Working on the Road During the Holidays

While many people in the industry were able to take the last couple of weeks off I am not able to being the main support person for PAS. This created quite a challenge. Not only did I have a road trip of 1500 miles (2400 km) from the Black Hills of South Dakota to Atlanta, GA but I didn’t have the same access to the internet on the other end. I was still able to do this from the road but the work backed up, even with the usual slowdown the holiday season creates.My family stayed at two different places during the holidays. One had wireless with six screaming kids including my two. The other place we stayed didn’t have wireless. It only had a wired connection in basically a closet of a room where the wired computer still runs Windows 2000. Regardless of the situation I was able to take care of our players and publishers. One thing I pride myself on is seven day support for all PAS players and publishers. So many affiliates in the industry don’t provide that no matter how big they are. I must admit I took off for about 60 hours around Christmas. That was the longest break I’ve had from support since I started with PAS 10 months ago. I was surprised to see only eight support tickets and two publisher emails during that period I was away.I’ve talked to several PAS partners that are both publishers and affiliate managers for the poker rooms and we are all presented with the same difficulty. Our players are playing and need support regardless of whether we’re driving 22 hours across the country or not. One of the services that puts PAS on top is the fact that even with the holidays our players did not have an unreasonable wait on replies to support tickets and emails. For anyone in the industry that does their own support taking care of your players is the most important aspect of player retention in my opinion. Rakeback caps leave all affiliates on a level field when it comes to rakeback percents. Promos attract and retain players but if the support is not there they will leave.The holidays present quite a challenge for all of us that need to travel. While our spouses may not understand how important it is to check the email that one last time before that turkey dinner with the in-laws we all must understand that the level of service that provides put all of us above the rest. There is no shame in taking a little time off. Everybody needs a break from “I already have an account at Full Tilt…” emails but replying to those and all other emails from players will give you a leg up above the rest of the field. Don’t forget that the next time you hit the road to go see your family your players depend on you to reply to their emails as soon as possible. Your bottom line depends on it.