Almost everyone has heard the adage that happy employees create happy customers.
While the executives of most major gaming companies are quick to concur with this
adage, few are able to commit to the idea. In fact, most gaming executives talk about
customer service incessantly. Many create customer service mission statements and
slogans that all sound incredibly similar. However, a deep and enduring commitment to
this notion is rare.
Executives from one Las Vegas Strip casino required table game dealers to wear t-shirts
bearing the slogan “Home of the Smiling Dealers.” The same management team routinely
required dealers to submit to quarterly lie detector tests and created a secret witness
program, allowing workers to anonymously incriminate fellow employees. Tips were
investigated without regard for the credibility of the source or the accusations. Further,
the investigations were based on the presumption of guilt. These actions created an
adversarial work culture filled with distrust and suspicion. Any smiling by the dealers
must have appeared forced or artificial. It is difficult to believe that such confounding
ideas could spring from the same management team. That is, the belief that happy dealers
were important and the belief that such programs would not affect the happiness of the
dealers. This casino is no longer in business.
