harrahs
Case study: Harrah’s Solid Gold CRM for the Service Sector
Harrah’s Entertainment provides an example of exceptional data asset leverage in the service sector, focusing on how this technology enables world-class service through customer relationship management.
Gary Loveman is a sort of management major trifecta. The CEO of Harrah’s Entertainment is a former operations professor who has leveraged information technology to create what may be the most effective marketing organization in the service industry. If you ever needed an incentive to motivate you for cross-disciplinary thinking, Loveman provides it.
Harrah’s has leveraged its data-powered prowess to move from an also-ran chain of casinos to become the largest gaming company by revenue. The firm operates some fifty-three casinos, employing more than eighty-five thousand workers on five continents. Brands include
Harrah’s, Caesars Palace, Bally’s, Horseshoe, and Paris Las Vegas. Under Loveman, Harrah’s has aggressively swallowed competitors, the firm’s $9.4 billion buyout of Caesars
Entertainment being its largest deal to date.
Collecting Data
Data drives the firm. Harrah’s collects customer data on just about everything you might do at their properties—gamble, eat, grab a drink, attend a show, stay in a room. The data’s then used to track your preferences and to size up whether you’re the kind of customer that’s worth pursuing. Prove your worth, and the firm will surround you with top-tier service and develop a targeted marketing campaign to keep wooing you back.[1]
The ace in the firm’s data collection hole is its Total Rewards loyalty card system. Launched over a decade ago, the system is constantly being enhanced by an IT staff of seven hundred, with an annual budget in excess of $100 million.[2] Total Rewards is an opt-in loyalty program, but customers consider the incentives to be so good that the card is used by some 80 percent of Harrah’s patrons, collecting data on over
Harrah’s Entertainment provides an example of exceptional data asset leverage in the service sector, focusing on how this technology enables world-class service through customer relationship management.
Gary Loveman is a sort of management major trifecta. The CEO of Harrah’s Entertainment is a former operations professor who has leveraged information technology to create what may be the most effective marketing organization in the service industry. If you ever needed an incentive to motivate you for cross-disciplinary thinking, Loveman provides it.
Harrah’s has leveraged its data-powered prowess to move from an also-ran chain of casinos to become the largest gaming company by revenue. The firm operates some fifty-three casinos, employing more than eighty-five thousand workers on five continents. Brands include
Harrah’s, Caesars Palace, Bally’s, Horseshoe, and Paris Las Vegas. Under Loveman, Harrah’s has aggressively swallowed competitors, the firm’s $9.4 billion buyout of Caesars
Entertainment being its largest deal to date.
Collecting Data
Data drives the firm. Harrah’s collects customer data on just about everything you might do at their properties—gamble, eat, grab a drink, attend a show, stay in a room. The data’s then used to track your preferences and to size up whether you’re the kind of customer that’s worth pursuing. Prove your worth, and the firm will surround you with top-tier service and develop a targeted marketing campaign to keep wooing you back.[1]
The ace in the firm’s data collection hole is its Total Rewards loyalty card system. Launched over a decade ago, the system is constantly being enhanced by an IT staff of seven hundred, with an annual budget in excess of $100 million.[2] Total Rewards is an opt-in loyalty program, but customers consider the incentives to be so good that the card is used by some 80 percent of Harrah’s patrons, collecting data on over
References: L. Haugsted, “Better Take Care of Big Spenders; Harrah’s Chief Offers Advice to Cablers,” Multichannel News, July 30, 2007. and Reports, 2007. CLV,” Knowledge@Wharton, July 30, 2003, http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=820. Multichannel News, July 30, 2007. (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2007). and Reports, 2007.