By Martin R. Baird

As a frequent traveler visiting casinos from coast to coast, it often seems I spend more time in airports than in my own home. That’s not always a good thing because many airport employees either don’t have the skills or have not had the training to provide the flying public with a good experience. Some of the people are rude but most simply could care less.

It also seems that most of the airports I fly through are a monopoly. They are, in fact, the only game in town. If you want to fly to a particular locale, your choice is often only one airport. I’m convinced that each terminal’s shops and restaurants charge whatever they want. If a taco costs 79 cents in the outside world, it goes for $1.79 at the airport and there’s a line of people waiting to buy it.

That brings me to the point of this column. You don’t need a monopoly to make a profit. Employee training contributes directly to the bottom line. You just have to make the commitment to do the right thing and give your employees the skills they need to do their job. They will take care of the rest.

My wife saw this concept in action at an airport gift shop.

One afternoon recently, as my wife and I waited to fly out of Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix, she realized she had used the last of her hair spray and needed more. We had a few minutes, so she went into the gift shop to buy some.

Now I’ve been in too many of these gift shops to count, but I’ve never had a “great” customer experience. At best, it’s a painless experience. They have the item I need and they charge more than the real world. But they have it and I need it, so I buy it.

My wife was pleasantly surprised when a gift-shop employee approached her and asked if she could find what she was looking for. Hair spray wasn’t in plain sight, so my wife let this person help her. The employee didn’t just point and make a guttural sound as so often happens to me. She actually walked over and picked up a can of hair spray for my wife.

After that, she asked if my wife would like some gum or candy. Then she explained that if she purchased a Coke, they would give her a free brownie or chocolate chip cookie. What an anomaly! This airport employee was amazingly helpful and caring. From my point of view, the most significant fact was that she knew about the promotion they were running.

My wife said no thanks and proceeded to the cash register. At the register, a different employee greeted her and asked if she would like any gum or candy. She also explained about the Coke promotion.

Wonderful! The first employee wasn’t an anomaly after all. I don’t know if this promotion was a companywide initiative or just something for this one location, but my wife was very impressed and I was equally stunned when she told me about it. I know that for a series of employees to convey a similar message, it takes training and coaching. Judging from the consistency of the message, these gift-shop employees knew exactly what they were doing.

Were there incentives motivating these employees to perform the desired behavior? Did they just want to be friendly and helpful? I don’t know the answer to either of these questions but I do know one thing. A business puts energy, time and money into a program like this because there is profit to be made if it’s done properly. In a monopolistic environment, some people don’t have enough vision to understand that an investment in improvement pays off today and in the future.

When a business decides to enter a competitive market, it looks for areas of weakness that can be exploited. If a competitor knows you are always investing in improvement, they may look for a different market that offers easier success and profit.

Now back to the brownie. My wife entered the store with a single focus – hair spray. She needed it. But she became intrigued with the Coke promotion because of the message she repeatedly received from a variety people working in the gift shop. She actually compared the cost of a coke and with the cost of a brownie.

My wife is not a Coke fan, so she passed on the offer. But she did buy the brownie and that store made a profit on the sale. It was almost pure profit because it didn’t require extra staff members or store space. It just took some training and commitment.

What kind of commitment do you have to your casino’s employees? Do you understand that an investment in their improvement is an investment in your property’s future?

Martin R. Baird is author of “Gaming Guest Service from A to Z,” a book that uses the alphabet to help gaming executives, managers and employees understand the importance of outstanding guest service and how to provide it.  He is president of Robinson & Associates, Inc., a guest service consulting firm based in Phoenix, Ariz., that provides specialty guest service training, management skills training, presentation skills training, team building programs and employee incentive and recognition programs for the gaming industry.  The company is owned by Lydia and Martin Baird.  The Bairds have a Web site, www.casinocustomerservice.com, that’s devoted to helping casinos improve their guest service so they can compete and increase revenues.  Robinson & Associates may be reached by contacting Martin at 480-991-6420 or at mbaird@casinocustomerservice.com.  The company is a member of the Casino Management Association and an associate member of the National Indian Gaming Association.