FROZEN ACCOUNTS AND THE CHILL FACTOR IN ON-LINE POKER.

Note: The Poker Prof investigates the purported online poker site freezing of player’s accounts. Since I have to provide the visuals for the piece and don’t have any good photos of frozen money I decided to start the year end count down early by offering some of my favorite photos of 2005. Something to look at while you read the Prof’s latest opinions…FlipChip

A long day of high-limit play on a poker site leaves you tired but happy with a profit of ten large ($10,000), so you wisely decide to quit for the day. The next day, totally refreshed you sign in for another play session only to find your account totally frozen. You get no response, no call…just frozen and you’re now locked out of the loop. This recently happened to a Portland card shark who has won several tournaments in Las Vegas. He had an online poker room freeze his account for three weeks. The poster claiming to be Craig, which seems likely as finding an ‘unknown’ that has won two tournaments is very difficult wrote the following:

They have confiscated legitimate winnings of $40,000. I can back up every claim that I make. They sent me an email saying that my average win per hand was too high at $427/hand….I was playing 300/600 heads up limit poker. They are NOT saying that I cheated or broke rules…I simply won too much money. Sounds odd…but after 3 weeks of trying to get my money that’s the response that I’ve gotten.

The complete thread is here for the sleuths amongst us who might wish to research this more thoroughly. The only other section of this thread germane to my post is a response apparently made by an employee,Lori, of the site in question who responds:

An account may be highlighted in the system for a review of gaming activity for various reasons, some examples being financial security or gaming collusion. This is in no way an accusation of collusion, but as an online poker room we have to ensure the integrity and security of both the room and the players in the room. To this end, automatic security checks are put in place to alert our risk management team of a possible security issue. Almost all the other rooms will have a similar process for high volume players. Investigating the issue can be a lengthy process depending on the situation, and players are kept informed throughout the process.

The above quote is, in essence, a customer support atrocity and potential PR nightmare that could easily be negated with nothing more than a telephone and a few minutes from an online site customer support specialist.

Poker Pro and one of the TiltBoys, Phil Gordon, waits for the flop at the 2005 WSOP.

Research your customer BEFORE you freeze the funds.

Grab all of the money belonging to one of your better, loyal customers and then don’t answer the phone. What a shabby way to treat your customers, especially your regular big-dollar players . Freeze their winnings without exercising ordinary and reasonable care when leveling accusations and taking drastic action. This behaviour has an extreme chilling effect on your existing customers and potential customers. They tend to become a bit jumpy when large sums of cash are withheld for an indefinite period and there is no contact from the site. They tend to go someplace else with a better track record when dealing with the player’s money.

Now, to the meat of this post:

More focus on customer support is always a good thing; providing direct benefits for the customer and increased profits for the site as a result of acquiring new customers based on your reputation of great customer treatment. Players should receive a level of attention directly proportional to the amount wagered and the frequency of play.

Does this formula sound familar? It should because it is based on proven successful, customer relation formulas practiced by Las Vegas casinos. Las Vegas offers even the nickel slot player comped hotel rooms and free food. Poker players can usually get an exceptional room rate by asking one of the poker room staff for the player rate. Las Vegas live poker games have one dealer for every 10 players (or less) and a floorperson for every 10 or so dealers. The interaction between the room staff and the players is constant. Everyone of the room staff is living, breathing instant customer service rep.

Online casinos don’t have the operating expenses of their brick and mortar counter-parts; at least, they don’t think they do; however, building customer loyalty and offering top quality customer support is crucial to gain player’s loyalty and keep it. This is especially true for all of the smaller start-up on-line sites.

Customer Support Ideas

Have player hosts whose only function is to move from table to table, checking in on the players. Interact with your user base and initiate the dialogue and you have gone a long way towards building a lasting customer relationship. High limit regular players should have 24 hour no waiting phone number and a dedicated rep that checks in on a regular basis. The bottom line will reflect this increased expense next to larger increase in the drop thanks to retaining customers longer and growing your customer base as a direct result of site’s “customer friendly” reputation.

Australian Joseph Hachem moments after winning the 2005 WSOP main event.

Reward your players and differentiate your site at the same time

Returning $$ to your qualified players, for example: 10% of the player’s rake from the year deposited in the player’s account as a birthday present or whatever. The site is spending a little to gain alot, the players will love you and many of them will become brand loyal. Another benefit to the first poker site that does some Vegas-style direct marketing is happy customers. The player wakes up one day a year older and dollars richer, and from the player’s point of view they got bonus money without having to know a bunch of iffy bonus codes.

Now, Sign-Up Bonus Codes. They seem to be about the only element widely advertised. The problem with sign-up bonus codes results because bonus code deals take place when you sign up, you have not played a single hand. So you know how a site treats you before you sign up; but, the more important question? How do they treat you after you become a customer?

…and, along the same thought. How about some poker site ads that places the message emphasis on what the site provides after you’re a customer? Send a message to the huge pool of online poker players and tell them about your customer support, give details of your player bonus awards and even offer a “Platinum Player Club” reserved for your higher limit players, be creative. Don’t tell me about the $5000 cash back super match sing-up bouns, I can hear about this from 40 different sites.

I’ve barely touched the customer support iceburg and unless the online poker industry takes note many sites are liable to run afoul of this critical element. Customer support should be more than a catch phrase with a positive adjective modifer such as ‘excellent’, ‘superior’ or ‘the best’ in a press release for the news feeds.

Online poker rooms need to develop customer care standards that provide the player with an always ‘on’ channel of communication. The sites that don’t believe customer support is a justifiable expense may soon be using the catch phrase, “Losing our business, one customer at a time.”

Has anyone given printable free-food coupons for rated online players any thought? How about an online site teaming with one of the pizza chains so qualified players can order a pizza right from the online table and have it delivered to the door, comped! No charge! A great way of saying thanks for being a loyal customer, just like they do in Vegas, real food comps. What the online poker sites need is a digital-age Benny Binion, a virtual casino owner that builds a thriving business on the “customer first” philosophy, just like Benny did.

There you have it, my Prof’s Plan for the betterment of both site and player. Someone needs to be bold and try some of this stuff…Is there a Benny in the house?