Casino Bilingual Training Article
By Martin R. Baird

El buen servicio de cliente es demasiado imporportant ser dejado a la ocasión!

Chances are some of you reading this article have no idea what that sentence says.

If you can't understand what I'm saying, how are you going to learn? Unfortunately, casinos often do staff training when not all the people in the room understand.

I do customer service training at casinos across the country, and I've made an interesting discovery related to language. As a result of the tight labor market, many casinos are struggling to hire enough people to fill all the positions they have open. Consequently, they are turning to labor pools that may not have the language skills that they would prefer, and they are being forced to hire people with limited English skills.

This is a simple fact of life in a time of low unemployment. So casinos must choose between being short staffed or hiring people who are not fluent in English.

That challenge is compounded when training happens.

If your casino wants to improve its customer service because of increased competition, one of the best things you can do is train your staff. They need to learn the skills that will make it easier for them to provide the service that your guests expect.

Many casino employees have never been exposed to these skills, and that makes learning a real challenge. These are new concepts that may even be different from some of their cultural beliefs. It's not unusual when employees simply have never learned how to provide great guest service.

Add the language problem to that challenge and some employees have an almost impossible mountain to climb. For anyone to be successful in training, they need to learn the materials that are being presented and have the ability to apply them in their day-to-day life.

We did training in Spanish at a casino a couple of months ago, and the participants loved it. This training was just for them. It was in their language, and it was educational. The response to the session was awesome. The participants actually had fun learning in their own language.

We used Spanish music. We even had the group sing happy birthday to one of the attendees in Spanish. This was a great experience for them, and it made them feel like part of the team. By simply doing training in more than one language, it shows the participants that you are concerned about their needs.

But there's more, and this is where the casino and its guests really benefit. Gaming is not an English-only business. People from all corners of the globe are now visiting casinos in a variety of areas. When a guest comes to your property, they want special treatment and many times that could be the simple act of speaking to them in their own language. Some guests may speak only a little English and this makes the employees who speak more than just English even more valuable. Imagine their true value to guests and the casino when they are properly trained in quality customer service!

Now back to the sentence at the top of this article. It says, "Good customer service is too important to be left to chance!"

It's the truth! Good customer service is too important to be left to chance, and if you are not providing training in a language your employees understand, you are taking a huge chance.

Training doesn't cost, it pays. The key to getting the maximum payout on your training is to make sure that all the participants are being reached so they can learn. Offering training in more than one language is no longer a choice. It is a requirement.

Lydia Baird is Director of Business Development of Robinson & Associates, Inc., a full-service marketing management firm based in Phoenix, Ariz., that provides specialty customer service training, management skills training, presentation skills training and team building programs for casinos. She may be reached at 206-774-8856. She also may be reached by e-mail at