Information Systems for Managers Assignment Harrah’s Entertainment Inc. Section F Group 3 Aditya Gupta(2016PGP018) Ambati Giridhar Ravikumar (2016PGP049) Chandran M (2016PGP099) Mehta Rushit Dinesh (2016PGP213) Pranjali Silimkar (2016PGP278) Priyanka Mohanta (2016PGP288) Vishnu Priya (2013IPM074)

Company History Why CRM ? Launched by Bill Harrah in 1937 in Reno, Nevada It had business interest in casinos, food, beverages & hotel industry It operates 21 casinos across the country with 4 million sq feet of casino space, 40000 hotel rooms Why CRM ? Changes in gaming laws Instead of opening lavish properties, Harrah initiated CRM Harrah decided to compete using a brand strategy supported by IT They started a Total Gold program which was intended to increase customer loyalty Harrah’s COO, Loveman, launched three major initiatives : changing the organization structure, building the Harrah’s brand & delivering extraordinary services and exploiting relationship marketing opportunities.

CRM consisted of two elements : Total Gold Program and Database Marketing Total Gold program customers were given electronic card The customer information collected using this card is stored in central repository This information is used to reward customers They also tired a tiered approach where customers were divided into gold, platinum and diamond tiers Cross-market was another objective of this program

Database Marketing Database Marketing Program Reasons for implementing Result New Business Program Focus on customers new to the brand or property & encourage them to take 2nd & 3rd trips Improving investment decisions at customer level Ratio of new customers acquired from new signups has increased from 30% in Apr-99 to 50% in Jan-00 Effective Loyalty Program-Frequency Upside To make a customer switch from a competitor to Harrah’s by increasing the frequency of visit Marginal increase in number of trips per guest, which indicates that more guests have started using the program Loyalty Program- Budget Upside Encouraging customers to visit Harrah’s first before other casinos and thereby capture a larger part of their spending Average revenue per hour as well as per day has increased Observed winning amounts have exceeded their predictions Not conclusive Retention Program To get back customers who have stopped visiting Harrah’s on a regular basis Number of guests increased until offers were valid. This number started declining marginally

Customer Worth Harrah believed in capturing the long run net worth of the customer rather than past behavior for two reasons: Information generated form one single visit may not accurately predict the future worth of the customer. While the customer may not be a great one for Harrah, he/she may be a great customer for competitors. Harrah’s objective was to convert this customer to a loyal Harrah’s customer in the long run Harrah’s strategy Harrah’s has developed customer centricity as a core-competency through their database marketing initiatives Predicted customer worth has a demonstrated higher efficiency than observed worth and is sustainable in converting competitor’s customers into their own The challenge would be maintain the level of customization and service per customer as the customer base and number of visits increase