Critical Incidents of Casino Services: Qualitative Evidence from Asian VIP Customers

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to contribute to the literature on casino services by investigating critical service failures using the critical incident technique (CIT) and provide effective recovery strategies that can be adopted in practice. Research design, data, and methodology - The data were collected from Asian casinos' HNI customers in China, Japan, and the Republic of Korea. This is the first study that has investigated VIP casino customers in leading Asian countries. The research used the critical incident technique (CIT) collect and a total of 227 incidents were analyzed. Results - The results show that three main categories and eleven subcategories are deduced. The first group concerns casino service system failures. The second group relates to service providers' responses to VIP customer complaints. The last group covers employees' attitudes and behavior toward customers. Conclusions - First, the most serious service problem in casinos was the service providers' attitudes rather than the service system failures. Second, Tangible recovery strategies such as "all pay" and "additional comps" were proven to enhance a casino's image and lower customers' intentions to switch. Customers, however, preferred intangible recovery strategies such as considerate responses, reliable problem management, sincere apologies, and accurate explanations.