Customers are top priority for the Betsson Group – not just in terms of their custom but also in ensuring they behave correctly and do not take unnecessary risks. Melissa Zalbeigi, Head of Customer Service, and Eduards Jakubovs, Head of Responsible Gaming, explain what their teams’ work entails.

What does ‘taking care of customers’ mean for Betsson Group?

Melissa: We’re a team of about 200 talented individuals in the Customer Service (CS) Department. From a CS standpoint, everything we do is with our customers in mind – be it a change we want to implement, a KPI we want to measure or a promotion another department wants to run. We always ask ourselves: how will this affect the quality and efficiency of the service we offer to our customers?

We know that our customers want a quick and a reliable answer, and we always adapt our ways of working to ensure we meet or exceed those expectations. Our customers’ needs are constantly changing and we too need to evolve. So, our core value is to keep our customers’ needs as our top priority.

Eduards: From a Responsible Gaming (RG) standpoint, taking care of customers relates to the most vulnerable group of players. Our goal is to highlight those players that are at risk of experiencing problems as early on as possible.

We look out for any signs, even mild ones, such as some slight dissatisfaction or frustration, and more severe ones too. Our CS agents are trained and fully aware of these risks and know which signs to look out for and which emotions to pick up on so they can escalate the issue to us. We also train our CS agents on how to react – these are not easy conversations but they need to be done by the agents or the RG analysts.

How many queries do you receive and how do you ensure quality?

Melissa: In September, we had about 190,000 queries. August had 180,000, which is more in line with our average, even pre-COVID-19.

We have several SLAs (the length of time assigned to each task) that we strive to abide by in order to offer top-notch service. All chats should be picked up within 60 seconds, emails answered in less than 60 minutes and phone calls within two minutes.

Melissa Zalbeigi - Head of Customer Service

Last year, we introduced the first chatbot in the industry. The chatbot, ADA, can answer the customers of several Betsson Group brands in different languages. Since COVID-19, we’ve seen a spike in some queries and, therefore, focused on ADA to pick up on more of these queries.

We trained ADA so that if it detects that a customer is having difficulties related to problem gambling, the chat is transferred to one of the agents and, if necessary, that agent can then escalate the issue to the responsible gaming team.

We have several KPIs that we measure. Some are done internally whereby, through the Oracle Service Cloud, our team leads can rate the chats of the agents from one-to-five based on several criteria.

We also look at the customer support satisfaction index, where clients can rate their interactions with our support staff. We get between 10,000 and 12,000 surveys a month, and this gives us a lot of data that allows us to check whether our agents are knowledgeable about the different topics we cover. When we spot any gaps, we can plan refresher courses and training accordingly.

We also have what’s called the ‘Voice of the Customer’ – a monthly operations report we prepare for the entire organisation. This helps everyone to know what our agents on the floor are dealing with on a daily basis, and helps different teams to keep that in mind when planning their next projects, new features or upcoming promotions.

I’m proud that our customer satisfaction index has remained very high at approximately 90 per cent. Customers can also rate the online chatbot and this fluctuates between 85 per cent and 90 per cent, which is considered very high.

Eduards: Our team now consists of about 10 specialised professionals who handle the cases escalated by the CS team and other functions. CS escalates around 3,500 to 4,000 cases a month, making up the bulk of our cases. As a result, we contact hundreds of people every month to check about gaming behaviour. Where needed, we do not shy away from suspending accounts and, in fact, we do that quite often.

All operators take care of their customers, so what makes Betsson unique in its approach?

Melissa: There are a few things that differentiate operators. At Betsson Group, we train agents to be the champions of our customers.

We do not try to hide behind our terms and conditions, and, if a customer has a problem because s/he did not follow them to a T and we realise it was an honest oversight, we try to help any way we can.

Indeed, we ask our agents to raise such issues to the manager/leader on the floor and, in cases where we see that this is happening often for a particular game or offer, we usually reach out to the different functions to see how we can simplify the customer journey.

Another unique feature is that Betsson invests in its customer service team – be it through new technology, new features that facilitate in helping customers or by decreasing the need for contact.

Our management team has the mindset that the CS function is a way of retaining customers rather than being some sort of liability. We also do a lot for our people. We have quite a few people who have been a Betssonite for a number of years now. I have been here for just over nine years.

