Service quality at Macau’s casinos has improved significantly in the fourth quarter of 2016 as compared to the prior-year period, a survey compiled by the Macau Gaming Research Association showed.
According to the latest quarterly Macau Gaming Service Index, service quality has hit a record high of 2.42 points since the research was first conducted in 2013. The index scale used goes from 0 to 3.5, where 0 represents the lowest quality service and 3.5 stands for the best possible quality.
Established in 2013, the report has since been prepared by the Macau Gaming Research Association and testing and inspection firm SGS Hong Kong Ltd. Employees at fourteen of Macau’s close to 40 casinos are surveyed on the way they communicate with patrons, respond to their needs and demands, and handle security and issues that may arise with customers within the process of gambling.
Staff members are rated in categories like “tolerance”, “proactive attitude”, and “smile.” The “proactive attitude” index showed the biggest improvement in the most recent quarterly report as compared last year. The Macau Gaming Research Association also said that the “proactive attitude” was the biggest contributor to the overall high performance.
This year, the service quality index measured nine services to be provided at local casinos, with some of those being table game dealers, slot machines, security, food and beverage comps, etc. In that regard, table game dealers service quality scored a record high of 144 points since 2013 when the 100-point base was introduced.
As mentioned above, index creators visited 14 Macau casinos, with those being operated by the six gambling operators authorized to do so within the city’s borders. A total of 1,818 items of data were collected from the gambling venues.
The Macau Gaming Research Association said that the scope of research will be widened in 2017 and that more casino employees will be asked to take part. In addition, the association will increase the number of casinos researched to 20.
It was also reported that local gambling operators had suggested that the index should be split in two parts – one concerned with casinos on the Cotai Strip and the other covering venues in downtown Macau. According to the companies that manage the city’s casinos, this was a necessary move as the activity on the Strip was different from that back on the Macau Peninsula.
