairly as well as to be pleasant to customer services agents you may encounter along your journey.
Avoid these like the plague – Unibet springs to mind!
Remember that the above just covers the main facets to look for in a reputable online casino. Sadly there are many disreputable to downright criminal casinos out there which are little more than scams, so be sure to check that an online casino has a fixed address as well as checking the various casino forums online for some impartial advice.
Then there are other casinos, most notably Unibet, which whilst not necessarily scams in the strictest sense, seem to use their size and profile as a way to exploit new customers so be sure to give them a wide berth as well.