The same applies for some of our team leads, who have been with us for four years or more. We also take care of our agents. We offer an internal career ladder, allowing our agents to progress within the department or even in other functions within Betsson. That’s where the size of Betsson is an advantage, as it allows for this sort of career progression.

Eduards: When it comes to player protection and safer gambling, Betsson Group is one of the most experienced operators in the field. We were one of the very first operators to set up this function and, as a result, have talented people who are very experienced.

Eduards Jakubovs - Head of Responsible Gaming 

They have also witnessed the progress made over the years, so the experience we have within the team for player protection is a unique factor: we know what to do. Another factor is that ‘fair play’ has been one of Betsson Group’s company values for a very long time, way before it was mainstream.

Has customer behaviour changed since the pandemic? Are there any distinctions when it comes to brands and markets?

Melissa: I would say we saw a shift at the beginning, primarily due to the cancellation of sporting events, which also led to an increase in queries on the other products we offer.

A market that registered quite a significant spike in the beginning of the pandemic was Italy, which we addressed by making some changes within the team. We also noticed that, since COVID-19 hit, the amount of small talk by customers increased.

Besides asking their relevant questions, customers started talking about the situation, asking agents how it was affecting them, how it was affecting Malta and other small talk. The fact that we train our agents in such soft skills and how to reassure customers meant we were prepared.

Eduards: Our focus on responsible gaming has been a core value for many, many years and, in an organisation the size of Betsson Group, the use of technology is critical. With COVID-19, we took some additional precautions, thanks to our monitoring tool, which we’ve built in-house, based on best practices and years of experience.

This monitors and rates customers according to their behaviour and assigns risk levels. When a player behaves in a way that is not in line with his/her normal patterns, the tool alerts our team. We have been monitoring such changes in behaviour for many years but, as of mid-March, we lowered our thresholds so we’re alerted to any differences even quicker.

We do not only monitor the amount of money customers deposit but we also look at non-monetary patterns – how often they play, how long and so on. This type of monitoring is done in real-time on a 24/7 basis and the system does not only alert us to any changes in behaviour but, in many instances, we also alert players via on-screen notifications reminding them of possible risks, referring to RG pages and FAQs and suggesting to take a break.

On whether we’ve seen any significant changes since COVID-19, it is difficult to give one blanket answer as each market behaved differently. However, in cases where we’ve seen more activity, we ensured to get in touch with customers and speak to them to see whether they’re aware of the risks, inform them of the multiple tools available, show them how they can control their activity, etc.

Apart from this in-house built monitoring tool, the CS team was instrumental in such circumstances. CS agents speak to numerous customers and so they are the ones who can assess whether a customer was negatively impacted by COVID-19, whether s/he has been made redundant or is in lockdown.

Agents were very good in escalating cases where they spotted any concerns and the RG team looked into these and addressed each and every one.

What changes were implemented since COVID-19?

Melissa: Apart from what we have already mentioned; another major change was the training for new staff. Instead of a classroom environment, induction began taking place online. So far, we’ve had over 15 online inductions and a lot of different refresher courses.

In mid-April, we finalised the acquisition of the B2C operations from Gaming Innovation Group (GiG) and we had several training sessions in relation to this. Complaints managers have also launched new training about some of most complex issues and complaints we get, and we have trained our agents on how to deal with these situations and how to answer them.

We also changed the way our management team evaluates the quality of our agents’ work in order to reflect the new realities and the fact that some were working from home.

Eduards: We have protected our customers for years now, so we were in a good position when COVID gradually affected our different markets. We have a strong team with a lot of experience, so agents know how to handle different situations.

We recognised that having an RG team member on the floor with the CS agents was something that needed to be continued even during COVID. The collaboration with the CS Department is very tight; we’re like one team.

When it comes to player protection, the focus has been as high as ever before, especially during the peak of the pandemic. We tightened our monitoring and lowered the thresholds of our internal tools.

During this time, we have further increased the frequency of our communication with customers and widened our reach. In these communications we raise awareness about the multiple RG tools on offer. In some markets, we doubled or tripled our various contacts/notifications with customers.

This interview was first carried in the November edition of iGaming Capital