Mr Green bets on Zendesk to keep its customers satisfied

In ancient Rome, citizens bet silver denarii at chariot races held in the Circus Maximus, on dice games held in neighborhood pubs (like in the ill-fated city of Pompeii), and even on board games like tabula, a precursor to backgammon.

Then, as now, gambling served as an exciting and pleasant pastime for the majority of players—something to get the blood pumping, and if they were lucky, maybe a few extra coins. But with the thrill comes the risk of not knowing when to step away from the table.

Increasingly, that table is virtual, with online casinos such as Mr Green serving customers in a growing market that is expected to reach $60 billion by 2020. Founded in 2007 and based on the Island of Malta, Mr Green offers players hundreds of games and sportsbook options that range from Game of Thrones and Guns n’ Roses-themed slots, fully immersive and exclusive Live Casino environments, to chances to bet on everything from football to horse racing. The company serves a dozen markets in eight languages, which necessitates a diverse support staff. The team of 156 customer service agents hail from nearly two dozen different countries.

Offering a wide range of gaming experiences is an essential part of Mr Green’s business model, but the company believes that it has another responsibility: helping customers know when to take a break. That’s a difficult conversation to have—and not one many businesses would willingly engage in, especially when it involves telling a customer that they should consider not spending more money. Yet for Mr Green, it’s a conversation worth having. To that end, Mr Green has enlisted psychologists to help craft communications to at-risk players, and they have developed a risk prediction tool, the Green Gaming Prediction tool, that gives customers insight to their own risk level based on a combination of the individual player data combined with a self assessment test. The result is presented along with recommendations to how each player keep their gambling under control using a set of tool provided on site.

Players can track how well they’re adhering to their own risk level by glancing at their ‘risk speedometer,” which tells each gambler whether their behavior has begun to creep into high risk territory, moving from green to amber to red. When players cross a threshold, it prompts customer service agents to reach out via Zendesk Chat using set scripts.

“We know that when we start communicating a message to play responsibly, 90 percent of those players appreciate it,” said Jesper Kärrbrink, CEO of Mr Green. “It’s, ‘You care about me, this is fantastic. You don’t just only want my money.’ “We’ve been testing doing outreach via proactive chat instead of having emails that just end up in their spam folder or intrusive texts.”

Along with Chat, Mr Green uses Zendesk Support, Guide, and Talk to round out its omnichannel customer service so the company can meet players where they are. Today, Mr Green provides this support for 12 markets. “We rolled out omnichannel support all at once, but market by market. We started out in a smaller market, and we tested it, and then we rolled the channels out to other markets,” explained Malin Angbo, head of operations and Green Gaming.

Customers can chat, text, email, call, send a message via Facebook Messenger or self-serve across the five brands under Mr Green’s umbrella. Mr Green went live with its Zendesk solution in March 2018, at the same time it launched its self-assessment tool, creating a comprehensive, 360-view customer experience. Customer satisfaction has steadily risen ever since. “Omnichannel support brings us improved customer satisfaction,” said Angbo. “We went from 80 percent to 86 percent, which is a massive increase in the gaming industry. It’s a really good rating.”

Aside from building out support queues and workflows by brand, the team has taken deeper dives into customer behavior. “Zendesk is super configurable. For example, we needed to measure how well we retain customers—why they opt to leave us and what kind of feedback they have. Just like that, we were able to create a button where we can measure that data in a much smarter way,” she said.

This configurability enables Mr Green to easily experiment with customer service options, Karenda said. “For example, we wanted to focus on proactive chat in Denmark for a single day and, with just as a click of a button, we switched on the proactive chat. Zendesk helps us be quick and flexible.”

Angbo agreed: “The key differentiator is the configurability—then flexibility. Our previous system required a lot of coding, but Zendesk can be configured by simply clicking buttons, filling in tick boxes, and so on. Going from a tool that required coding to Zendesk was a massive improvement.”

For Mr Green, having a flexible support solution in place helps the company intensify its focus on training empathetic, effective customer service agents. “Every agent goes through the ‘Ultimate Journey’— a year-long program that is designed to improve their skills and ensure they grow with the company,” Angbo said.

Customer support is broken into four tiers, with new hires starting at level green for basic issues and, as they gain more experience, moving to bronze (sportsbook and casinos), silver (payments, security, customer verification), and gold (responsible gaming). Beyond fielding support requests across traditional channels, agents also use the Zendesk Trustpilot integration to respond to online reviews.

Mr Green has also been growing through acquisitions. It’s relied on Zendesk’s multibrand functionality to integrate new teams and products into their support operations. “It’s so simple, and that was what we were looking for,” explained Maria Karenda, customer operations administrator.

At the heart of Mr Green lies a company culture based on responsibility and a cut above the rest customer care, one that emphasizes good management and bonding, the latter being especially important given the team’s diversity. “If your customer service team members are smiling when they’re talking, the customer feels that,” Kärrbrink said. “If you have a positive atmosphere and a positive culture, that shows.”

A key component in maintaining Mr Green’s positive work culture is to empower agents with technology and tools that make their lives easier, which helps them work more efficiently and boost retention. One such tool Mr Green has built for agents, using the Zendesk API, is a KYC app (“know your customer”) that streamlines the process of requesting of identification documents. This allows agents to accurately and securely verify the identity of customers.

Mr Green is also focusing on improving its self-service portal. “Maria is now working with the team leaders and their teams so they can keep self-service content up-to-date,” Angbo said. “We want to automate the process more, and we’re looking into Zendesk’s ability to create self-service articles based on what agents are typing.”